January Les Petits Wineaux

Les Petit Wineaux met on January 8th at Mary and Ryan’s home. This was a unique blind wine tasting adventure, featuring Zinfandel. Wine glasses were labelled with an A, B or C.(Or at least we wish we had labelled them that way, instead of #1,#2,#3-as it would have made the voting easier.) You will understand when you review the findings on the chart below.

The wines being poured were covered in brown bags with simply a number (not a label to be seen). Participants were provided with notes discussing Zinfandel prior to the tasting and Don G. (our in-house Sommelier) shared the history of this particular wine with everyone before commencing the tasting.  After tasting and chatting at the table about one’s individual tasting notes, they were then invited to vote their 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd choice of the preferred wine. The next portion of the night was spent tasting the 3 Zinfandels again while being mindful of how the various wines interacted and were enhanced with the pairing of the appetizers. 

 Everyone was incredulous how the food changed the ratings of the wine.  If you chose wine #3 as your 1^st pick, in the first round, it didn’t necessarily translate into being your 1^st pick after the food pairing tastings, but it did in this case. Once the votes were taken, the wine labels were exposed. The 3 wines selected included: 

Zin #1 (A) 2022 Ravenswood Old Vine Zinfandel from E&J Gallo

Zin #2 (B) 2021 Beyer Ranch Zinfandel California from Wente Vineyards

Zin #3 (C) 2021 Old Ghost Old Vine Zinfandel from Klinker Brick Winery

Such a fun way to enjoy wine, learn more about Zinfandel, explore the various tasting notes and understand that we all taste different characteristics in the wine we experience.

As always, the gathering was fun, the wine was delicious and food pairings were outstanding. Les Petits Wineaux gatherings have become a date the entire group looks forward to attend.

Jo and Don have such a wealth of knowledge and experience to share with us, and Sharon and Don are great organizers and prepare sheets for our tasting notes.

Submitted by Ryan Laudien