Montauk Club Wine Club
March 21, 2013 – The Flavor
Map Tour
The Nets’ Circus Tour, which started this same week, just
took them to Detroit, Dallas, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Portland, Salt Lake and
beautiful downtown Cleveland, and it took them 16 days to complete. Our tour of the Flavor Map, on the other hand,
took us to California (twice), Germany, Burgundy, South Australia and
Washington State, and we did it in just a couple of hours. Our in-flight video featured Andrea Immer
Robinson teaching us about the flavor map.
Our star player, Bryce, was being rested for the Lenten season, so it
was up to the bench mob to play out the tasting. Not to worry though. All we needed to know for each contest was
this: If the grapes were grown in a warm
region, the wine should have a warm region flavor and acidity, and if grown in
a cold climate, they should have a cool climate flavor and acidity. In
other words the warmer the climate, the more tropical the fruits and softer the
acidity. The cooler the climate, the
more northern, lean, tangy and crisp the fruit flavors and the higher the
acidity.
Match-up Number One – The Rieslings
2007 Herzog Late
Harvest White Riesling, Monterrey County (8% alcohol) ($20) (Kosher)
2011 Meulenhof Erdener
Treppchen Riesling Kabinett, Mosel, Germany (8.5% alcohol) ($19)
While both were yellow green in
color, Wine #1 had quite a bit more gold in it. In taste and smell, we found the unmistakable
flavor of apricots. As we continued
tasting, we decided that canned peaches and canned apricots came out in the
flavor. This wine also tasted sweeter
than Wine #2.
Wine #2 had more floral aroma. Though
we found it hard to type the flavor, we identified aromas of honeysuckle and
lemon and flavors of lemon and green apple.
The difference being quite clear,
everyone correctly identified #1 as the California Riesling and #2 as the
German Riesling. The German Riesling was
the clear winner by a 75% to 25% margin.
Hey, the Germans are veterans at this game; what did you expect?
Match-up Number Two – The Pinot
Noirs
2009 Naudin
Tiercin Mercurey Vin de Bourgogne (13% alcohol) ($26)
2009 Domaine
Carneros, Napa Valley (San Pedro Bay, by San Francisco Bay) (14.2% alcohol)
($29)
Before we got started, Assistant
Coach Jim gave us a couple of additional pointers. The cool zone wine should be dark pink to
translucent ruby red in color. The warm
climate wine should be ruby red to violet and denser but not opaque.
Wine #3 was not quite as dark as
#4. It started out with somewhat of a
deficit in smell with a “nasty” mustiness.
It started to make a comeback in the taste arena as red currants and
cranberries started to appear. Also,
there was a sweet metallic taste in the back court.
Wine #4 was a shade darker, and
it had a dark chocolate smell. When it
came to flavor, we not only tasted the chocolate but also roasted coffee. Chocolate and coffee – I’d say we’re talking
the blackest of the fruits.
This wasn’t a slam-dunk contest
in that only 75% of us correctly identified #3 as the cooler climate Burgundy and
#4 as the warmer climate Napa Valley.
Wine #4, however, was the blow-out winner in terms of preference.
Match-up Number Three – The Syrah/
Shiraz
2010 Jacob’s
Creek Reserve Shiraz Barossa, South Australia (14.1% alcohol) ($16)
2009 Trust Walla
Walla Valley Syrah, Washington State (14.2% alcohol) ($33)
Wine #5 was more translucent at
the rim. It seemed to have a nice fruit
flavor but not a lot of tannin.
Wine #6 had a denser color. We found a hint of cinnamon in #6 and thought
it had more fragrance, but it didn’t necessarily have the “kaboom” someone was
looking for. One taster even thought it
was thinner and less tannic.
While everyone thought wine #5
was from the cooler climate (i.e., Washington State) and #6 from the warmer
climate (i.e., South Australia), we were totally fooled. It was the other way around. Not only did these wines outplay the bench
mob, it was a tie game as far as preference went. The men liked the Jacob’s Creek best while
the women preferred the Walla Walla.
The best score of the entire
tour? It was the 2009 Domaine Carneros,
Napa Valley Pinot Noir.
