This was my first blind tasting; that’s not to say I’ve always known what wine I am drinking. But I was really looking forward to this. We didn’t have much direction other than to bring a red wine and spend around $20 a bottle. I think it’d be interesting if we’d all brought the same varietal to see how much they all differ; maybe next time?
For our venue, we needed a BYOB restaurant. Our ring leader, James set it up at Campania Pizza in Uptown. They also have a Southlake location. If you haven’t checked them out, you should it’s a great little restaurant and I love that they are BYOB. We waited for most everyone to arrive before we began opening the bottles and tasting the wines.
Here are the wines we tasted:
1. Cooper Invencio – 2008 Red Mountain Red Wine
2. Inwood Estates 2008 Cornelius 100% Texas Tempranillo
3. Petalos Bierzo
4. Cahors
5. Mollydooker The Boxer
6. Bodini Malbec – 2010
7. 2009 Toasted Head Cabernet Sauvingnon
8. Haven’s Meritage – 2009 Rutherford, Napa Valley
9. 2009 Domaine Alain Graillot Crozes-Hermitage Blanc, Rhone, France
10. Pagos del Moncejo Garnacha 2008
11. La Vierge
What I realize now in going back over my “tasting notes” is that I should probably have smaller tastes and I should probably take better, more descriptive notes. I’m not even sure I have correct list of all the wines.
My favorites were the Cooper Invencio and Haven’s Meritage. It doesn’t surprise me that those two were my favorites. I have discovered lately that I really am a big fan of red blends. The Meritage reminded me of a Pinot Noir it was very smooth. And the Invencio was a nice blend of spice, sweet and smoke. The close runner ups for me were the Petalos Bierzo and the Toasted Head Cab.
Though to be honest I didn’t really dislike any of them…well other than the “secret” extra bottle that James brought as an experiment. It was the Inwood Estates Tempranillo. From the start I was thrown off because to me the wine had smell that reminded me of paint chips and it never really got any better.
Here is the aftermath:
To the rest of the Brown Bag Wine Night people, what were your favorites? And if you have better notes on what exactly each wine is feel free to leave them below!
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