A Fiendishly Clever Tasting

Last weekend we gathered at Ridge for the final blogger's tasting of 2012, and many bloggers confessed they had been slacking on their blogging. I realized that I too haven't written much since the last Ridge Blogger's Tasting in September. I offer no excuses - all I can say is Thank You! to Ridge for continuing to inspire my wine writing.

The theme this time was Three Blind Mice: 3 flights of wine with 3 tastes per flight, blinded. The 3 wines in each flight had both common theme and distinct difference. All 3 flights had a common thread as well.

We began tasting. On the first flight I could swear I was tasting the same wine in 3 different glasses, but all were slightly different. Jeremy and I collaborated and concluded that it was the same base wine, but with varying levels of oak exposure. On one end the wine was lighter and easier to drink, but on the other end it was bigger and more tannic, like it had more time in oak and needed to settle down a bit (age). Our varietal guess was Merlot.

The second flight clearly showed an age progression, as the first wine was a paler red color with tinges of brick on the rim, while the second and third had brighter color and fruit on the nose. We guessed it was a Zinfandel blend going back to early 90s, then early 2000s, then a more recent vintage.

The third flight was most confusing, because the differences were so slight. We thought we were tasting Monte Bello at very small age intervals.

We were wrong... about everything.

Flight #1: Ridge Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2009 in 3 bottle formats: magnum, regular, and half-bottle. The perceived differences in oak that we tasted could be correlated to how wine ages in different size bottles. This is due to the ratio of air to wine, which is smaller in a magnum (it ages more slowly) and larger in a half-bottle (it ages more quickly). So the one that tasted more "oaked" was the Magnum, which is aging more slowly and still hasn't mellowed. Regarding Merlot vs Cab, in the past I have confused these two at Ridge - they almost tend to take on opposite characteristics.

Flight #2: The only thing we got right here was the difference in age, though we thought there were a lot more years in between. Again, Ridge Estate Cabernet Sauvignon, this time from 2004, 2005, 2006.

Flight #3: 3 bottles of 2007 Ridge Estate Cabernet Sauvignon. The ultimate trick! The same wine, same vintage, same size bottle. People talk about "bottle variation," how the same wine can taste different from one bottle to the next. This can be due to slight variations that may develop in the wine as it travels from the tank and through the bottling line. Wine is always changing, always evolving. But how big a difference there is can sometimes be all in your head. 

In conclusion: the mind plays tricks on us, especially when the host plays tricks on the tasters! 

Thanks again, Christopher, for a fun tasting and a great end to this year of wine.