Tasting "Old" Wines

Wednesday. June 3, 2014

Wine Country,www.thewinecountry.com,  hosted a tasting tonight of older wines. They had acquired a collection and Randy came up with the idea of doing this tasting. About 30 people were in attendance. At first it was limited to 16 people but demand was so high they expanded it.

I found that most of the wines had either a funky nose and/or taste which blew off on most of them. No bad wines but a few that were definitely over the hill. Bu

It is always interesting to taste  and see what they had been. There was a big difference in the people attending on which wines were their favorite. Even in our group of 8 we seemed to split down the middle in our selections.

I am not going to enter all my tasting notes as they are subjective and  were based on my nose and palate. Someone else would have a very different take on it. The list is in the order we tasted.

1993 Domaine Carneros ,"The Famous Gate" ,Pinot Noir
1994 Domaine Drouhin, Pinot Noir
1986 Joseph Phelps ,"Vin du Mistral" , Syrah  (one of my favorites of the night)
1988 Vincent Arroyo Winery, "Law of Proportions", Petite Syrah (one of the worse)
1978 Stag's Leap Wine Cellars, Cabernet Sauvignon (sold for about $15 on release)
1992 Kenwood, "Jack London Vineyard", Cabernet Sauvignon (magnum) (another favorite)
1980 Shenandoah Vineyards, "Del Porto Vineyards", Zinfandel
1988 Marietta Cellars, "Reserve", Zinfandel
1970 Lytton Springs, Zinfandel (a lot of residue in spite of straining)
1983 Lytton Springs "Private Reserve" Zinfandel (magnum)
1978 Shenandoah Vineyards, Late Harvest Zinfandel (I would have never guessed "late harvest" - the private reserve was a much bigger, jammy style wine)

I am going to research and see what these wines would sell for now. Then I will post the $ amounts. We paid $40 for the tasting so I can safely assume we got a real bargain.