Montauk Club Wine Class Fooled!!

Thanks to a big turnout, our October 23 wine class was a blast. This time we were comparing white Bordeaux with California Sauvignon Blancs, and we came up with some pretty eclectic descriptions.

We started out comparing a 2007 Monsieur Touton Sauvignon Bordeaux (12% alcohol) with a 2006 Cakebread Cellars Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc (14.2% alcohol). Wine #1 was almost white in color, but it had heftier legs. Its aroma was much subtler with a hint of vanilla and oak. As for taste, it was grassier and more balanced. Many thought it would pair well with most foods, and indeed it was voted likely best with crab cakes. Wine #2 had a much more golden color, and the aroma was more pronounced, smelling of citrus candy and peach. In fact, some tasters announced that they would rather smell #2 but drink #1. We found the taste drier but fruitier with a longer finish and not as much oak. So thinking that #1 was subtler and a more pleasurable quaff, we picked it to be the Bordeaux. And every one of us was wrong. How could that be? Well there are two big differences. First the alcohol content of #1 was significantly higher and its price was almost three times as high! Just goes to show that price can make a difference.

Our second comparison pitted a 2006 Barons de Rothschild Reserve Speciale Bordeaux (12% alcohol) against a 2006 Beringer Alluvium Blanc from Knights Valley (14.1% alcohol). (There’s that alcohol difference again.) We were determined not to be fooled by this pairing, so we really paid close attention, coming up with as many descriptions as we could. Here’s what we thought. Wine #3 was the paler of the two, but not quite as pale as the expensive Californian #1. It had a sweeter fragrance with more vanilla. Some found its taste very oaky, while others thought of shampoo! With an oilier feel on the tongue, someone wanted to pair it with a vegetable napoleon. Wine #4 had a more amber color and more legs even than #2. Some of the words used to describe the aroma were “swampy”, “raisin”, “stale cabin” (remember last month’s favorite – summer camp cabin?), and “battery acid”. On the taste side, we found #4 to have heavier herb notes with a bit of lemon drop candy thrown in. It was fuller, smoother and subtler, a wine someone wanted to have with red snapper. Six out of ten of us chose #4 as the Bordeaux and #3 as the California, and this time the majority was right. This time the two wines were quite close in price, making it a more difficult call.

And for the final vote on overall preference? We unanimously chose #1, the Cakebread Cellars Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc, although we all thought that the Barons de Rothschild Reserve Speciale Bordeaux was the best value.

In our next class, we’ll continue our tour through France in the Alsace Region. We’ll be trying a Riesling, a pinot gris, a Muscat and a gewürztraminer. Be sure to study pages 166 to 170 of Andrea Immer Robinson’s book Great Wines Made Simple to be ready to tell these four grapes apart.

Hope to see you all on November 20!

Suzy Marquard