This is a continuation from last week’s post, part 2, and shares what we tasted at Lisa Madison’s party.
The Tasting
For Lisa’s launch party she had enlisted the assistance of executive director, Diane Nozik, to “conduct the guided tasting of 6 handcrafted wines from some of California’s best vineyards”.
“We call our parties edu-tainment, which means wine plus education,” Diane started. “None of our wines are sourced from a single region, we offer them at $20 and under so that they are very approachable, and we change our wines every 10 weeks so you can have more than one party if you want. We are the Tupperware of wine…do you want to look at burping bowls or wine?”
While Lisa was plating the cheeses and chocolates to pair, Diane got us started with a double pour of EVO 2008 Sauvignon Blanc. The EVO labels depict different endangered animals and a portion of the purchase price goes back the cause. It was one more thing that convinced me to purchase the very palatable citrusy wine.
We then dipped into Sun Fish Chardonnay that most guests found similar to a Sauvignon Blanc as this Monterey winery didn’t over-oak the varietal.
From there we had Mariana Vineyard 2007 Old Vine Zinfandel that had lots of nice berry and spice.
When Diane asked my thoughts…I was caught off guard in front of the crowd of guests and answered, “Well…my notes just say…MINE”.
We then had another Mariana, this time a 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon followed by Lisa’s “hospitality bottle” reserved for the host, a Talmage Cellars 2004 Merlot that had a nice nose and opened up well after a few minutes. The guests enjoyed the fact that this last wine was available for custom labeling.
When Diane then asked the next question I was better prepared, “What do you think is the average amount of time an American ages their wine?”
I said 20 minutes; I was off by only two as the answer was 18 minutes – we pesky Americans just can’t wait long for our wine. I knew I had plenty of wine at home that could hold me off to be wine-upped again – my delivery from Lisa is due this week!
