Title: "meet up" wine tasting
Category: other
Blog Entry: I took my Mom, Sister, SO, BIL and father to a wine tasting last night at a local restaurant . The California Cafe. It was a Copola director's cut tasting. 4 wines. A chard, a pino nior, a zin and a cab.
I may not be the most saavy of all wine snobs (LOL) but I did attent enough schooling to know that the wines were not poured in the order I'd have poured them. They were poured as listed above. The Zin IMHO should have been poured last. It was a nice zin, blended with petite Syrah making it a full bodied wine with a complex structure. The cab was nice, actually nice enough for me to order a glass at dinner, however it was not as full bodied or bold. I think we sort of had this discussion last week about tastings. I didn't say anything but I asked the girl pouring some questions, and turns out she is a hostess at the restaurant. She was reading from a "script" again, not really that big of a deal, until I got the check. IT was supposed to be a $20 cost for the directors cut. My check was TWICE that, because they didn't tell us that the food was not included. I think that's just lame. I'm not really cheap but if I'm quoted a price that's what I think it should be.
Now to the wine, the chard was great! And I am not a big chard gal. This was actually really fruit forward, not too oaky or buttery! I didn't actually realize it was a chard to start with. I thought it was a blend. And I'll say I'm pretty good at blind tastings picking out varietals. These were all 2005 Copola director's cut. BTW
The Pino was earthy a hint of mushroom and barnyard on the nose and some plumish/strawberry with some earthiness on the palate it was OK I don't much care for Pino typically, and true to form this wasn't my favorite wine of the night. But it was a light ruby at the core color with a fade to a clear rim. IT was OK.
The Zin was full bodied a darker core color of a deep garnet almost blood like color. Fadeing again to a clear watery rim. A deep cherry and currant on the nose with a hint of spice. The flavor was actually a jammy plumb with deep undertones of spice. The lingering flavor was of a spice, perhaps cloves or black pepper
The cab was good. It was a deep bloody garnet in the core almost inky. Again, due to the youth a faded watery rim. A very nice deep plum and currant on the nose, with untones of graphite and even bell peppers. On the palate it was a deep red cherry and plumb, hints of tobacco and again the green pepper ever so slight. The lingering fruit was nice on the tongue.
I don't know how much these typically run cost wise in the store as I actually haven't bought the director's cut. But the glass of cab with dinner was $15.
All in all it was a fun night, even given the couple of little things that went "wrong". It was the first time I'd gone to this "meet up" group from online, the people were nice but like I said I thought the price on it was steeper than I'd have been comfortable going to normally since I'm not working. The pours were generous I will say, but for someone like me who will spit that isn't my main objective. I will say that my family liked the Chard enough to commit to a bottle for Thanksgiving, and that's sayingsomething for a family of red drinkers. Even my SO who doesn't drink, he had a taste (and spit) of the chard because I thought certainly it was a blend. Anyway, that's my review. Please note that because I'm a dig bat, I spaced my notebook and this was mostly from memory. I'll probably forget it all tomorrow! :)
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