after dinner sneeze

t says:  Not satisfied with letting distance come between our fun, a, v, g, and I got together on FaceTime for a “long distance blind wine tasting”*.  While not officially a “restaurant visit in SF”, we had so much fun I just had to write about it!  g whipped up her pasta-a-la-g, which was delicious as usual.  Meanwhile, a and I uncorked the wine-of-the-night and got to blind-tasting …

a sensed some “wet laundry” on the nose – I can’t say I could confirm that.  It did smell a little “wet” but more like forest floor moss than wet laundry (which in my mind smells kind of gross).  Nitpicky scents aside, the major nose element for me was more like a raspberry fruit roll-up.  On the palate, it was plush and smooth, with flavors of red and black berries, maybe even a little “plummy”.  But then on the moderate length finish, there was a nice spicy quality.  It tried to straddle between being a “t-wine” (plush and round) and a “v-wine” (spicy, leather, manly).  However, it wasn’t quite an “a-wine” – he’d prefer a little more tannin, a little more kick in the tongue.  a guessed “New World, Kitchen Sink Blend, America”.  I agreed with the new world style, but felt that the spicy finish just wasn’t right for an American Kitchen Sink blend (i.e. usually zinfandel, petit verdot, syrah, cab franc – grapes that are “left over” in California).  So I went for “new world Spain”, but for the life of me couldn’t think of any Tempranillo-based wine coming out so smooth on entry.  a adjusted his response to include “new world South America”.  We then did the big reveal:

2012 Bodega O. Fournier “Urban Uco” Malbec-Tempranillo Blend

Holy cow!  If you put all our guesses together, we kind of guessed it!  It’s a South American wine (Argentina), a new world blend of malbec (which is known for being fruity and very plush) and tempranillo (known for being a bit more “masculine” flavor profile with leather, tobacco, and spice).  And that’s exactly how it tasted – malbec up front, tempranillo on the finish.  We’re calling our guesses to be pretty spot-on!  What we didn’t appreciate at the time was that this wine was under $10!  Not bad!  If you see this on a shelf, go for it!  I imagine the production is large enough where it shouldn’t vary that much year-to-year, so I doubt vintage will change it THAT much.  Go ahead and compare it to 100% malbec bottle and a 100% tempranillo bottle.  It’s fun!

*”long distance blind wine tasting”:  Weird, right?  Before we came to SF, we made it so that the PHL crew (a + v) and the SFO crew (g + t) had the same six bottles of wine (range: $9-$29), fully wrapped and numbered, in a manner such that bottle #1 in PHL corresponded with bottle #1 in SFO.  However, the buyer (t) and the wrapper (g) were not in communication, and the buyer also has a terrible memory (having purchased a bunch of wines all at once), so the end result is that no one (neither g, t, a, nor v) has any idea of the identities of the wines aside from the numbers 1-6 emblazoned on each bottle.  When the time comes, a number is randomly selected, a corresponding bottle is opened simultaneously in Philly and SF, the wine is blind-tasted (bottles still wrapped), opinions recorded, and then there’s a “big reveal”!  Fun, right!  Someone should totally make a wine club like this!