In Speedy Wine Tasting at the WBC09 post, I described how wine bloggers at this year’s North American conference had a chance to do a speed tasting of 11 different wines, each within a 5 minute timeframe. I’ve already made two posts outline my tasting notes—one of the 5 and 4.5 Cork wines and another for the 4 and 3.5 Cork wines. This is the last of my notes from the event.

Thanks again to all the wineries who made the event fun and successful!

3 Corks

2007 Lion’s Pride Pinot Noir (website)
$35
The exciting background on this wine is that the Russian River Valley Winegrowers (RRVW) work with students at El Molino High School to cultivate the vineyard where grapes for this wine are grown.

According to the wine rep, El Molino is the only school in the country that has a vineyard and provides hands-on viticulture instruction. Once the grapes are ripe, the RRVWs make the grapes into a good wine.

The wine itself was a light ruby with very berry flavors—strawberry and cherry—and a bit of residual sugar. It admittedly isn’t a great wine, but it’s solidly a good one and certainly helps a good cause, as all of the proceeds from the wine sales go back into El Molino High School’s viticulture program.

2007 Tandem Chardonnay (vineyard)
$54
According to the wine rep, the grapes for this wine were grown in Mendocino County, and the wine was aged in French oak. The wine had nice floral, lemon, and grapefruit characteristics. Overall, I would like to spend a little more time getting to know this one, although, I admit that my first impression left me feeling that while it was a good wine, the price point was a little high.

2.5 Corks

Pinot Evil Pinot Noir NV (website)
$19.99
This is actually a French wine that is imported by a CA company, Underdog Wine Merchants. Pinot Evil is a box wine that the representative said leaves 55% less of a carbon footprint than the average wine. The box holds 24 glasses or about 4 bottles, which would work out to be about $5 per bottle.

Outside of the clever packaging, this Pinot Noir left something to be desired. There were some red fruits—raspberry and cherries—both on the nose and in the mouth, but there was something funky that I couldn’t quite identify (maybe ferns or something foresty?) It was light in tannins, acid, and body. For the price, the wine might be worth it, but it won’t offer anything special.

2007 Line 39 Petite Sirah (website)
$10
This wine was very purple, with big, dark legs. It smelled almost creamy, and there were definite dark fruit aromas on the nose. In the mouth, there were buttery black cherries and vanilla, although there was a slightly funny aftertaste. Overall, I thought the wine was ok.