Oui Merci Wine Club - The First Meeting

Last night was a momentous occasion. It was the evening where the first official Oui Merci Wine Club Meeting took place. This was a very serious educational evening where we sat around discussing the very intricacies that make Cabernet Sauvignon the most planted grape varietal in the world and the vast differences that the 'terroir' (French for land) make to the subtle flavours exhibited... just joking! The evening went somewhat differently from that. With each person bringing one bottle of wine I am sure you already have an idea, but I am going to tell you anyway because it was just too much fun!

Big red, Chloe, Anna, Nasonov

The club is actually made up of a few friends who have a similar obsession with wine: Stephanie Nasonov (Nasonov), Lyndall Jenkins (Big red), Chloe Neil, Anna Vendone, Myself (Guigs), Laura Travis (Lorn dogs), Philippa Healy, Emma Cunningham (Bulli) and our token male Ben Harrison. Last night however a few of the members were unable to make it. While I feigned disappointment at their inability to attend, I was secretly relieved as I only had a couch and 4 chairs. It was much easier to make do with my insufficient decor with only 6 guests present.

My spread for the soiree

As always I was ready with everything prepared 15 minutes before my guests arrived. Laid out before me were colourful canapés and preset seats for our wine tasting. Each had a notebook and pen, six tasting glasses a glass of water and a communal spittoon.

Only minutes after 6:00pm Chloe and Lyndall arrived with their contributions of beautiful Cabernet Sauvignon to the soiree.

Big red and the
elder Wynn's boy

The wines that had accumulated included two different vintages of the Wynns Coonawarra Cab Sauv 2008 and 2010, which can be considered as siblings. They were born of the same parents and grew up in the same household, but the two-year age gap marked two quite different personalities. Then there was my Chilean from the Central Valley near Santiago. With a 2005 vintage he was a little older and experienced than the Wynn’s brothers but I didn't want them nervous at their first wine club party so I kept it to myself. 

My older Chilean spunk

Not long after, Nasonov appeared with not one but two South Americans in toe; an Argentinean from the warm climate of Mendoza and another Chilean. Then it was Anna, being an English bird she is quite satisfied with a good old Aussie bloke and brought along a South Australian chap named Clover Drive. With a cute little picture of someone playing cricket on the label he was as Aussie as they come. Finally it was Ben to arrive with another Aussie, this time from the Margaret River in WA. The little posse of new friends made a fine group and sat down at the serious tasting table to commence the evening.

I gave a little background on the grape variety that was intended to assist us in detecting the aromas and flavours in the wine. I am not quite sure that this information helped us any, however the most important notes from this session were:

• Cab sauv is the most widely planted grape throughout the world 
• The skin of the grape is very tough and therefore resistant to bad weather. 
• The thick skin gives the wine a deep red colour
• To drink now - cab sauv grown in warmer climates
• To drink later - cab sauv grown in cooler climates
• Best regions for Cab Sauv in Australia - Coonawarra, Margaret River, Hunter Valley and the Barossa
• Best regions for Cab sauv internationally - Bordeaux, Napa Valley, Mendoza Argentina, Central Valley Chile

Chloe writes something
important in her notebook

Everyone then had their turn to present their wine. We examined the colour; aromas and taste of each wine and then intellectually discussed the qualities that we imagined we could taste from what was mentioned on the back of the label. Nasonov and Ben were quite convinced that they were experts and going to be major successes in the blind tasting challenge.

Finally after we had tasted all the wines, and with out palates somewhat impaired we attempted to do a blind tasting. Using our immense skills we wanted to see whether we would be able to tell which wine was which. At this point the club got a little bit rowdy and there were some people certain of their impeccable palates and others who became dismayed and confused.

The aftermath

After the blind tasting we revealed the order that the wines had been poured and matched it to what we had guessed. The final reveal left us with the following scores Ben 0, Anna 1, Chloe 1, Guigs 3, Nasonov 3, Big Red DNF. Next round we battle with the golden oldie Chardonnay.

I do have one little question I wanted to ask you though... do you think that it matters that I saw the maroon wrapping at the top of one of the bottles when I poured during the blind tasting? I realise that there was only one bottle with maroon wrapping but I am sure I would have known it from the taste. 

Surely that is not cheating...