My mistake... I need cheat sheets

Well, I’m not doing so great in my Blind Ambition Tour. I think I’ve accurately guessed 4, maybe 5 and missed at least 10. Its hard, not that I thought it wouldn’t be. I think my biggest mistake was not making a cheat sheet of common characteristics in varietals. I just don’t remember all of them. I have a large book, which is comprehensive, but I can’t easily take that with me everywhere. So, in hopes of having more of a successful end to the tour than the beginning, I have started to compile a list of such common aromas and flavors of varietals that I can put on my pda. Here’s a couple. Wish me luck!

Petit Verdot
Fruit: vinous, black fruits, blackberry
Floral: (none)
Spice: pencil shavings, molasses, tar
Herbal: weeds, nettles
Terroir: leather
Oak (light): vanilla, coconut, sweet wood
Oak (heavy): oak, smoke, toast, tar
Bottle Age: cedar, cigar box

Zinfandel
Fruit: raspberry, blackberry, boysenberry, cranberry, black cherry, (jammy can be used with all)
Herbal: briar, licorice, nettle
Spice: cinnamon, black pepper
Carbonic Maceration: tutti-frutti, candy, bubblegum
Oak (light): vanilla, coconut, sweet wood
Oak (heavy): oak, smoke, toast, tar
Bottle Age: musk, mushroom, earth, leather cedar, cigar box

Cabernet Franc
Fruit: raspberry, cherry, plum, strawberry
Floral: violet
Herbal: bell pepper, stems
Oak (light): vanilla, coconut, sweet wood
Oak (heavy): oak, smoke, toast, tar
Bottle Age: musk, mushroom, earth, cedar, cigar box

Layla lush update

Here she is at a park, being a good girl "staying" while I took her picture.

First blind taste test-failed

Well, the first blind taste test has been conducted…..and I failed.

First, lets set the tone. I had a hellauva week. I had presentations, lit reviews, regularly scheduled readings, as well as having to grade 160, yes, 160 tests. (I’m a teaching assistant as well) Well, I come home from dropping off said exams and I come home to a cleaned kitchen, the table set, the smell of grilled meat. The wonderful Mr. Lush has done of that and prepared some wonderful filet mignons and grilled veggies as well as remembered it October….the first of October’s Blind Ambition Tour.

(side note…anyone get that reference?? Anyone??)

Ok, back to the topic at hand. In the glass is a lovely red wine. Now, I am no Lucy, I do not have our 59 different bottles of wine memorized, nor their location, so I don’t know what it is off the bat by glancing at the wine fridge, although I have a vague idea of at least the type of wine he’d select as well as the price range he’d pick for the occasion.

We sit down, I swish, smell. Hmm. Smells nice. Tastes wonderful. I guess merlot. I’m wrong. It’s a 2004 Honig Cabernet Sauvignon. I suck. Of course, after sipping a few drinks, swishing, etc, I taste chocolate and cherry and think “why didn’t I know this was cab? Its totally cab-ish”.

Alas. Hindsight is 20/20. (I’m sure I’ll end nearly every post with that.) I’ll try to post most of my failures as well as my successes, however few they may be. I apologize ahead of time, wine gods, for my ignorance, and hope that I grow from this.

0 fer 1. More to come.