Thanks to all who attended and especially the hosts and those who helped with glasses, chairs, etc. After doing this 3 years (tasting 2005’s, 2004s, and now 2002’s) I can say that the best part of the event is visiting with the people and having some laughs. There are some people I only see once a year at this tasting and it is great to see them come back. There are always some good wines, a few great ones, and some real dogs. What has been most interesting is that the board darlings don’t consistently show well and I haven’t seen a strong enough signal through all the tastings of various vintages to say that one producer has consistently had great wines. But as Rick Allen pointed out, with older wines and varying storage conditions, etc., there are great individual bottles of wines but it is tough to generalize beyond that – there are no promises.
The blind tasting format is humbling to both the wine tasters and at times, to the winemakers in attendance. But I think it is good in that it makes me question my preferences and loyalties and preconceptions about wine. And to hear others’ well informed information and opinions makes it all the more fascinating.
If one forgets about the education and the camaraderie of the event, and just focuses on the pleasure of tasting all the wines, I’d say my opinion is more mixed. It’s a ton of wines to go through in a hurry and there is little chance to sit and give each wine its due and watch it evolve. My palate starts to fatigue about halfway through the 30 or so wines we’ve tasted and at that point my tolerance for riper, more alcoholic wines is very low. Flaws begin to seem magnified and I find myself looking for the next flight of wines that comes off as more lithe, bright, nuanced, or even refreshing. This just may be my own inexperience with such large tastings, but given the option, I’d rather sit down with 5 friends and 5 (or 10!) bottles of wine over a couple of hours and discuss them in detail than to taste through a couple of sips of 30 wines. But again, this event is about more than just the pleasure of the tasting and I feel very lucky to attend taste so many different producers (some of them are very exclusive/expensive wines I rarely purchase). I am looking forward to next year!
My 5 favorite wines (in order) were:
Privé Nord
Cameron Abbey Ridge
Evesham Wood L&E Cuvee
Cameron Gehrts
DDO Laurene