A Chrysalis Wine Dinner – Australian and New Zealand Reds

Another gathering of Chrysalis wine folk took place this past weekend and this time the theme was Australian and New Zealand red wine. This is hardly surprising since Don and Susan, our gracious hosts, had just returned from there after visiting their son. As a side note, their son is a travel blogger (Mark on the Map) and as of this writing is currently in India.

For those that haven’t seen this before, a Chrysalis Wine Dinner is when a portion of the Chrysalis Vineyards staff gets together and blind tastes a group of wines. It’s a pot luck dinner and a theme is chosen for the wines to be drank. The wines are then rated individually and the results tabulated to determine the winner and loser for the evening.

There were 13 of us tasting and a total of eight wines being tasted this evening. The wines are brought by the individuals and placed in a plain, brown paper bag. Our Mistress of Ceremonies, Meaghan, then randomly selects a brown bag and labels it with a letter. The wine is poured and each of us the grades it on a a scale of one to five in the following categories: appearance, aroma, flavor, and overall. The category scores are then added together to give a total score for that wine. At the end of the evening, since we’ve already consumed a fair bit of wine (no spitters in this group) a winner is chosen by the wine that was rated highest on the most sheets and the loser is the wine that is rated the lowest on the most sheets.

The great thing about this tasting is that it can expose one to wines they wouldn’t normally buy and give one insights into what style of wines that they truly like. It just so happened that there was a group dynamic that appeared this evening. It seems that the Chrysalis folks like big, bold Shiraz from Australia. It should be noted that just because a wine is rated as a loser for this event, that does not mean that it is a bad wine. A lot of things can affect how a wine is perceived, especially if it is a Pinot in and amongst a bunch of Shriaz.

Here is the list of wines poured that evening, presented in the order that they were poured. The numbers in parenthesis are the aggregate score followed by the number of sheets the wine was rated highest on and finally the number of sheets the wine was rated lowest on.

• Molly Dooker The Boxer Shiraz 2009, McLaren Vale, Australia (178, 2, 3) – The most astounding thing about this wine is that if you go to their web site, they tell you to shake the wine before serving, maple-cherry, big Shiraz, not subtle
• Cooralook Shiraz 2007, Victoria, Australia (148, 0, 3) – fruity, standard but lacking soul, not a strong finish, kinda flat finish
• Shingleback Shiraz 2006, McLaren Vale, Australia  (183.5, 2, 0) – Smells a little bitter, major chocolate notes, soft and smooth, not much finish
• Winner! Thorn Clarke Terra Barossa Shiraz 2007, Barossa, Australia (203.5, 6, 0) – Strong but balanced, little spice mid-palate, easy, nice aroma but not enough of it, yessssss!, could drink the bottle
• Loser! Oyster Bay Pinot Noir 2009, Marlborough, New Zealand (146.5, 1, 5) – light maybe too light?, rust colored, thin, slight spice, strawberry, tobacco
• DogRidge The Pup Shiraz 2006, McLaren Vale, Australia (183, 0, 0) – sweet but not sugary, I’m a fan, very nice, discordant, at first a sweetness in taste
• Loser! Hardys Nottage Hill Pinot Noir 2007, South Eastern Australia (148.5, 1, 5) – good but forgettable, major coffee notes, ok, easy without food, cherry sweetness on nose
• Greg Norman Cabernet Sauvignon/Merlot 2007, North Coast, California (192.5, 3, 0) - (Author’s note: It should be noted that other than Greg Norman’s name, there is nothing Australian about this wine!) earthy, spice, good, slightly grassy aftertaste, lotsa tannin

There is one other thing that came out of this tasting, it seems that I steal pencils!