In Vino Veritas, 1st Tasting

I have been struggling this week. I don't know if it's because it's the first week back after a vacation or what, but I am just underslept, overworked, and cranky. Fortunately my week tapers off after Wednesday, so I can cruise a bit until the weekend. What better way to kick off my increased relaxation time than with a wine tasting?

I'm in a group here at Harvard Law called In Vino Veritas (latin phrase meaning "in wine, truth" - and a play on Harvard University's motto, plain old "veritas" or truth). They host lots of wine tastings throughout the academic year. Believe it or not, we had to write personal statements to get into this group. I guess they can only accept so many members because of Massachusetts liquor laws, so we had to write a 100-word statement about why we wanted to join. Only at Harvard.

Anyway, tonight was the first tasting of the year I've been able to attend. It was really enjoyable. I wish I had remembered to bring the list of wines home with me, but I'm going to try to construct the list from memory. Unfortunately you're probably just going to get the kind of wine, not the name of the wine maker. I'm going to email the girl who was in charge of the tasting and ask for the names of the wines, so I'll come back and edit this entry later for those who are curious.

The tasting featured six wines, two whites and four reds. They were all served in pairs so we could taste different ones together. Each pair combined an old world wine with a new world wine. Very interesting! I really did learn a lot. I also won a free prize because I happened to know the chemical equation for fermentation (I know.. dork) and because I knew that in France, sauvignon blanc is typically grown in the Sancerre region. Whee!

Pairing one (whites)

• Pierre Sparr 2003 "One" (Riesling blend from Alsace) - very fruity, but still dry, I tasted apple and peach
• Sauvignon Blanc (New Zealand) [unfortunately I can't remember the name] - excellent, very acidic and tangy, I tasted grapefruit and lime

Pairing two (reds part 1)

• Ranceau (from the Rhone region of France) - not great, too tannic
• [I can't remember this one's name except that it was from California and the blend was just called RED, in all caps] - didn't like it, way too oaky for my taste, smelled funny, like wood

Pairing three (reds part 2)

• Cotes de Bordeaux - really smooth, well-balanced, earthy
• Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina [don't remember the winery] - very cherry! lots of fruit, not too tannic

Sorry for the lack of detail. Like I said, I'll try to get more specific info. Also, sorry for the lack of food entries... I've been botching dinner pretty badly recently. Life lesson from yesterday: don't leave dinner cooking on the stove while you go to class for two hours.