The Blind Tasting Club

There's a wonderful group of people that gets together on a semi-regular basis to blind taste wines. I have had the opportunity to taste with them a couple of times, and then hosted the group on Saturday night at my house. These tastings are a blast, and I am honored to have been included in them- and to get to know some great wine lovin' folks.
Basically, everybody brings a bottle or two of wine that are covered, and we try to guess vintage, varietal, and country of origin. On Friday, we each contributed a bottle of red, and a bottle of white. Unlike traditional "professional" tasting groups, we don't always spit. In fact, we rarely do. This means that we are faily accurate on the first few wines, but it goes downhill from there. Here is the lineup from the Friday tasting, in no particular order:

Gruet NV Rose (palate primer, not tasted blind)
2001 Heinz Schmitt Leiwener Klostergarten Eiswein
2003 Eagles Trace Cabernet (375 ml, not tasted blind)
2003 Rotlan Torra "Tirant" from Priorat
2004 Nicolas Joly Coulee de Serrant
2007 Shane "Villain" Syrah
2006 Rock "Hudson Vineyard" Syrah
2004 Domaine de Lises Crozes Hermitage
2007 Domaine de Lises Crozes Hermitage (my favorite "value" wine of the night)
2002 Leroy Montagny (over the hill)
2002 Penfolds RWT (stunning!)
1999 Donhoff Nicherhauser Hermannshohle Riesling Spatlese
2007 Louis Latour Pouilly Fuisse
2004 Eagles Trace Latitude 38 (375 ml, not tasted blind)
2007 Saintsbury Carneros Chardonnay (used to demonstrate the proper use of a Porron)

As you can see, there wasn't a dog in the bunch. After glasses were broken and pizza was ordered, I'm glad that everyone made it home safely.

Thanks again to the crew that brought the wine!

Until tomorrow, Cheers!