In Vino Veritas Session 3: World Cup

Posted by Edmund in Featured Articles, In Vino Veritas, Wine & Liquor | 1 comment

Lately, I’ve been drinking a lot of amazing wine, and I’ve started to get a little spoiled. When you belong to a wine organization with an alum base that includes some of the richest, most dedicated wine lovers around, you get the opportunity to taste bottles of wine that range in price from moderate to expensive to downright absurd.

Just in my last session with In Vino Veritas, for example, I was experiencing wines that that were 10 or so years old, aged to perfection—and not just any wines, either, but wines from the world’s most exclusive region, Bordeaux. Good luck even trying to find them on the market.

But that’s exactly the problem: While those wines are phenomenal selections,  it’s not all that practical to be drinking $300 bottles of wine, especially as a college student. They’re too rare and not all that representative of the normal selection you’ll find anywhere else. Wine drinking is, to me, just as much about interacting with others. Very rarely will you just happen to casually socialize over such exclusive bottles.

Hence why I was thrilled when I heard about the In Vino Veritas World Cup, an event for all the members of the organization to take a step back and drink only the most common of the common. Every single bottle during the night cost $10 or less, and selections cover eight different regions or countries, including the normal powerhouses like France, the US, and Spain, but also a couple of lesser-known areas, like Australia and Portugal. The event, moreover, was presented as a competition, and everyone was given the chance to rank the wines so that the winning region could be made into a tasting in the future.

It might sound a little underwhelming at first—after all, why go to a tasting if you’re just going to be drinking wines so common you’ll probably run across them at some time or another without even knowing it?

You can’t really understand or appreciate the “good stuff,” though, until you get the basics. And what better way than with arguably the most representative grapes and bottles from every region?

Just as importantly, at the end of the day, these $10 bottles are a phenomenal value. Price doesn’t always correlate with quality, and sadly enough some of these bottles taste better than some drinks I’ve had that are fivefold more expensive.  Thankfully, In Vino Veritas understands that it’s not about price, but rather about the ability to discern wines and socialize with other like-minded individuals.

Anyway, I’ll get on to the reviews. Keep in mind that I will be judging these wines as value wines and so will account for their price implicitly. Anything that costs $10 really shouldn’t be judged against a $300 powerhouse, after all.

What I Tasted

Michael Pozzan Cabernet Sauvignon 2007

Knights Valley, USA

Weak on the aroma, but still stronger than most of the options. I get some sour fruits, fresh grass, some nuts, and berries. Very nice, and relatively complex.

Wow, this is surprisingly complex for a cheap Cab Sauv. It’s a bit wild and harsh, ending on a raspy note, so you can tell that it’s not something of the finest quality. Still, it has a nice roundness and body for something so young, and I really enjoy the heavy dark chocolate and slightly fruity overtone. Moreover, the oak is relatively balanced, though it’s very strong and slightly overpowering. Thus, you’re left with a refreshing tannic overtone that leaves a very long impression on the palate. It’s way too strong, but it’s still so nicely balanced that it’s hard to not enjoy. Just very, very harsh on the end.

3.8/5.0

Reserve Perrin

Cotes du Rhone

France

The one wine which I unfortunately didn’t get to taste during the evening.

Cecchi Chianti 2008

Luigi Cecchi and Figli

Italy

The color is a light ruby.

The aroma is very weak. I do get berries and some herbs, though.

The taste is very nice—smooth, but not watery, with a good bit of body. You get a slight tannin taste throughout, along with a fair bit of fruitiness. It’s very well-balanced, so that nothing ever comes off as abrasive. And unlike the other smooth wines of the night, which tend to be watery, this one actually does have flavor—light fruit, light oak, and light spice that last throughout the taste. To be fair, the wine doesn’t change all that much, i.e. it’s not very complex. Moreover, it can get very watery after it airs out. But it’s still very accessible.

3.6/5.0

Finca La Linda Malbec 2008

Luigi Bosca

Mendoza, Argentina

As with all Malbec, this has a beautiful color—a purple ruby verging on near black at the edges. It’s very dark for something so young.

Surprisingly weak on the aroma for a Malbec. I get some musty dirt and a slight bit of grass, but it’s disappointing nonetheless.

Delicious! It’s very fruity straight from the start, with a delicious combination of raspberry, nut, and oak hitting you hard, but smoothly. It keeps that fruitiness throughout, which is probably the nicest feature of the wine. Moreover, it has a surprisingly spicy finish for a Malbec, kind of like what I’d expect from a Syrah. There are also some leather and smokiness in there, to add a few more layers of flavor. Still, this wine does quickly become overly oaky (a problem suffered by many Malbecs), leaving you with a refreshingly spicy but far too bitter and boring end.

4.0/5.0

Altano 2007

Stymington Family Estates

Portugal

Another surprisingly dark wine, this one with less hues than the others, but with a very deep red throughout.

Another weak aroma, too. I get some nuts, a slight bit of cinnamon, some raspberry, and some earth, but they’re very difficult to distinguish because they’re so light.

Very watery and flavorless, in general. It’s not that the wine is bad on a technical level. In fact, I enjoyed the body, the roundness, and the very marked oaky cinnamon kick at the end. Still, it’s very monotonous. Think oaky and spicy but so bitter that in the end you’re left overwhelmed.

1.7/5.0

Man Vintners Pinotage 2009

South Africa

Slightly murky, dark ruby, purpling slight near the edges.

The aroma is disappointingly weak. I got almost nothing. There was just an infinitesimal fruity breeze.

Very balanced and surprisingly complex. It starts with a smooth and fruity, though slightly watery, taste, quickly giving way to tons of spice and leaving you burning markedly in the aftertaste. I also enjoy the slight taste of nuts (neutral walnuts) that accompanies the spice, as well as the bit of sourness in the middle. It’s not that there are too many flavors here, but the degree of transition in flavors is extreme, and yet it is never abrasive. There’s a very long, lovely smokiness in the finish, too. My big complaint is that it can be immoderately spicy.

4.1/5.0

Marques de Caceres Crianza 2006

Rioja, Spain

The color is gorgeous. Dark ruby, the wine is very clear and nearly translucent, surprisingly so for such a dark wine. It’s a bit light at the edges, with some orange, but it’s still nice.

The aroma is a bit weak, and it smells rather musty/earthy, like a fresh rain. Not much complexity here.

Very fruity and surprisingly smooth. This wine starts off with just a bit of dark chocolate and pepper, quickly turning to a strong fruity raspberry and surprisingly sour cherry taste, along with a healthy dose of robust oakiness near the end. The wine can, however, be just a bit watery at the very front. It ends on a spicy note, with that marked tempranillo wildness that I love—and yet it’s never overpowering or overly wild. Very drinkable, very smooth, and very flavorful. Long aftertaste.

4.2+/5.0. Probably even higher for the value. My favorite wine of the evening.

Koonunga Hill Shiraz 2008

Penfolds

South Australia

Nice, intense ruby color. Nearly jet black, even though it’s so young.

Fresh pepper on the nose, along with a sylvan aftertone, as of mud. Just a slight bit of raspberry, too. The aroma is pretty strong, but not terribly complex.

The wine is a bit watery for my taste, though. Normally, what I love about Shiraz is the strong spice, but this one has a much earthier, more bitter approach, emphasizing the tannins and the body (which is, to be fair, quite large). Moreover, this Shiraz has a slightly soil-like, very dark chocolaty, slightly fruity taste that actually goes down very smoothly. It ends with just a slight bit of that puckering pepper that makes for a great Shiraz. Plus, after it airs out, it picks up a lot more flavor and intensity, especially with the spicy aftertaste. Still, it’s a bit too weak in flavor and slightly too bitter.

3.7/5.0