Drinking Wine From a Brown Bag

Last night we hosted a small group for a Pinot Noir Shootout. We kicked in a bunch of Cali Pinots and folks brought more. We bagged and numbered them and folks voted for their top 5 of the 11 that were blind tasted.

Midway through our friend Mike leaned over and said he felt like Thomas Hayden Church in Sideways. Mike is of German heritage - he loves good beer and has a great collection of beer steins. So this whole wine thing is kinda new to him. But nevertheless he said if he had to drink wine he definitely felt more at home doing it out of a brown paper bag.

We also did a blind Mystery Wine tasting. The mission is simple: guess what it is.

Here is the complete list of wines tasted. Note we did not serve any Calicaro as still in barrel:

Aperitif:

Manifesto 2007 Sauvignon Blanc Suisun Valley CA

Mystery Wine:

Whetstone 2007 Viognier Catie's Corner Vineyard Russian River Valley CA (only one person got Viognier- several thought it was a Roussanne)

Pinot Noir Shootout Wines:

Siduri 2007 Pinot Noir Sonoma County CA

Freeman 2005 Pinot Noir Keefer Ranch Russian River Valley CA

Pey-Lucia 2006 Pinot Noir "Frisquet" Santa Lucia Highlands CA

Lucia 2006 Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands CA

Loring Wine Company 2007 Pinot Noir Clos Pepe Vineyard Santa Rita Hills CA

Ketcham Estate Pinot Noir 2005 Russian River Valley CA

August West 2006 Pinot Noir Graham Family Vineyard Russian River Valley CA

Schug 2006 Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast CA

Edna Valley Vineyard 2006 Pinot Noir "Paragon" San Luis Obispo County CA

Flying Goat Cellars 2003 Pinot Noir Dierberg Vineyard Santa Maria Valley CA

Pisoni 2005 Pinot Noir Santa Lucia Highlands

Our friend Scott also brought a very nice Domaine Chandon Pinot Meunier and an exceptionally good 2005 Nicolas Potel Savigny-les-Beaune.

Very nice. Winner was the Ketcham Estate Pinot. Second place was the August West. Third the Pisoni. Close behind were the Siduri, the Freeman, the Loring, the Pey Lucia and the Flying Goat. All of the wines were very good and it was hard to pick a winner. All wines received multple votes.

The Pinot Noir Shootout winner gets 2 bottles of Calicaro this fall!

Cheers,
Dave