New Date: Week of May 9, either May 11 or 12. Let me know if you have a strong preference for either of those dates.
I have gotten some feedback that the wine selection adds up to a significant cost. Would there be more interest in a selection that was jut a little over $100 total? We could start with a nice table wine from Oregon to cover the basics and then exploring wines the $18-25 range from each of the four regions. Would that be preferable to the top quality but expensive wines that I suggest below? I do have a list of 30 different Pinot Noirs at different price points that I close the tasting with.
In a few weeks I am leading a virtual Pinot Noir tasting for the wine club at the company that I recently retired from. I am looking to see if there is interest f in my scheduling another one for the people following this blog at the end of April.
The only cost to you is going out and purchasing the wines for the tasting. Details on the tasting and the specific wines, including suggested source, is below. If there is sufficient interest, I am tentatively looking at having a 90 minute Zoom meeting on Thursday April 28 starting at 6:00 PM Eastern. If anyone is very interested but cannot make that date, suggest an alternative and I will factor that into consideration.
You can respond in one of two ways. My preference would be to email me at bill@billwinetravelfood.com so I have your email address to send the calendar invite. You can also respond in Comments that your are interested. If the interest is there, I will do a post with the Zoom address and hope all interested parties see that post. I am a little nervous about putting a meeting address in a post that the world can see and would prefer sending it to an email list. All parties on that list would be in the BCC line so no one else will see your email address and you have my commitment that i will only send the meeting invite to that address unless you invite me to correspond with you using that address. Please let me know the number of people that you are planning on having at your location whichever mode of response you choose so I can assess the total level of interest.
I am asking that if you respond that you are interested that you please make every effort to attend. If 30 people respond with interest but only 3 show up that evening, that would be very disappointing. If this is not the kind of activity that followers of this blog are interested in, that will be good to know and I will focus the wind blogs in other areas.
Wine Tasting Details
The approach will be to compare highly rated Pinot Noirs from the four regions that are the top producers of Pinot Noir wine. We will start with a basic wine from the Provence region of France and cover some Pinot Noir fundamentals while we sip that wine. We will then move to a California Pinot Noir from the Russian River area, the first of four wines in the $50-60 range so it should be an apples to apples comparison. We will then move up the coast to the Oregon Willamette Valley for one of the excellent Pinots they are producing. The next wine will be from New Zealand. For the final wine we will go back to France and taste a Premier Cru from Burgundy.
This is not intended as any kind of blind tasting or contest and we will not be scoring the wines. Each of the four regions has built a strong reputation for excellent Pinot Noir with lots of followers. Trying highly regarded wines from each and comparing the tastes should be interesting. I will suggest that you use multiple glasses so you can go back and compare tastes. Depending on how many people are participating I plan to leave some time for participants to provide some thoughts on each of the wines.
The biggest challenge in putting this together was picking just 5 wines to taste. I am sure many of you would have picked some different wines that are at least equally as good as the ones that I selected. I will be providing a list of other Pinot Noirs that I enjoy from each of the 4 regions and at some different price points while we enjoy the Premier Cru Burgundy. These recommendations are my opinion only. I am not licensed to sell wine and do not have any agreements with any vineyards to endorse their products. The goal is an enjoyable and educational evening.
Wines for the Tasting
Louis Latour Domaine de Valmoissine Pinot Noir 2019. Available from Wine.com for $17.
Francis Coppola Reserve Pinot Noir. Available from the Coppola web site for $50. Coppola makes a number of different Pinot Noirs with very different tastes. Please try to get the Reserve Pinot Noir, which is my favorite from them, for this tasting.
Willamette Valley Vineyards Elton Pinot Noir 2018. Available from the WVV Web site for $60.
Escarpment Pinot Noir, New Zealand. Available from Wine.com for $52.
Chateau Santenay Beaune Montee Rouge Premier Cru 2018. Available from Wine.com for $57.
As an option you can also order a package of Maker’s Reserve Cheddar Cheeses from Tillamook that are an excellent companion to these wines. Below is their web site for Maker’s Reserve Flight 2.0, four really great cheeses for $40. I encourage people to get this bundle of cheeses and possibly add some charcuterie. Trader Joe’s has a two great packages, Italy and Spain, or just get some from the deli counter.
I look forward to hearing how much interest there is in doing this virtual wine tasting. Members of the WTF Club that are both followers of this blog as well as club members are welcome to attend both but it will be pretty much the same each time.
Bill's Thoughts on Wine, Travel, and Food 