Friday night my turn to host my local non-serious wine group. Theme was “Northern Italian Red Excluding Piedmont. “ I had done a run the night before, and with two days filled with speeches had no time for trip to good cheese store. So settled for trip to HMart for beef and pork rib bulgogi that I grilled, plus white anchovies, banchan dried anchovies, and some Cypress Grove Midnight Moon, Camembert, and Manchego.


We tried out some open whites (already posted on), and then went to the blind wines:
Wine #1 - mine, so no guess, opened about 2.5 hours before. Some tannins, good acids, tar, smoke, and earth with some dark berry fruit. Good stuff, I like. 2009 Les Cretes “Vigne La Tour” Fumin (Valle d'Aosta). B+

Wine #2 - no guesses as I had a clue (Dave had called me to say “is Valpolicella an accepted area for theme”). Lightbodied, spicy, good fruit forward, simple but good. 2009 Le Salette Valpolicella Classico. B/B-

Wine #3- red fruit, good acids, a hint of spritz (imaginary?), very light, good, one of my faves. 2010 Viviani Valpolicella. B/B+


Wine #4 - light color, geranium, raspberry/cranberry fruit, I’m thinking Loire Gamay, but hard to fit that in with theme. I’m guess-less. 2009 Saltner “Caldero” Pinot Nero (Alto Adige). B-

Wine #5- sweet, a touch hot, pruney, confected, not my style, my guess is Amarone. Yep, cheap (comparatively) Amarone. 2007 Pasqua Amarone della Valpolicella. B-/C+

Wine #6
Thick, extracted, dense, but much more individualistic bent to it than previous wine, it has some interest.. Cocoa and cherries. I thought this was also Amarone, wrong but in right direction, the 2009 Solane (Santi) Valpolicelli Classico Superiore Ripasso. B

Wine # 7
Mid-bodied, some oak, plummy, some others like more than I, I think characterless international variety without caring. 2008 St. Michael Effan Pinot Nero Reserva. C+/B-
(wine wasn’t so interesting, but as it has PN/Blauburgunder, Sudtirol/Alto Adige etc on label it led to good discussion of places where language supremacy has shifted).

I was in mood to try something different, (sneakily) said “we can’t have a night without any French wines” (to trick the French guys) and decanted and brought in the 1974 Mondavi Cabernet Sauvignon. An old fave, but this bottle had a lower fill (high shoulder to be generous) than my others. Cork was a spongy mess (broke with ah so) so lower expectations. Hey, you never know, this is absolutely fine. Black cherry and black plum, plenty of mint, resolved tannins, guys thought this was a very nice mature Bordeaux. Fine showing. A-/B+

Since I had made comment about French wine, had to open one, it was the 1995 Foreau (Clos Naudoin) Vouvray Moelleux. This is the regular, not the Reserve. Medium sweet, good acids, lemon pie and honeysuckle. Nice, pleasant, but the Reserve is worth the step up. B

Fun night.

Saturday I made chicken breasts in a Madeira/morel cream sauce, with salad. Wine was the 2002 Montaudon Brut Champagne. Good crisp attack, fullbodied with some yeasty notes, pleasant apple and toast notes, but not much followthrough on finish. Perfectly pleasant, and it wasn’t very expensive. B

Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.