Last week Farr Vintners hosted a blind tasting match against 6 members of the Oxford Blind Tasting Society, led by captain and President James Flewellen. It was a chance for the Farr team to show their skills learnt in the trade, and compete against a team who blind taste several wines multiple times a week. This being a home fixture, with Stephen Browett choosing the wines for us to taste, the pressure was on to show how we would match up to the experienced Oxford tasters.
The army of glasses waiting to be used
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We would taste a flight of five whites, followed by two flights of four reds each. The teams sat down to taste in near silence, and with a time limit on the tasting everyone was pressed to write notes, make qualitative assessments and to make their guesses for each wine. The criteria for judgement were: Dominant grape varietal, Country, Region, Vintage (a possible two marks for all these categories), and a bonus mark for guessing the producer, up to 9 points per wine. I will briefly list my tasting notes for the wines, along with my guesses, and then move on to the all-important result…
Wine: Riesling Frederic Emile (France, Alsace), Trimbach, 1995
- Medium gold in the glass. Lemons, apples, slightly petrol on the nose. Some ripe fruit and yet development on both the nose and the palate. The acidity seems quite high and persistent. Clearly a wine of good quality, good length despite development.
Guess: Riesling, Austria, Wachau, 2002 from Pichler. All the tasters were able to discern that this was old world Riesling, and we were all divided between Germany, France and Austria, with some guesses being very close to the actual wine.
Wine: Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand, Marlborough, 2009 from Churton
- Water white in the glass. Herbaceous notes with good citrus fruit concentration on the nose. The palate is well balanced, with crisp but not searing acid, citrus fruit, a touch of asparagus and a slight lactic note.
Guess: Sauvignon Blanc, New Zealand, Marlborough, 2009 from Churton. This was certainly home advantage coming into play. Given the volume of this wine all the Farr team drinks due to our love for this effort, many of our guesses were spot on. That being said – most if not all the Oxford team were able to get this as New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc! There were a few guesses for Sancerre in the mix here – the wine’s style bridging the old and new world.
Wine: Chardonnay, Saint Veran Terroirs de Davayé, 2009 from Verget
- Medium lemon in the glass. Buttery, creamy nose with ripe pear and a good minerality. The palate is fresh and has notes of vanilla indicating new oak and youthfulness to the wine. Good balanced acidity and good length, drinkable despite youth, delicious.
Guess: Chardonnay, France, Burgundy (Pouilly Fuissé), 2009 from Verget. More home advantage here, giving us some more producer points. I did however due to the quality guess this as Pouilly Fuissé (Chablis was also a popular guess). This wine certainly packs quality for a great price, showing great refinement. The Oxford tasters were again strong in this one, almost all in Burgundy and many guessing the vintage due to the freshness and evident youth.
Ed doing battle with two of the Oxford Team
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Wine: Rousanne, CDP Beaucastel Blanc (Southern Rhone), 2007
- Pale-medium gold in the glass. Initially musty but with some air it became strongly aromatic. Something buttery and ripe stone fruit. Broad and complex on the palate but very fresh, with something toasty/vanilla on the finish. Clearly good quality, slightly higher in alcohol than the previous wine, but good breadth and depth, and balanced (if not high) acidity.
Guess: Chardonnay, New Zealand, Auckland, 2007 from Kumeu River (thinking Mate’s Vineyard). A slip up for me here. Looking at my note it would be possible to make this guess, but it was not to be. Annoyingly, I served this blind to some of the Oxford tasters a few weeks previous, happy to catch them all out. Now, I was the one caught out, and many of them remembered this wine and got it spot on. Farr Vintners had lost ground…
Wine: Viognier, Condrieu Coteau du Vernon, 2007 from Vernay
- Medium lemon in the glass. Peaches and cream, highly aromatic on the nose – this must be Viognier. The notes carry through to the palate, which is broad but nicely balanced by the acidity. Fresh and slightly lactic note, lots of ripe peach and apricot. High quality.
Guess: Viognier, France, Condrieu, 2009 from Guigal. Viognier is one of the grapes that we trained hard for when I was at Oxford and one that I always recognise for its ripe fruit, peaches and cream and broad palate. James Flewellen noted here as well that this wine was a perfect example of the grape expression. Oxford as such had a good showing here, and I believe all of them correctly guessed Condrieu. Tom Hudson and Alastair Woolmer from Farr however were the only tasters to correctly guess the producer. A close round again…
Wine: Chambolle Musigny 2007 from Dujac
- Light ruby in the glass. Bright red berries on the nose. Fragile and delicate on the palate, classic savoury old world style. Bright and fresh, still with tannin indicating some youth.
Guess: Pinot Noir, France, Burgundy, 2006, - A classic red burgundy showing its quality. Definitely a ‘feminine’ style wine, being light and delicate, but this was pure class. I think all the tasters without fail guessed this as youthful red burgundy and many people commented on the quality.
Old and New World
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Wine: Bourgogne Rouge, 2005 from Roty
- Light ruby in the glass. Something meaty about the nose but also a red fruit core. The palate feels softer and rounder than the previous wine – supple and polished. Good length.
Guess: Pinot Noir, USA, California, 2006 from Au Bon Climat. The softer and rounder wine made me think this would potentially be a new world offering but from a grower who made ‘Burgundian-style’ wines. Sadly, I overcomplicated things and the answer was simply that it was a polished Burgundy from Roty.
Wine: Pinot Noir the Abyss (New Zealand, Marlborough) 2008 from Churton
- Medium light ruby in the glass. Very aromatic – lots of bright fruit, red berries and cherries. Sweet fruit profile on the palate, young vibrant and powerful. Good concentration. Juicy wine.
Guess: Pinot Noir, New Zealand, Central Otago 2010 from Felton Road. Close but no cigar, but Alastair managed to guess the wine with pinpoint accuracy. There were varied guesses from both teams, but the majority were in New World and many in New Zealand for this Pinot.
Wine: Merlot, La Chenade (Lalande de Pomerol) 2009 from Denis Durantou (of L’Eglise Clinet)
- Medium Ruby. Floral, dark fruit, almost peppery on the nose. Something slightly minty on the dark fruit profile (brambly fruit and black cherry) of the wine. This is young, vibrant and spicy (with what seems like black pepper). Subtle use of oak, juicy finish.
Guess: Syrah, France, Cote du Rhone, 2010 from Jamet. I was off the mark here, but we all struggled to identify this wine. There were calls of Grenache, Pinot Noir and Cabernet Sauvignon just from the Farr team, and it was a similar story for Oxford, though one or two did manage to pin this down as a right bank.
Wine: Cabernet Sauvignon, France, Bordeaux(Pauillac), 2006 from Grand Puy Lacoste
- Deep ruby in the glass. Lots of black fruit and green bell pepper – good freshness to the nose. The palate is fresh blackcurrants and a touch of spice from new oak. Good balance with crisp acid and lots of chewy tannin that indicate a young wine. There is quality to the length of the wine but it feels a little closed at the moment.
A pair of Left Bank Wines
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Guess: Cabernet Sauvignon, France, Bordeaux (Pauillac), 2006 from Grand Puy Lacoste. Again the tastings at Farr had played into my hands. We have tasted this several times recently and it is a memorable wine, clearly still in its youth and going through an awkward phase at the moment. I would leave it another 1 or 2 years before starting to drink, but definitely would love to have some in the cellar.
Wine: Cabernet Sauvignon, France, Bordeaux(Pessac), 2007 from Château de Fieuzal
- Deep ruby in the glass. Bell pepper and cool fruit dominate the nose of this wine. The palate is softer than the previous wine as are the tannins. This wine feels more ready to drink, but the acid seems a touch higher. Soft and smooth, classic left bank Bordeaux flavour profile.
Guess: Cabernet Sauvignon, France, Bordeaux(Pessac), 2007 from Domaine de Chevalier. The style of this wine shows what a great early drinking vintage 2007 is becoming. The wines are soft and fruity without too much weight, are much more approachable in their youth than any other vintage of the 2000s, and have a price to match. I really enjoyed this wine, structured like good Bordeaux, but soft enough to enjoy the fruit at this age.
Wine: Grenache, France, Rhône (Châteauneuf du Pape), 1977 from Fonsalette
- Pale rust colour in the glass. This wine has leather and something sweaty on the nose with a touch of kirsch. The palate has slightly volatile acidity, lots of meaty animal notes, with the finish drying out, clearly indicating some age to this wine.
Guess: Grenache, France, Rhône (Châteauneuf du Pape), 1985 from Beaucastel. When a wine is this old and displaying such age it becomes hard to discern the varietal. Given the animal notes and the wildness and perhaps hints of bret to the wine, I went for Grenache, but most guesses were quite valid here. A hard wine to guess and being close was as much through luck as anything here.
Wine: Syrah Gimblett Gravels, Hawkes Bay, 2007 from Craggy Range
- Deep purple in the glass. Intensely aromatic with black fruit, black pepper, and something smoky. The palate has great concentration, lots of black forest fruit, really peppery and spicy but still very fresh and balanced by medium acidity. There is a depth to the fruit that is fantastic, and the wine has great length. Coarse ripe tannins on the finish indicating this is quite young despite being so drinkable already.
Guess: Syrah, New Zealand, Hawkes Bay, 2008 from Craggy Range. I love the wines from Craggy Range, and the 2007 Gimblett Gravels is fantastic. Home advantage came into play again as we drink this a lot at Farr (both Tom and Alastair also got this spot on), and I even own a case of this particular wine. James Flewellen also managed to get this as a Craggy Range wine based on the style. A good showing from both teams again, and another favourite wine I think.
There is no doubting the final scores would be close...
Afer the tasting was over we swapped sheets and marked each other on revealing the wines. It was clearly close; Oxford had fought hard to win despite our home advantage. In the end however, the Farr team showed their knowledge of our wines and pulled through to victory, Alastair Woolmer the impressive top taster. Despite this, a great effort from the Oxford team, and some very impressive scores and consistent tasting from everyone. I’m sure they will come back for a rematch soon…
