The May 21 Montauk Club wine class began our third year of monthly tastings. Time flies when you’re tasting wine I guess. This class was a review of the most popular red varietals. We tried a 2006 Blackstone Sonoma Reserve Pinot Noir (14.3% alcohol), a 2006 Estancia Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon (13.5% alcohol) and a 2006 J. Lohr Paso Robles Syrah (13.5% alcohol). We tasted them in that order to go from lightest body to fullest body. Here’s what we thought.

The pinot noir was almost transparent, as any pinot noir is likely to be. No surprises there. This wine was very appealing to the white wine lovers in the crowd because of its grassy and earthy scents. The aroma beckoned you to drink the wine. The light, acidic taste, with flavors of macoun apple and red cherries was what caught the attention of white and light wine fans. And characteristic of a lighter bodied wine, it was crisp yet silken on the tongue.

Our second wine was the medium bodied cabernet sauvignon. Not so transparent as the pinot noir, it was definitely more aggressive and complex in look and smell. Some stufents picked up hints of pepper and bubble gum at the same time and another likened it to a garden that had been freshly mulched. When we tasted the wine, we definitely discerned the body that was fuller than the pinot noir as this wine coated our mouths more, lingering on the tongue well after the first sip. This wine too abounded with red fruit flavors like cherry (or even cherry candy) and red currants. Being a California – i.e. New World wine – it was quite a bit jammier than, say, a French Bordeaux, but we liked with our chees nonetheless.

Finally, we turned to the syrah (the same grape is known in Australia as shiraz). This wine was completely different from the other two, being nearly opaque and downright inky. It had a deep smell, evoking scents of black cherries and currants. There was a note of forest floor in the scent as well with a hint of Portobello mushrooms. The taste was much like the smell, and definitely more intense than the other two wines. It coated the tongue with velvet and lingered quite a long time. Although it is a New World wine, it didn’t seem as fruit forward as we might hae expected but rather appeared fairly well balanced.

And what was our favorite? The syrah was chosen by all but one, including one of our white wine aficionados. We knew we had picked well when we noticed that a preponderance of the gnats that had invaded our space through an open window also chose the syrah over the other two wines. Maybe we do know what we’re doing.

So having roosted at home for a couple of months to complete our basic review, it’s time for us to hit the road again on June 18. This time we’re off to Spain. Yay!! We’ll try three wines from different regions in Spain – a 2003 Marqués de Riscal Reserva from Rioja (14% alcohol, made in the bodega – the Spanish word for winery – that Jim and I toured two summers ago), a 2003 Oro by Bodegas Mähler-Besse from the Toro region on the Rio Duero (13.5% alcohol) and a 2007 Priorat called Onix from a region just west of Barcelona (14.5% alcohol). If you want to read up on Spanish wines, check out pages 251 through 257 of Andrea Immer Robinson’s book Great Wines Made Simple.

See you all for our next class on June 18 around sevenish!! And don’t forget to look up past tasting notes on montaukwineclub.blogspot.com.

Suzy Marquard