The Blood of the Vine

by Eve Bushman

As a wine writer, one of the benefits – and there are many – is receiving unsolicited wine for review.  Frankly, it usually comes to me.  This time, however, my wine was sent to my esteemed editors at élite magazine and they thought it would be fun for me to come down to their offices, taste the wine with them, and give them a little lesson in wine tasting.  Scary?  Yes, in ways you can hardly imagine.
Vampire Tasting
I brought glasses as I didn’t want to use coffee cups, tasting notes, a “cheat sheet” of handy aroma and flavor characteristics, and my corkscrew – which I always keep on me.
I explained how we were going to evaluate our wines first by its general appearance, then it’s nose, palate and make a conclusion.  (Both the “cheat sheet” and the blank tasting notes are from the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, WSET, and I find them extremely helpful for people that aren’t used to using descriptors.)
In tilting our wine glasses over a white sheet of paper we would judge the color, holding a single finger behind the wine would determine whether it was clear or opaque, lots of swirling to introduce air and judge aromas, several tastes to look for flavors and finally counting from one to 10 in our heads to judge the length of the flavor.  The reviews below were our general consensus:
07 CHÂTEAU DU VAMPIRE MIDNIGHT RENDEZVOUS: Syrah (55%), Grenache (20%), Cournoise (20%) and Mourvèdre (5%). 
Appearance – Opaque, dark plum with a tawny edge.
Nose – White pepper, blackberry, black currant, clove, earth.
Palate – More fruit coming forward, tannins, dry.
Conclusion – A finish of medium length.  Drink now.
07 CHÂTEAU DU VAMPIRE CLAUTIERE VINEYARD: 70% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot and 5% Cournoise.
Appearance – Opaque, deep purple, same color through to the edge.
Nose – Pepper, mint, black cherry, stemmy, mushroom.
Palate – Packed with jammy fruit, I told the group, “I need to spread this on toast!”
Conclusion – Medium to long finish.  Very drinkable now – we liked this one best.
Both of these wines, and many other scary selections, can be found at www.vampire.com.
Scary Ways to Purchase Wine
Some of the questions my editors put to me during the tasting made me pause, as I thought that some were, how to put this delicately… were enough to frighten even the blood-thirstiest-wine-thirstiest vampire.  Their questions prompted me to write on the pitfalls some of us may have fallen into when purchasing wine:
It’s scary to…purchase the exact same wine varietal, from the same winery, year after year.  Winemakers are subject to weather, among other things, that effect their end product.  Wine then will taste different with every new harvest.  Remember Kendall Jackson’s Sundial Chardonnay?  That when I learned my lesson.  It didn’t taste as good one year, come to read that they had changed winemakers.
It’s scary to …buy wine based on the cute animal on the label.  The reason I chose animal, over flowers, fancy artists and/or witty wine names is because that’s the one that is most notably used to get a buyer’s attention – but tells you absolutely nothing about the wine in the bottle.
It’s scary to …purchase expensive wine presuming it is of high quality.  Some wineries have actually raised the price of their wines for shoppers to “perceive” excellence.
It’s scary to …buy wine at an auction if you are unsure as to how it has been cared for.  If you purchase a wine that you assume has been cellared properly, you may be wrong.  
It’s scary to …buy wine directly from selection kept in a refrigerator.  Keeping wine too long in a refrigerator allows the cork to dry out, thereby introducing air and possibly produce a “corked” wine.  Buy wine that was stored on it’s side, in a temperature controlled cellar, or, if you must, a supermarket that has a high turnover.
It’s scary to …buy wine because someone said it was good.  Interesting right?  My palate, at this moment, is in the mood for a spicy Syrah (blame it on today’s tasting) and may not be what you are in the mood for.  With that thought in mind, my palate is different from yours.  If you’ve routinely had luck buying wines that certain magazines or wine writers recommended, then that’s your palate, stick with it and learn from it.
It’s scary to …buy your wine lover friend wine if you don’t partake in the juice yourself.  Stick to something else.  Or I’ll send my personal vampire over to your house to bite you until you are blue.