February Cab Challenge Vintage 2010

What a fun evening!

This challenge was very interesting as there were quite a few wines that tasted very close in quality and taste. The wines as we blindly tasted them in order were:

1. Whitehall

2. Hansen Limited

3. Hansen Reserve

4. Heitz

5. BV

6. Far Niente

7. Cinarossa

“I want to drink a good bottle of wine” Bruce exclaimed!

With all the wines in bags, I poured each guest judge about three ounces of the seven wines in vertical glasses. Bruce noted that there were two wines that had not been open since the morning as the others had (#1 and #7). He believes that the wine should not be decanted but opened up and allowed to breathe for 6-8 hours.

Everyone analyzed the different nuances of the wine noses. #4 was said to have a very pungent and very aggressive nose that offends you. Bruce encouraged guests to “do a three nose thing” while some of the scents and flavonoids are fleeting some you can catch and just roll with them.

On to tasting the 7 wines. One judge picked out Bruce’s two wines right off the bat stating that she wanted to just keep drinking them. Careful thought was given to where each wine was hitting on the palette and after tasting all judges were asked to push aside wines they don’t consider to be in the top 3. Wines 7., 1., and 4 were pushed aside. The other wines were very close but the final order was first place to the Hansen Reserve, second to Hansen Limited and then third to Far Niente.

If you are interested in attending one of our challenges, please contact the tasting room at 805.239-8412