Night of Wine (and) Destruction

Last night I hosted a BYOB tasting party and I'm still cleaning up the mess. The original turnout was only 6 folk, 5 of whom brought reds. We had an interesting variety, and happily I correctly picked out mine and guessed 2 of the 4 others, which isn't so bad. The surprise of the night was Korbel winning with a Cabernet which doesn't sparkle. The 5 reds are below:

2006 Domaine Robert Perroud Cote de Broilly Vieille Vignes ~ $23: a decent cru Beaujolais, but disappointing for the price, scored the lowest of the reds. Improved with some time in glass. (my wine) 86 points

2005 Jacobs Creek Shiraz Cabernet South Australia ~$8: Eric brought this in hopes to prove the Aussie's can still pump out stellar values, and it wasn't far off. Lacked elegance. I guessed new world Bordeaux variety - couldn't pick one out. 87 points

2004 Martino Old Vine Malbec Mendoza ~ $15: I've never had a wine that smelled so much like cherry cola as this one. Nice but not a lot else going on. Guessed new world Syrah... ouch! 91 points

2005 Korbel Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma Coast ~ $15: very nice wine with a meaty edge and some signature Cab green pepper (I like a little of this even though some call it a fault). Guessed California Cabernet :) 92 points

2006 Tamarack Cellars Pinot Noir Willamette Valley ~ $22?? This is an interesting wine being made in Walla Walla with Oregon fruit. Obviously new world Pinot and a decent one at that. Nothing blowing me away though. 88 points



One of the more interesting things that occurred was a glass being broken from overly aggressive pouring. Not just any break though, it left a nice hole right in the side. Perhaps this will be inspiration for a new tasting glass which will make me famous.

Value? What is Value?

Prices for most goods are consistent with quality, but there are exceptions, and wine is a major one. Of course quality varies depending on who's drinking it and then there's the price paid for prestige. There's also prestige based upon the price paid.

Being a former engineering student I decided to devise a formula with the variables of price and score on the 100 point system to come up with a good indicator of the value of the wine. There are a few hurdles in this, for a 100 point $40 wine shouldn't be equal value to a 25 point $10 wine, obviously, so simple division is clearly out. After some playing around I've come up with the formula:

Value = Sqrt(((Rating-70)^2)/Sqrt(price))

One can see from this that any wine with a rating of 70 (any wine below 70 must have 70 substituted for the actual score) has no value, and these wines in general are not worth passing through lips unless the goal is to become drunk on little money. After 10 ratings in my database thus far the high is 11.35 (Poet's Leap), and the low is, well, 0. Looking over the ratings it seems any wine with a value over 10 is a screaming go out and buy right now, and a value of 8 to 10 is a calm go out and buy. 6 to 8 is decent and below 6 is probably not worth buying. Second so far is the Mariflor Pinot Noir at 9.67.

So there it is, now to work on rating more wines...

Pinot Noir & Patagonia

What is it with Pinot Noir? It's the most overrated and most overpriced grape on the market, but every once in a while one is actually pretty tasty. I'd yet to find an enjoyable Pinot for under $20 until tonight, and it came from an unlikely source. While shopping at the discount grocery store I noticed a Pinot from Patagonia and one from Mendoza for $7 and $12 respectively. I bought both and opened them up with some mango and chocolate.

2007 Bodega del Fin del Mundo Pinot Noir Reserva Patagonia -$7: kind of a funky yet slightly offputting nose of cranberries and something weird (I know what it is but I hate to regergitate it). Tastes like a pinot, smells like one, nothing special. 83 points.

2005 Miraflor Pinot Noir Mendoza -$12: Smells very oaky but not really in a bad way. Nothing off putting at all about it; pretty solid but not all that exiting. Good value for a Pinot these days (thanks, Sideways!). 88 points.

I know the latter of these two wines and potentially both of them were "made" by consulting wine maker Michel Rolland. Interesting considering I associate him with Cabernet and Merlot, although plenty of that is made by del Fin del Mundo too. I plan on trying those for $7 as well. The Patagonia region is brand new and from what I know about it I'm very interested in what will happen there in the next decade. I'm glad the local discount grocery store carries a few.