The Power of the Palate Cleanse

In May I posted about the Taria 384 Cuvee and ranted about how great it was. A bit later, I brought it the Luce’s house for dinner one night. We started off with a Cabernet Franc then followed with this. Since there were only 3 of us and the Luce’s are well endowed with glasses, we were able to taste them at the same time. (well, sip of one, sip of the other, not shooting them both) I hadn’t noticed the tobacco before, but wow, it was really prominent next to the Cab Franc. (It was a casual dinner, so we weren’t doing much palate cleansing.) So much so that it almost tasted like I ate a cigarette. But I had loved it so much before- I was so sad that it wasn’t wonderful. It was fine, it wasn't a bad bottle, the tobacco flavor was much stronger than I like.

Then recently I took it to a dinner another night with a different friend. We started with a white, then moved to the Taria. The tobacco, while present, was only ever so lightly present, so lightly that I probably wouldn’t have been able to pick out the tobacco if I hadn’t known it was there. It was great and went well with both my steak and my friend's sea bass with sugar pea and mushroom accompaniment. That's the Taria I remember.

Of course, it stands to reason that the bottle at the Luce’s was some freak of production, but I think it was so different because of what it was next to. It made me really realize the importance of palate cleansing at tastings-honestly I don’t really do much of it unless it’s a vastly different wine (ie a red to a white or visa versa) and then, honestly, shhh… I still don’t always. It just seems so snobby. “I need to cleanse my palate”.

But, after this experience, I really think I’ll take it up again.