Covid-19 wine sharing and live Zoom review 2.0

[NorCal]

Five of us home winemakers are doing a Covid-19 safe wine sharing/review today, one or more white and one or more red. It was @4score that took the idea and ran with it. Here are the mechanics.

1. We each got a case or more of 8 ounce waters and poured the water out (in a container to drink later)
2. Fill 5 ounces of wine in 4 samples and label (each person was assigned a number, if you are bringing two reds it would be say 5A & 5B if you were assigned #5.
3. We have a meeting point/time and while maintaining social distances, one by one we will place our 4 each of our samples of wine in the center. Then one by one we will go into the center and remove one of each of the bottles, skipping your number.
4. Place the samples in your bag and disinfect your hands. When back at home, each bottle will be disinfected before opening and poured into separate glasses.
5. We will meet live on Zoom tonight to discuss each wine.

Sound safe? Any other ideas?

We will know who made the wine, but we will not know what wine is in the bottle. I’d like to share what I’m bringing, but I’m afraid 4Score or BusaBill may visit this site and it would spoil it.

 

[NorCal]

Safe drop off executed.


Disinfecting incoming samples completed.

 

[NorCal]

Fun night. Ten wines, two I wouldn’t reach for and two that really stood out for me.

Wouldn’t reach for.
1. Was a Chenin Blanc with glycerin added. It was good, but tasted sweet to me and just not my cup of tea.
2. Was a 3 year old Sauvignon Blanc that won a gold at the CA state fair. It had a barnyard nose, but tasted good. It was past its prime.

The two standouts were
1. A ‘15 Barbera that won double gold, best of show at the CA state fair made by @4score as well as a 2018 Cab Franc which was a blend of three barrels, which was simply outstanding.

I brought my 2019 Chenin Blanc which was well received as well as a 2019 barrel sample of my 100 point blend wine, which still tasted young, but the future promise is strong.

 

[GreginND]

Very cool! Our local American Wine Society chapter has been having weekly zoom meetups on Saturdays. I started using the polling feature for wine trivia. It's tons of fun.

 

[Rice_Guy]

You have me wondering if the Vinters club could do this with the 150 bottles that were collected for the March contest?

Sounds like a fun night

 

[mainshipfred]

I watched 2 virtual tastings. One I just watched and the other we bought the wine tasting package which included 3 bottles of wine and pairings. It was on Facebook and people made comments and asked questions during the tasting. Not the same as being there but it was enjoyable.

 

[NorCal]

We are doing another tonight! In total 11 samples. At least 5 of them are barrel samples, the others could or could not be.

 

[DizzyIzzy]

You have me wondering if the Vinters club could do this with the 150 bottles that were collected for the March contest?

Sounds like a fun night

Riceguy, I see you are from the Midwest as I am. What is the name of your club as I might look into joining?

 

[NorCal]

Another fun evening. Two very interesting wines and a number of wines made with the same grapes, that tasted very different.

One of the very interesting one was one of the first wines we all made together in 2014. It was a gsm, where each made two carboys of one of the three varietals and we combined them in the end. It was one of the best wines we’ve ever made together and while it was starting to show it’s age, it was still really good.

All the barrel samples were quite different, even the ones made with the same grapes. My take away was that the toast level has a huge impact on the nose of the wine, especially when it’s young and out of the barrel. The other take away was that the wines made with real high (26-27) brix grapes almost tasted a little sweet.

The second interesting wine was one made by our local celebrity, race car driver and fantastic wine maker, Scott Pruett. This was all blind so we didn’t know, but the $46, 95 point, estate grown Syrah clearly stood out as a far superior wine. The depth of flavor and smooth finish made us scratch our heads on how we can get our wines to taste like THIS.