The South Alabama wine club met again over a blind wine tasting....did we get it right?

Wine tasting is all about enjoying and learning. Some people are what is called "master tasters" and they physically have a larger number of taste buds on their tongues than others. For real. 

For others that are not so lucky, we do our best. And we did do our best. Fun was had, learning occurred and the best drink was enjoyed, wine.

My adorable hubbie set up a great blind wine tasting between two red wines. They were placed in decanters and we were not given any information about the wines before tasting.

So, let's cut to the chase - did we get them right? NO.
Did we learn something to help with our future blind wine tastings? Sure did.

Learning is a process and here is what we learned:

Wine #1
What we smelled and tasted - Spice, plum, cherry, tobacco
Texture - very dry, alcohol
Color - dark plum

What we thought it was - a Merlot
What it actually was - Bogle (CA) Petite Sirah

To save some face on this wine tasting, the Bogle is a lighter Petite than normal. With a Petite, you look for lots of spice on the finish and tannins.

Wine # 2
What we smelled and tasted - Strawberry, cherry, blackberry, leather, musty
Texture - medium acidity
Color - dark red

What we thought it was - we were split half and half on a Pinot Noir or a Zinfandel
What it actually was - Cupcake (Central Coast CA) Cabernet Sauvignon

Personally, I was SHOCKED by the outcome of this wine. It was so heavy on the fruit (mainly Strawberry) that I have never tasted in a Cab before. We were all shocked. It just goes to show you how difficult blind tastings can be.

We were so amazed at how different our assumptions were based on what actually was, that we are going to do a side by side tasting of three of the same varietals for our next meeting. It will be so helpful to taste the slight differences in wine that can be due to anything from terroir to weather to the year.

One step at a time in the world of learning, right?

Cheers!