Thursday night wine tastings at Fine Wines
The Thursday night tasting at Fine Wines of Stockton was all about Syrah. We tasted five Syrahs, four of which were from California, one from southern Oregon. George and Gail were unavailable to do the tasting, so Alan presented these wines. Let’s see what we can learn about Syrah.
“V” wines were the topic of our Thursday night tasting at Fine Wines of Stockton (1). Does this mean grape varieties that begin with “V”? Or, maybe it’s the winery or region that begins with “V”. Let’s see.
The focus of the tasting Thursday night at Fine Wines of Stockton was Barbera. We tasted four Italian and two California offerings. Will the California wines have a style of their own, or will they taste similar to the Italian wines? We shall see.
The tasting at Fine Wines of Stockton last Thursday night was all about Chile. We tasted six wines, two of which George told us were Cabernet Sauvignon and the rest Carmenere. Our assignment for the evening was to identify the two Cabernets. As an aside, George wanted us to think about whether Carmenere could be a substitute for Cabernet Sauvignon.
The Thursday night tasting at Fine Wines of Stockton had us tasting Right Bank Bordeaux vintages 2005 to 2009. All wines originated from Pomerol. Kind of. Except for one. George, the wine shop owner, was short one Right Bank wine for this vintage range, so he chose a Left Bank wine with the highest percentage of Merlot he had in his cellar. He knows how to improvise.
The Thursday night wine tasting at Fine Wines of Stockton was a study of five recent Bordeaux vintages. Two of these vintages, 2005 and 2009, are considered great. The growing seasons were warm and produced lush fruit and opulent, complex wines. The others, 2006, 2007 and 2008, just average.
Cabernet Franc is most often used as a blending grape because it has such a distinctive bouquet. But, it also makes a lovely wine all on its own. Our tasting this week was six Cabernet Franc wines from the USA, France and Argentina.
Just to prove to all of the regular wine tasters at the Thursday night tastings at Fine Wines of Stockton (1) that he really does not dislike Pinot Noir, George did a Pinot tasting himself. Generally, we taste Pinot noir on a Thursday night that George or Gail are unable to present the wine tasting.
Dave, one of the other regular tasters on Thursday nights at Fine Wines of Stockton, presented this wine tasting. Dave frequently visits friends in Oregon and on a recent trip collected wines from three wineries in the Southern Oregon AVA (American Viticultural Area).
We recently completed a series of three wine tastings at Fine Wines of Stockton entitled Red Wines of Tuscany. We tasted six Rosso di Montalcino, six Vino Nobile di Montepulciano and six Chianti. We chose our top two wines from each tasting and those six wines were our focus for the Tuscan Taste-Off. We will choose our two favorites from this group of six wines.
We enjoy wine, food and travel. Pull That Cork is a chronicle of our wine adventures, the food and wine pairings we create and our travels which are increasingly organized around wine.