We had a fun online tasting the night before Halloween. We were sent four wines in black bags (Tasting in the Dark) so we couldn’t see the labels and a Halloween mask to wear while doing the tasting. Karl Wente of Wente Vineyards was on their U-stream channel with his mask on while a group of bloggers around the country watched and listened and commented via Twitter. Nancy is wearing her mask in the photo below.
Karl described each wine while we tried to guess what the varietal was. All were varietal labeled although some had a little of another variety blended in. Here at PullThatCork the three of us tasting rang up a big fat zero in guessing. Some of the other bloggers were much more successful, I know one guessed at least three and maybe all four.
The format was really fun and by tasting the wines blind you don’t have any preconceived notion of what it should taste like. As usual with the online tastings we learned a lot and tasted some nice wines. I hope we can do another online blind tasting sometime.
All of theses wines are Estate Grown in the Livermore Valley by Wente Vineyards.
2010 Wente Vineyards Sandstone Merlot (13.5 abv.) – A medium ruby color with a nice fragrant nose with some vanilla. This Merlot has a light body and pleasant flavors. Good acidity and a fair amount of tannins. The flavors evolve as it sit in the glass and there is a long finish.
2010 Wente Vineyards Southern Hills Cabernet Sauvignon (13.5 abv.) – Another medium ruby colored wine with a slightly vegetal nose. This wine has plenty of tannins and good acid along with plenty of fruit. Not a fruit bomb, just plenty of flavor and a long finish. Even when we knew it was a Cabernet Sauvignon we didn’t really pick out the characteristics of a Cab.
2010 Wente Vineyards Cabernet Franc Small Lot (14.2 abv.) – All of the Small Lot wines are gently hand processed and use native yeast. A darker ruby color than the Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon. A big fresh ripe fruit nose, really pleasant. The body is heavier than the previous two wines and there is much more depth of flavor. The big tannins are well integrated and there is plenty of acid to make the wine enjoyable.
2009 Los Tesoros de Joaquin Souzao (13.4% abv.) – There is about 10% Petite Sirah added and the wine is a very dark ruby color. The nose was rather closed with a hint of floral but there was plenty of flavor with moderate to light smooth tannins.
Souzao is a Portuguese varietal and this is the first time we have had it when it wasn’t a component of Port so I don’t have anything to compare it with. It was nice to have a wine that was new to the three of us.
After the tasting we had dinner, kind of a Mexican inspired dish with chicken, corn, black beans and salsa. All four wines worked well with this dish. While the Cabernet Franc was our favorite by itself we all liked something different with the meal.
Disclaimer: These wines were provided as tasting samples.
Thanks so much for participating. We loved reading your review!
Oh, that looks like so much fun! Nice review too!