So I recently went to Pak’s for a wine tasting event. More specifically- domestic bubbles under $30. Everyone brought a bottle, immeditately wrapped it numbered it, and prepped it for the blind taste testing. There were 13 bottles in all. The results are below.
Pak’s email and notes:
Here’s the tally (the tie for first relfects the misnumbering of the bottles vs. the cards and is noone’s fault but my own; I was too tipsy at the time of the mistake being discovered [thanks regs] to realize the tie was between two different winemakers):
- Place – Wine
- 1 Roederer Estate Anderson Valley Brut ($20 @ D&M wine, Kenneth)
- 1 Schramsberg Mirabelle Brut ($21 @1st st winery, Billiam/Julie)
- 2 Roederer Estate Anderson Valley Brut ($18 @ wine club, Cara)
- 3 Roederer Estate Anderson Valley Brut ($17 @ Costco, daNobles)
- 4 1998 J Russian River Valley($27 @ wineclub, kenois)
- 5 Domaine Chandon Blanc de Noirs ($19 @ andronicos, Jamie)
- 6 Barefoot Chardonnay Bubbly xtra dry ($6 @TJs, daNobles)
- 7 Kenwood Cuvee Natural Russian River ($23 D&M wine, kenneth)[edit: actually bought this at Kenwood]
- 8 Roederer Estate Anderson Valley Brut ($22@1st winery
livermore, Billiam/Julie) - 9 Buena Vista Blanc de Blanc Carneros ($13 @ winery, Nic&Gary)
- 10 Domain Carneros Tattinger ($23 @ wine impressions, Dave)
- 11 Coppola Sofia Blanc de Blanc ($18 @ andronicos, javier)
- 12 Schramsberg Blanc de Noir ($30 @ Andronicos, Nic&Gary)
Some interesting notes from the cards I have in my possession:
wine’s place – comment
- 1 oooh….chocowine
- 9 oooh….butter champagne
- 5 ass light
- 1(roed) breathtakingly pedestrian*
- 1(schram) smells funky, but not like george clinton*
- 9 tastes alcoholy, like grandma*
- 10 what i imagine a generic champagne to be, in Iowa*
- 6 did this come out of a box?
- 1(schram) kind of like wet socks
- 11 weird slightly chemically under taste that leaves
a slight slick on the tounge - 1(schram) nose like wet dog food
- 10 acridness that crawls down the throat
- 12 newark manure…too carbonated
- 7 smells disgusting
- 8 my favorite so far, exotic, bacon
- 9 kind of exciting…a little like liquor
- 12 smells like green onions-ewh!
An interesting tidbit that’s not listed in Pak’s email/notes above is that all night there was a spit cup/pour off vessel on the table. Apparently after Marisa and I left and the partying and imbibing continued, someone decided to compare the derided Sophia to the Spit Bucket! Guess what, THE SPITBUCKET WON. And from what I hear – there was more than one judge to verify that ranking.
Quick note: I claimed my quotes above w/ an * and edited the locale where I got the Kenwood.
