Greetings all!
So, we’ve just very recently hosted the final Wine Bloggers Tasting of 2010 here at Monte Bello, and as always, it proved to be a delicious, and deliciously entertaining session. Many, many thanks to the bloggers who attended!
Wine Bloggers Tasting #4
With every one of these happenings, one of my tasks is to assemble the roster of wines that we’ll be tasting, and I always try and do this to a theme.
-For Session #1, we tasted exactly the same wines that Robert Parker had just reviewed, to see how the collective Blogger Palate matched up (I included a barrel sample of the ’08 Monte Bello, a five-vintage vertical of post-2000 Monte Bellos, plus the 1996 Monte Bello!) …
-For Session #2, we tasted all limited-production/winery-only Rhone varietal offerings …
-For Session #3 (held at Lytton Springs), we tasted a 10-vintage vertical of Lytton Springs …
So what to do for Session #4? Why, an Acrostic Anagram, of course!
Meaning, I poured an 11-wine flight with no discernible theme. I then explained to the bloggers that each wine’s label contributed one letter (just from the BIG letters, not every bit of fine print text!) to the puzzle. If they could guess the letters, and then get the letters in the right order, they’d find the secret phrase that gave us our theme! Because I poured the wines in the “proper” order for tasting, and not in the order of the letters, it was not only an acrostic, but an acrostic anagram!
Perhaps needless to say, when I explained my plan to a fellow Ridge staffer, I was called “a dork.”
Anyhow, care to play along? Here are the wines I selected, in the order poured:
Buchignani Ranch Carignane
East Bench
Lytton Estate Zinfandel/Primitivo
Geyserville
Nervo
Grenache
Independence School
Old School
Lytton West Syrah
Ridge Monte Bello
Geyserville Essence
Solved it yet? Ok, here’s a hint; as you’ll see below, I’ve bolded the relevant letter from each wine:
Buchignani Ranch Carignane
East Bench
Lytton Estate Zinfandel/Primitivo
Geyserville
Nervo
Grenache
Independence School
Old School
Lytton West Syrah
Ridge Monte Bello
Geyserville Essence
Got it now? No, not BELGNG IOWRE! You have to rearrange the letters! Got it now?
WINE BLOGGER
I am happy to report that Fred Swan, of the very great NorCalWine.com, was the first to successfully blurt out the correct answer. Congratulations Fred!
And lastly, a special thank you to Allan Bree, of the very great GangOfPour.com, for bringing the extraordinary trio of mystery wines we were all so fortunate to taste: 1993, 1994, and 1997 Ridge Vineyards Pagani Ranch Alicante Bouschet! How were they tasting? I think all involved agreed that “pretty” was by far and away the most appropriate descriptor, though I might add delicious, elegant, beautiful, extraordinary, enticing, and vibrant as well! Cheers Allan, that was such a treat!
Alicante Bouschet!
To close, a heartfelt thank you to Ridge Vineyards, all our participating wine bloggers, and everyone out there devotedly writing quality wine blogs; I feel very honored to be a part of both Ridge, and the wine blogger community, and 2010 was an extraordinary year for me in that regard, and for that, I thank you all! I am also very happy to report that we’ll be continuing this event is 2011, so cheers to the coming New Year!
Oh, one more thing, two other posts about this event have already gone up, you can find them here:
Enjoy!
