Full Redux of Night 1 of Taste Camp East 2009

After the first night of Taste Camp, I put up a quick post about the evening and mentioned one of my favorites of the evening the 2000 Wolffer Estate Selection Merlot. That Merlot was also poured during the great 5 course dinner that we enjoyed. As each of the wines were poured, representatives of the wineries got up and gave a quick rundown of what we had in our glasses. The wines poured for dinner and featured in the video were the 2006 Raphael Sauvignon Blanc, 2004 Clovis Point Merlot, 2000 Wolffer Estate Selection Merlot, 2004 Sherwood House Cabernet Franc, 1997 Pellegrini Vineyard Vintners Pride Merlot, Pellegrini Vineyard “Finale”. For some reason I didn’t have a video of Raphael talking about their Sauvignon Blanc so they aren’t featured in the video.

All of the wineries that are listed above, also provided verticals of several of their Merlots prior to starting dinner. Unfortunately I didn’t move quickly enough and didn’t get a chance to taste the Pellegrini Vineyards wine, except for at dinner. As well we were treated to tasting a vertical of the Merliance wines, from the Long Island Merlot Alliance. Merliance is a unique blend made of 100% Merlot varietal grown on Long Island and made exclusively by the members of the Long Island Merlot Alliance, all 5 of which were represented at Raphael and listed above.

As mentioned earlier the 2000 Wolffer Merlot was my favorite on the evening but there were quite a few close runner-ups.

2005 Merliance Merlot

nose: cedar, bananas foster, black cherry

taste: brussel sprouts, red currant, plum

mouthfeel: medium body, nice acidity

finish: long and fruity

2004 Sherwood House Cabernet Franc

nose: plum, black cherry, black tea

taste: plum, green bean, black peppercorns

mouthfeel: medium to full body, leathery tannins

finish: firm tannnins, fairly long in length

Of the wines that I didn’t favor, I found similar “green”, stem like qualities with slight plastic and chemical off notes. This wasn’t held by one particular winery as these traits were seen across the board on the wines I didn’t like. As I said in yesterday’s post these are off notes that I find in wines that I don’t like here in Virginia as well. It would be interesting to do some sort of study to find out if there is a larger geographical terroir as the Virginia and Long Island landscape are so different.

Check back soon for more notes on day 2 of our visit to wineries on the North Fork of Long Island.

Cheers!