wine tasting

After work several wine lovers at work gathered for a regular irregular wine tasting gathering. The theme: transitional wine. Wine about to turn. I'm not sure if they meant good or bad. Actually I had no idea what that meant, so I brought bread and cheese from the Cheese Board. Cheese selection for the evening: a nutty gruyere, a creamy blue cheese, and a soft salty cheese called cremoso, which probably be really good on a pizza as it had a fish taste to it.

Wine I tried:

1. newly bottled 04 Amador Valley Syrah, from a coworker part of a private wine making group
2. Rosenblum Syrah still in the barrel, to be bottled in a month or so
3. 1999 Pinot Gris J Vineyard
4. a mystery Rosenblum bottle found at the bottom of someone's wine rack, unlabeled
5. Trentadue (I can't quite recall what kind of wine it was)

It was rather exciting drinking from unlabeled wine bottles. I must admit that when choosing wines at the store I get side tracked by all the pretty shiny labels. And it was also exciting to be drinking people's private conconctions, as if we were in on a little secret.

1. This was a lovely wine. Bold, rich, round (I think that's what they call it). Well balanced, coats your mouth. The guy who brought it was quite happy to be able to report to their wine making group that other people thought their wine was good too. Super Yummy! He asked if anyone had a name for the wine.
2. This was a different Syrah from the first but just as tasty with a heavier fruit, a lighter Syrah that grips the back of the throat. Some people didn't like it at first, but once it settled for a few minutes, a delicious piece of work.
3. A yummy Pinot Gris, crisp.
4. Our resident Rosenblum, figured out that the mystery Rosenblum bottle was a Zinfandel possibly a 1996, a ten year old Red Zin! I was amazed at how he was able to figure all that out, but hey, I'm an amateur. Alot of the fruit was gone, but still had a lovely nose, and maintained its structure. Not bad for a 10 year old Zin.
5. I just remembered it was a good wine. But didn't really think about this wine. Sometimes you just have to drink wine.

Quite a few of the gathering will be heading to ZAP tomorrow. Whew, serious wine tasting two days in a row! I'm downing the H2O.