Our monthly group got together one recent Friday night to taste six Sangiovese wines. Finding a bottle of Sangiovese was relatively easy to find at the area’s many wine merchants, unlike the shopping tribulations we experienced last month trying to find a good Barbera. Of our six wines, 3 were from California, and 3 were from Italy. The group agreed that though Sangiovese makes for a good red table wine, especially with food, the finish is short-lived.

I’m fairly certain that most of us in the group favor bolder, long-finish wines. But of course one of the reasons we taste together is to develop our knowledge of those wines we would not ordinarily choose to drink.

Each of the wines listed below are ranked top-down, most favorite to least favorite; each is followed by the wine’s heat (alcohol content). If no link exists for a particular label, that label is most likely no longer available.

I’ve added a new figure in the left column: the actual group score for each wine using the Wine Scoring Sheet our group developed. You can see that there was one clear favorite: the 2002 Altamura from Napa Valley.

My purchase was the 2001 Picchetti Sangiovese, an old wine as Sangioveses go; there were two ’01s in our tasting. Despite its “age” and mild finish, the Picchetti scored well in this tasting, ranking second with the group and also my second favorite. Unfortunately, this wine appears to be no longer available in the usual online outlets. However, this tasting affirmed the appeal that Picchetti wines have for me in general; I should disclose that I’m a member of their wine club.

Group Ranking
+4: ‘02 Altamura, Napa Valley 14.2
+1: ‘01 Picchetti, Central Coast 14.8
0: ‘03 La Fortuna, Rosso di Montalcino 13.5
-1: ‘02 Conti Contini, Toscana 13.5
-2: ‘03 Seghesio, Alexander Valley 14.8
-2: ‘01 Terrabianca “Campaccio”, Toscana 13.0

Winehiker’s Ranking
‘02 Conti Contini, Toscana 13.5
‘01 Picchetti, Central Coast 14.8
‘03 Seghesio, Alexander Valley 14.8
‘02 Altamura, Napa Valley 14.2
‘01 Terrabianca “Campaccio”, Toscana 13.0
‘03 La Fortuna, di Montalcino 13.5

~winehiker

Last night at the San Carlos home of my friend Brad Brooke, our monthly group enjoyed a comparative blind tasting of seven wines made from the Barbera grape. Just like last month’s Cabernet Franc tasting, this tasting reflected an astounding aspect: though there’s not a lot of pure-varietal Barbera available in the local marketplace (despite the reported fact that Barbera is the fifth-most widely-planted grape in California), we again managed to not duplicate any labels. What an intrepid and resourceful group of wine shoppers we have in our circle!

Of our seven wines, 3 were from Northern California, and 4 were from Italy’s celebrated Piedmont region. The consensus of the group was that we like the Barbera produced from both geographies. There was no clear favorite, but rather 3 wines that rated significantly higher than the others.

Each of the wines listed below are ranked top-down, most favorite to least favorite; each is followed by the wine’s heat, or alcohol content. My purchase was the Sunset, which has been awarded 3 gold medals, one of which was the Best of California Gold Medal at the 2002 California State Fair. Funny that the group liked it more than I did — but not too much more!

Group Ranking
‘98 Torti Incanto, Lombardy 13.5
‘02 Sunset, Napa Valley 14.9
‘03 Preston, Dry Creek Valley 14.5
‘03 Seghesio, Sonoma County 14.6
‘02 La Spinetta Ca di Pian d’Asti 13.5
‘01 Cascina Castle T d’Asti 14.5
‘02 Ruggeri Corsini Armujan d’Alba 14

Winehiker’s Ranking
‘02 La Spinetta Ca di Pian d’Asti 13.5
‘03 Preston, Dry Creek Valley 14.5
‘02 Sunset, Napa Valley 14.9
‘98 Torti Incanto, Lombardy 13.5
‘01 Cascina Castle T d’Asti 14.5
‘02 Ruggeri Corsini Armujan d’Alba 14
‘03 Seghesio, Sonoma County 14.6

Next month, in tribute to the Olympics being held in Torino, Italy, capital of the Piedmont region, we’ll continue with the Italian theme, choosing Sangiovese as our grape. I’d like to wish a special viaggio buono to fellow wine-taster Dave Medlicott, who is about to jet off to Torino. Dave is a troubleshooter in video production technologies, and will be working non-stop during the Olympic telecast. I expect Dave will also get in some great skiing and wine tasting, especially if his girlfriend Debbie has anything to say about it. I believe we sent them off in good fashion last night.

~winehiker

Technorati Profile

There are a handful of us who get together monthly to worship our wine via a mechanism commonly called a “blind tasting.” We call our events the “South Bay Wine Education Series.” Each month, we choose a different varietal and endeavor to educate our palates about the distinctive properties of each wine we taste. We each research, shop for, and bring our own selections. There’s usually about seven to nine of us around the table, which, as you can imagine, is completely filled with glassware. If we didn’t have large dining room tables to support our worship practices, we’d have logistical issues. Or we’d repeatedly spill wine from our TV trays!

Last week at the home of my dear friends Alexis and Bob, we tasted seven Cabernet Franc wines. The amazing aspect of this tasting was that there’s not a lot of pure-varietal Cab Franc available in the local marketplace. I know — I called around. The fact that we managed to not duplicate any labels (always an interesting sidelight to a blind tasting) was something I find rather astounding.

In this and future posts, I plan to list the results of the group tastings I attend and host so that you, gentle reader, can make informed purchase decisions about varietals you are considering. You’ll see how the group ranked the wines collectively, and underneath that you’ll see how I scored them on a 20-point scale. To aid our scoring, both individual and group, we use this wine scoring sheet. So that you can typically get the straight scoop quickly, I’ll try not to clutter these “results” posts with too much verbiage. (Except for this first one, of course.) You’ll find these tasting results in the Tasting Results category that appears in the navigation links to your right.

If you’d like to see the results of our previous tastings, I encourage you to post a comment.

Group Ranking
+3 Robert Sinskey ‘01 Los Carneros, 13.7%
+2 Burrell School “Le Grand Rouge” ‘02 Santa Cruz Mtns., 14%
+2 Hahn Estates ‘04 Santa Lucia Highlds, Monterey Cty., 13.5%
+2 Hawthorne Mtn. ‘02 Okanagan Valley, Brit. Columbia, 13%
-1 St. Supery ‘01 Dollarhill Vineyard, Napa Valley, 14.5%
-3 Cooper-Garrod ‘02 Francville Vyd., Santa Cruz Mtns., 14.5%
-4 Stonefly ‘01 Napa Valley, 13.2%

Winehiker’s Ranking
Hahn Estates 17.5
Cooper-Garrod 15.5
Stonefly 14
St. Supery 12
Hawthorne Mountain 12
Robert Sinskey 11.5
Burrell School “Le Grand Rouge” 11

Next month, our chosen grape is Barbera. I think I’ll go exotic and whirl up some kind of olive-and-feta concoction to go with it.

~winehiker