4 Wine Blind

An exciting brain-teaser of a tasting. With four glasses of red wine in front of me, each incredible in its own way, what was I to do? Sip and slosh and spit, of course! Alas these tricks of tasting did little to guide me in deciphering what each of these wines were. In the end I was pretty off in calling the wines correctly. When it comes to blind tasting that’s the outcome a good chunk of the time, however. The duo of Chateauneuf-du-Papes, Domaine du Vieux Telegraphe’s “La Crau” bottling from the 2000 and 2005 vintages were a wonderful insight into A) the style of mature CnP, and B) the effect the differences between the slightly challenging 2000 vintage (late rains impacted harvests) and the warm, generous 2005 vintage. The two Cabernet Sauvignons from Dalla Valle in California’s Napa Valley were equally insightful and a real treat to get to taste. They represent a turning point for me in the history of Napa Valley Cabernets, the 1997 vintage marking a shift to a more approachable, generous, luxurious style with big brix numbers and huge oak. The 1996 iteration drank like a mature left-bank Bordeaux blend: beautifully integrated layers of cassis, tobacco leaf, cedar, dried cherries, and coco nib with nuanced bursts of redwood - a dead giveaway this is old-school Cali Cab at its best. The 1998, while only produced two years later in a equally good vintage as ‘96, is a different version of the same species. While there are some similarities (after all the grapes were from the same vines), the ‘98 was much more ripe, with pronounced American oak influence (in the form of toasty coconut) and a slightly less austere structure - obviously Californian.