Look at the gorgeous blue. It was a wonderful day when City Winery decided to hold a tasting with their partners: BottleRocket Wine & Spirit, Wine Twits, WIRED, and Riedel. In case you do not know, City Winery is a custom crush winery in Tribeca (litterally on the island of Manhattan). You can make your own wine there and be part of the whole process.The tasting had an entrance fee of $30 that the organizers of the event waived. I did not learn until I got to the event that the proceeds of the event were going to charity. I probably should have researched the event more before I went, but I just did not have the time.
So there I was when I read the booklet given me, which had directions on how to tweet about the wines during the tasting. Luckily they had the codes of each wine next to each of the wines in the tasting booklet.
Every event should have a tasting booklet. It allows you to go into these types of events with a game plan. For this tasting I decided I wanted to taste whites and Pinot Noir. If something else was interesting on the table (like a Dornfelder, or a sexy Napa Cabernet) I wasn't going to limit myself, but I wasn't going to shoot the moon and try for everything.
I hated the experience. All I wanted to do was taste the wines, talk about them with other wine enthusiasts, and get back to the amazingly beautiful day. Adding the need to tweet into this kind of walk around tasting, one where I did not have a handy laptop and table top to put my glass, pencil, tasting booklet and whatever else I had, and instead had to juggle everything while I pulled out my iPhone to tweet my notes... Every wine was taking 10 minutes to taste. I can usually pull everything I need to out of a wine within 3 minutes. If it is a worthwhile wine, I can site there for 5-6 minutes, but man... 10 minutes is a LONG time.So I stopped tweeting. The organizers did not seem to mind, there seemed to be plenty of people who liked doing the "Spit & Twit" and the video screen with the updates was always flipping to someone else's review.
Instead I started tasting some great wines. I will only go into a few here, but I suggest checking out all of the wines at BottleRocket. It is a great retail store and have a thoughtful selection of wines.
Szigeti Gruner Veltliner Brut NV - It is very rare that I taste sparkling wines made from Gruner Veltliner, but this one was steller. It was so light and refreshing and had a wonderful dryness that made me want to take another sip without mouth puckering tartness.
Bear Flad White Blend - A fun wine made by a couple people who work in the California wine industry and decided to make their own wine. They make two wines, a white and a red. The white was perfumed on the nose somewhat like a viognier and had a smooth sweetness to the taste. I learned it had 20% Muscat and 20% Colombard in the wine and I would definitely say those grapes took over. The label however is somewhat funky and cool.
Cult Vines Cabernet Sauvignon To Kalon Vineyards 2007 - Wow. Delicious wine. Smooth fruit, fleshy and enticing dark berry flavors. A rich vanilla with smooth silky tannins blended with blueberry, black cherry, and ripe plum.
Benziger Family Signaterra Pinot Noir Bella Luna Vineyards 2007 - Floral aromas with delicate spice and smoky undertones. The taste was dark cherry and rich minerality.
Lucie et Auguste Lignier Morey St Denis 'Clos de la Sionnieres' 2006 - Sour cherry nose and taste. Delicate and easy to enjoy, but really needs something to eat with it.
Check out the slideshow below for some bottle shots and images of the event.
