A wine review weekend - opening everything

[NorCal]

I have been blessed with some of the best high school friends in the world. These are deep rooted relationships going back to elementary school in the 70’s when the parents knew all the kids, you rode your bike from the house in the morning and returned before the street light turned on. A group of 9 of us have been getting together for a long weekend every year for 30 years or so.


We skipped last year and this year is a smaller group. However, it is a group of enthusiastic wine drinkers. I’m bringing the portfolio of wines for a weekend of blind tasting and inevitably some sort of competition. I’ll update the post along the way. We shall see if what I think is good holds up under blind competition. I know there will be some expensive commercial wine to go heads up against as well.

 

[BernardSmith]

I am so very envious. When I came to the states from the UK more than 30 years ago I had to say farewell to all my school and university friends. Still in contact with some of them via Facebook but that is not the same.

 

[Nebbiolo020]

I have been blessed with some of the best high school friends in the world. These are deep rooted relationships going back to elementary school in the 70’s when the parents knew all the kids, you rode your bike from the house in the morning and returned before the street light turned on. A group of 9 of us have been getting together for a long weekend every year for 30 years or so.


We skipped last year and this year is a smaller group. However, it is a group of enthusiastic wine drinkers. I’m bringing the portfolio of wines for a weekend of blind tasting and inevitably some sort of competition. I’ll update the post along the way. We shall see if what I think is good holds up under blind competition. I know there will be some expensive commercial wine to go heads up against as well.

Sounds like a fun time, I don’t really have friends who I’ve maintained longer than 5-10 years stuff just happens and I’ve lost contact with a lot of people.

 

[NorCal]

Arrival day

 

[Boatboy24]

Is your nickname 'Bone'?

 

[NorCal]

Is your nickname 'Bone'?

Nah, one of the buddies. It’s funny when my parents only knew my friends by their nicknames. Last night ended up being a random wine drinking, poker night. Tonight’s wine for a (more) structured blind tasting.

 

[NorCal]

We had a few contests, none that would be too interesting to discuss.

The expensive bottles people brought were disappointments. Really nothing special. This was evidenced by having a 1/4+ bottle of each of them left at the end of the trip.

My take away, having tasted my ‘17, ’18, ‘19 & ‘20 bottles all at once showed the wines I’ve made in the past two years were superior to the prior two. I really attribute that to the multiple items I’ve done to improve the quality. Most of which are discussed In the home vs commercial thread.