Loire Valley Tasting

I’ve been keeping a secret from you, wine muse fans and followers. Please don’t break up with me when I tell you what I’ve been doing behind your backs. (Takes deep breath.) Okay, here goes. I-started-a-wine-tasting-club-that-meets-once-a-month-and-we’ve-already-met-once-at-my-apartment. Phew. That feels so good to get that off my chest. The ten of us sat around my dining room table and tasted wine together, and we nibbled on yummy appetizers, and we discussed wine, and we laughed. A lot. There. I said it. And I’m NOT sorry I did it! Wait! Don’t switch to another wine blog site. Please, let me explain!

If you read my first post, “Making Wine out of Lemons,” I explained why I started this wine blog in the first place. The wine class that I was going to take this quarter was canceled. I was ready to throw myself into a large vat of fermenting grape juice. I was going to sit on the couch and drink wine from a large silver spittoon - Miles-from-the-movie-“Sideways”-style. I was going to go to the wine department at Trader Joe’s and start busting 3-buck-Chuck (it is still 3 bucks, isn’t it?) until I got arrested. Okay, I admit it. I wasn’t that upset. I did say a couple of naughty words, though. And then I made lemons out of lemonade. I started writing this blog about my own wine education adventures. Part of my wine self education is the wine tasting club I started. See? A perfectly logical explanation. Now don’t you feel kind of bad for thinking I’ve been doing something awful behind your backs? Or not. No matter! On with the story!

After talking about starting a wine tasting club with a couple of friends for well over a year, I decided to stop talking about it and actually start a wine tasting club. Since I’m the one who founded the club, and I'm the organizer as well, I thought it only fair that I came up with our club name. We’re called the “Washington Wineiacs” and there are 10 of us: three men and seven women. We meet once a month on the same night so folks will always know when we meet and can show up, if they’re available. The only rules are: bring a bottle of wine from the chosen region/appellation for that meeting, and something to nibble on that might go with the wines.

I kind of got on a wines-from-the-Loire-Valley kick a few months back. I found myself drawn to the Loire region wine section in my favorite wine shop, Esquin, for a few weeks. I had a special fascination with Sancerre and would buy a bottle whenever I went into the store. So, it only seemed natural to focus on the wines from the Loire Valley for our first Washington Wineiacs meeting. I did the research, assigned everyone a region (coincidently, there were 10 regions, the same amount as the members in our club), and set them lose. Go explore, Washington Wineiacs!

Our first meeting was at my little apartment (it’s small, but it’s got a view of Seattle and the Space Needle, so shut up!), and we all showed up with at least one bottle of wine, some of us with two. Everyone brought delicious nibbles, some fancier than others. I opted for simple, yet elegant: Muscat grapes, cheddar cheese, and Pirate’s Booty Cannon Balls - Cheddar flavored. Others brought shrimp, mini quiches, delicious baked brie, and fancy crackers. I started our first meeting on a celebratory note by popping open a bottle of faux-Champagne. This was my special Barack Obama / Joe Biden labeled California bubbles. As luck would have it, one of my fellow Wineiacs also brought a bottle of bubbles – French, no less. We were off to a perfect start!

Like I’ve said in a previous post, “A Taste of Provence,” I do not speak or read French.
Trying to decode French and the way they label their bottles can be a bit of a challenge for a peasant like moi. Fortunately, being a wine nerd helps a lot. And what the frack did we do before they invented the Internet? So, here’s what we brought and tasted through. I believe the first part means the estate where the wine was bottled, the second part is the region or appellation, and the third part is the grape or grapes, and finally the year bottled.

Whites:
1) Veuve Du Vernay Brut / Sparkling (I did a search for the grapes in this wine and it says it’s made from white grapes – What? Really?) / no vintage listed
2) Mise en bouteille au Domaine (Mise means bottled and Domaine means estate, typically a vine growing and wine making estate so it’s a fancy way of saying estate bottled)/ Sancerre / Sauvignon Blanc / 2007
3) Domaine de la Pepiere / Sevre et Maine / Muscadet (aka Melon) / 2007
Lieu-dit Rosnay / Vouvray / demi-sec (this means “medium dry”) / Chenin Blanc / 2005
4) Lieu-dit Les Epinats / Saumur / Chenin Blanc / 2007
5) Domaine du Salvard / Cheverny/ Chenin Blanc and Chardonnay / 2007

Reds:
6) Domaine del la Noblaie / Chiens-Chiens Rouge / Cabernet Franc /2005
7) Bernard Baudry / Les Granges Chinon / Cabernet Franc / 2007
8) Domaine du Grand Bouqueteau / Chinon / Cabernet Franc / 2006
9) Catherine & Pierre Breton / Bourgueil / Cabernet Franc / 2006

Everyone liked something different but I think the Cabernet Francs were the favs of the evening. I loved the white from Sancere because that’s where my taste buds had been taking me prior to our wine tasting club meeting. I’m pretty sure I’ve gotten them out of my system, for now.

We all had a great time tasting the different wines and sharing our stories about what lead us all to be in this new and exciting wine tasting club. At the next meeting of the Washington Wineiacs we’ll be focusing on wines from the entire country of Spain. Ole! And I almost forgot – we’ll be moving our wine tasting meetings every month to rotate around to everyones’ domiciles, wherever and whatever that might be. Stay tuned for the next episode of the Washington Wineiacs.