Too much of a good thing? WINES!

I love wine, but tasting 37 different wines in one sitting?
This happened on Sunday; we had a wine shop meeting and tasting. Of course, when faced with so many wines and having to remain lucid enough that tasting them isn't pointless, I had to spit every one of them out! It's a bit painful to have a wonderful champagne in your mouth and not get the full enjoyment. Oh and to make it even more exhausting, it was a blind tasting! I did pretty good up until about the mid 20s, when my palate just kind of gave up. But it was still a good experience!
Here are some of the highlights, all of which, of course, you can come get at the wine shop!

Sparkling
Steve threw us for a loop by tasting us on Korbel; UGH! It was super cheesy and just gross. Instead, for inexpensive bubbly, we have a much much better $8.99 cava from Spain that is great.

The highlights of the champagnes were the Roederer Estate (from CA) and the Roederer Brut Premier (FR). The Brut Premier is only $34.99, and the Estate is only $25ish. Great value for the quality!

But my favorite of all was the Schramsberg Blanc de Blanc from CA. 100% chardonnay, it was a deep golden straw color, showed super dried fruit with refined, elegant bubbles. YUM! And it's totally affordable as well.

Whites
Benton Lane Pinot Gris - usually I'm not the biggest fans of pinot gris - it seems the ones Ive had have been ultra steely and lean. Not this gorgeous Oregon one though! it was slightly effervescent with nice melon (which gave it a slight roundness), apple and pear. The finish was flinty and cleansing. Great!! And only about $15.99

I was surprised by the Columbia Crest Riesling. I (along with the others) thought it was definitely German due to its petroleum undertones, but nope! Really good stuff, for not that much ($15ish). Columbia struck again with its Columbia Grand Estate Chardonnay. I usually don't like chardonnay, but this one was ok to me! It had toasty and apple notes, and tropical fruit on the finish. And for only $11.99... yeah!.

Other good whites: The Catena Chardonnay (Argentina; $17.99): light, yet substantial. The Huia Pinot Gris (New Zealand; almost as big as a chardonnay! very complex and well-made! $17) was great, as was the Astor Kabinett Riesling (Mosel; $16.99).

Whites big losers: Franciscan Oakville Chard ($16.99; ever rolled down your window while driving through the country and smelled what could only be skunk? put that in a glass with some woodchips...) and the Kris Pinot Grigio. God I hate pinot grigio. Why so many women love it, I have no idea.


Reds

Pinot Noir

Paradise Ridge Pinot Noir (Sonoma, CA, about $20 i think) zingy and snappy! Very light bodied and fruit forward; combines old world elegance with a jammier new world style.

Panther Creek Nysa Vineyard Pinot Noir (Oregon). Wow, very Burgundian in style, yet still has some new world qualities. Very rich for Pinot. A gorgeous, floral finish. Single vineyard. Great!! ($49.99)

Zinfandel (Red)

I discovered something very overrated: Ridge! My least favorite of the zinfandels we tasted. (their Independent School '03, if you were curious).

I liked the Rombauer '02 best; it really tasted like old-vine zin to me, jammy and velvety yet a bit gnarly.
The others, however, favored Paradise Ridge's zin, which was a more middle of the road zin (less sweet, a bit more pepper).

Red Blends

We tasted two great red blends that are really affordable and made by fantastic winemakers: St Francis's Red ($9.99) blend, and Gustavo Thrace's The Third Bottle ($12.99). The Red was a lot softer than The Third Bottle, which had a bit of spice to it. Both are good values! If you drink Folie a Deux's Menage a Trois, try the Red instead next time!

Shiraz / Syrah

All the shiraz we tasted was pretty excellent (excluding the nasty and terribly over-priced Penfold's Thomas Hyland).

The highlights were the amazing Novy Page Nord Vineyard Syrah '00 (CA; $29.99), a Cote Rotie-inspired wine with a musty nose that didn't prepare one for the lush waves of dark fruit to come!

The Gemtree Uncut Shiraz (Australia, forget the vintage), which was voted by Decanter Magazine as being the best syrah/shiraz in the world, was also fantastic! It had that Australian minty/eucalyptus quality, and definitely could use decanting. For only $24.99, you gotta try this one if you're a shiraz person.

Cabernet

Some really great cabs! Even with my tongue withered at this point, I still enjoyed them a lot.

The big surprise was how good the $15.99 BV Napa Cab was! Definitely a more European style.

Also great (but more pricey) was the Whitman '01 Narcissa from Washington State ($35.99; actually a blend of cab merlot and cab franc). It definitely needed a few more years though it had nice red and dark fruits with a bit of menthulyptus (no idea how to spell that!) and a tinny bit o jamminess.

The Justin '03 Cab from Paso Robles ($21.99) had lovely hints of orange muscat and raisins! I wasn't expecting it to be so jammy, but it was really nice.

The biggest star of the evening was the Elyse '01 Tietjen Vineyard Cab ($51.99). Amazing nose: roses and dried black cherries. The mouthfeel was unbelievably velvety, and the wine had lovely accents of chocolate. Steve says it should be aged for about 5 years; I can't imagine how good it will get by then!


Yeah, it's a tough job, but someone's gotta do it.