Last Saturday R and I drove up to Lompoc, CA for a wine tasting event with the younger subset of the Newcomers group. What made this tasting unique was that we didn't know what was being poured into our glass. We sampled seven chardonnays and rated each of them without knowing how much each bottle cost, what the label looked like, or what flavors we were expected to taste. It was an interesting experiment, and for the most part, the better bottles rose to the top of the results. I'm still learning how to distinguish good wine, but it was easy, even for me, to identify the one that was spoiled due to a defective cork. And Trader Joe's "Three Buck Chuck" didn't rate much higher. After that there was some variation in the group's rankings due to personal opinion, except for the top wine, which won by a long shot. It just so happened to be the one R and I contributed. It was a $22 bottle of 2006 Lafond Chardonnay purchased and given to us by R's mom during her recent visit to Santa Barbara. I guess Linda has some good taste!
We have another bottle of the same wine in our rack at home; it came in the latest shipment from the club we belong to. I'm looking forward to taking a closer examination of it sometime soon. Does anybody else get the impression that living out here is going to turn us into a couple of wine snobs?
2 comments:
Wine snobbery is a quality I can appreciate. I have always wanted to be able to appreciate wine more, but it always seems like such a daunting task to get started. I struggle already with the vagaries of beer! I suppose you two are in the perfect spot to become wine snobs though. But, I guess I could say that any way of making drinking a hobby is a welcome adjustment to my lifestyle. ;-)
I agree with Howard!! I'm impressed that "my" wine won the contest, but can take no credit, as my wine rack is mostly filled with Three Buck Chuck!! I am not obviously too discriminating....
But I can appreciate the fact that my daughter and "almost 30" son-in-law are!! Wine snobs? Could be worse!
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