I had a pretty amazing experience recently that I have to share simply because, well, it was an amazing accomplishment by a group of wine tasters. I will from time to time allow an organization that represents a good cause to auction off my services as a wine professional. I have conducted quite a few private wine events and they are always a blast. This last one I did on a neighboring island turned out to be quite different than any other.
I set this one up as a single blind tasting event. The idea is to help the group understand what to look for in each of the wines they are tasting and to emphasize the proper way to go about tasting a wine to get the most out of it. I talk about the wine regions and varietals they are examining in their glasses. This is the first go-round. I then mix up the wines in a blind format and their job is to identify each of the wines that they are tasting. With six wines I generally will get a couple of folks who get two or three correct. This group had five get four correct. Amazing! We had to then have two tie-breaker rounds and still had a tie in the end with two of the people. Now that is an astute group of tasters and my hat goes off to their attentiveness and interest. Also, the host and hostess were two of the nicest folks I have met and they did an excellent job of making sure everything went in a timely manner.
Our local Fair just finished up, but not before I had a chance to interview local wine maker Chris Lawler in front of a live audience in the main building. Chris is the new wine maker at San Juan Vineyards and although we have met and talked, I really have not had a chance to get to know him. This was my opportunity, and we had a great time talking about his approach to wine making, where he emanated from and where he garnered his wine experience. I will put the interview on my You Tube channel (Stan The Wine Man TV) on Tuesday, August 22. Make sure to check it out. We tasted four wines from the winery together as we talked including two barrel samples of his Syrah. The wines were very good and I am very excited for the bottling of the Syrah next year. It was stunning!
Susie and I continue to plan our trip to South Africa. I have a couple of interviews set up with wine makers already, and am very excited to make the trek with my lovely girlfriend to that country. She is working very hard on the side trips that we will take. There is so much to do there and thankfully she is a very good planner. I have expanded the South African wine section at Kings Market where I work, and have found some pretty amazing juice, including a Pinot Noir that rivals anything I have tasted from the Willamette Valley at a very reasonable price. There is also a Cabernet Sauvignon for fourteen bucks that will rock your palate. Stay tuned for reviews of the wines in the near future as I focus my attention on this great wine producing country.
Cheers!
Stan The Wine Man
