July 24 results. OK, here they are. We found a few wines that are clearly worth trying again. But after tasting a few triple- and double-A league varietals, it's clear why we usally stick to the majors. Usually we're pretty lubed up before anyone throws out scores in the low single digits, but this time the bottom fell out early. Some of these poor wines barely even got points for color.
     1) "Newgrange." 1999 Conn Creek Cabernet Franc Limited Release, Napa Valley. $25. Average 15.9; range 13-19. This velvety, muscular wine was tonight's winner by a wide margin. Almond, cinnamon, "oaky vanilla," chocolate and even mole (in the Mexican cuisine sense) were among the flavors we found in it. But what distinguished it most from your garden-variety big red is a smoky, woody, even piney note both in the nose and on the tongue. "A red wine you'd like to come home to, or go home with."
     2-tie) "Outback." 1998 Peter Lehmann Semillon, Barossa, South Australia. $12 at Dorignac's. Average 12.6; range 8-16. Yellow rose, melons and pink grapefruit in the nose. You often find this varietal in botrytis-affected dessert wines, and there was a rush of sweet fruit when this wine first hit the tongue. Yet that initial sweetness doesn't linger, and it gets a bit more astringent as it goes on. One person thought the nose hinted at but didn't entirely betray the flavor. One skeptic complained that it smelled of office products.
     2-tie) "Ouagadougou." 1998 Chappellet Sangiovese, Napa Valley. $20 at Martin Wine Cellar. Average 12.6; range 8-15. This one probably suffered from its place in the tasting order. It was second-to-last wine of the night and came soon enough after "Newgrange" to suffer in that wine's shadow. Still, a lot of people found something to like in it, including raspberry, tobacco and smoke. Somebody described it as the perfect pasta wine.
     4) "Chackbay." 2000 Bonny Doon Pacific Rim Dry Riesling, California. $8 at Martin Wine Cellar. Average 11.6; range 8-15. A sweet, grapefruity palate-cleanser with a mineral finish. "It seemed to dance right on my tongue," said one person, who went on to praise its "interaction." Some people thought it tasted like flat champagne or yellow Hawaiian Punch. There was no real disparity in how people described this wine; whether they liked it or not seemed to hinge on what they thought of SweeTARTS.
     5) "Iceland." 2001 Beringer Chenin Blanc, California. $6 at Albertson's. Average 11.1; range 6-14. Jeff, who was clearly self-conscious about bringing this and blamed Joan for picking it up, recognized the bottle under the fake label and said the wine tasted like "cheap swill from Albertson's." But it was pretty decent swill, with notes of tropical fruit, apples, nectarines and... aspirin. Eliot called it a good "sunset wine at the end of a hot day." Somebody who didn't like it as much said, "You could put a cube of ice in it and not cause any damage because there's not much going on." Quite sweet.
     6) "Big Bend." 2000 Ruffino Fonte Al Sole, Tuscany. $8 or so at Martin Wine Cellar. Average 9.1; range 2-12. This wine came directly after "Newgrange" and, to a lot of us, seemed dull and artless by comparison. If you had it alone, it might seem pretty average. Slightly moldy, some people thought, but basically inoffensive. "Kinda, kinda, kinda."
     7) "Olympus Mons." 1998 Latah Creek Lemberger, Washington state. $12. Average 9; range 2-13. Porty nose. Syrupy, with hinds of petroleum. Reminded a number of people of cough medication -- specifically Robitussin or wild cherry Ludens. But its defenders thought it would go very well with duck, quail and sausages made from game meats. They also thought some of the low scores were a reflection on how unusual this central/eastern European varietal is, not on the quality of this particular wine.
     8) "Barrow." 2001 Cuilleron Viognier, Pays des Collines Rhodaniennes, Rhône Valley. $18 at Martin Wine Cellar. Average 6.7; range 1-12. A very odd wine. Aroma of melon, crystallized ginger and confectioner's sugar faded pretty quickly. Not much fruit, but lots of body. If the winemaker intended to make an especially earthy, leggy wine, he succeeded. Later in the evening, there was some discussion over whether our bottle was corked. Jean (sp?) thought it might be, because she expected a viognier to be fruitier and more powerful. The mushroomy, peaty and "perm solution" notes that people described might also lead one to that conclusion.
     9) "Quasar." 1996 Cejkovice Frankovka, Cejkovicich, Mutenicka, Czech Republic. $13? Average 6.2; range 4-9. This wine may not even be available in America, and maybe it's just as well. Musty cherry nose. Tastes like flat Cherry Coke after all the ice has melted. "It's beautiful and elegant when you look at it and smell it, but when you taste it it's reprehensible." "It doesn't go anywhere and ends sour." For what it's worth, one Internet source said frankovka is the same grape as cabernet franc, but most others say it's really blaufränkisch, a common German and Austrian varietal.
     10) "Neptune." 2000 Delheim Pinotage, Simonsberg, Stellenbosch, South Africa. $13? No rating, but a consensus choice for the worst of the evening. This was the last wine we tasted. It provoked a discussion of whether it was corked or just terrible. We pretty much decided on terrible. With the exception of the tasty one produced by Saxenburg, every pinotage any of us has ever tasted has had the same characteristics as the Delheim: a fonky but forgivable nose and a nasty, completely unforgivable burnt rubber taste that takes over one's entire mouth. Rotgut that could power a lawnmower in a pinch.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 3:28 PM
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Got something to say? I should have done this at the outset, but there's now a comment feature on this page. You still have to go through Blogger if you want to originate a post. But anybody -- including anyone who just happens upon the site -- can comment on any of the posts just by clicking on the "Comments?" link at the end of each item. I'll probably add similar bells and whistles on some of the other pages, just to make the site more interesting and less static.
     Adding the comments feature turns out to be a bit complicated. I got detailed, invaluable advice from friendly bloggers Paul, Victor and Phil (the last of whom seems to be a sort of éminence grise of the blog world). Even then, I ran across some problems that I couldn't work around completely. If you come across anything that works badly or looks funny, no matter how slight the problem might seem, please e-mail me at dante@purplesunshine.com. I'll try to work it out.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 2:21 PM
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The case against Parker. Kiplog also led me to Michael Steinberger's persuasive hit piece on Robert Parker.
     Like lots of other people, I've bought wines that I haven't tasted on the strength of a high Parker rating. (And then felt guilty and manipulated afterward, naturally.) Though I have never bought his magazine, I have marveled while reading pieces like this 10,000-word wet kiss in The Atlantic Monthly at a guy who says, "A wine goes in my mouth, and I just see it. I see it in three dimensions. The textures. The flavors. The smells. They just jump out at me." (Maybe a little synesthesia is a good thing in wine tasting.)
     So for me, at least, it's intriguing to read Steinberger's piece, which begins like this: Robert Parker is the world's most powerful wine critic. He is to chardonnay and merlot what Jim Jones was to Kool-Aid; that is, when Parker says drink, his followers drink. And it ends like this: "Parker has spawned a generation of lemmings. This may not have been his intent, but it is his legacy: Untold thousands of wine drinkers have come to believe that his judgment is more trustworthy than their own."
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 11:04 PM
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Thanks. I'm not sure who Kiplog is or how he/she found us, but a bunch of Web surfers came our way with this link, and others on his/her food site. Which in turn is part of www.kiplog.com, all of which is well worth visiting.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 10:15 PM
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Gastronomy in Ireland. Not an oxymoron, it turns out. During our trip G. and I had a couple of meals consisting of potatoes, overcooked fish and vegetables with all the taste boiled out of them, but we had a number of good meals. If you're ever there, the Boulevard Cafe in Dublin and Bricin in Killarney are worth checking out.
     The wine selection in the country turns out to be really good, too. Dublin is roughly the same size as New Orleans, but has a bunch of really good wine stores. Not surprisingly, American wines are more expensive than here, but Australians are about the same price, and French and Spanish ones are generally a bit cheaper.
 :: posted by Dante Ramos at 8:07 PM
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