History

Four of us kicked off the first 100 Botellas wine tasting on January 9, 2010.  We stumbled through the tasting trying to come up with words to describe the three California Zinfandels.  Because we all consider ourselves novices, we perused the wine books for vocabulary to help describe the textures, scents, and tastes.  Our first wine meeting resulted with such memorable descriptions as "liquefied Smuckers jam" and "spicy Chinese hot mustard on the nose."  For the first meeting, the winning wine was a 2007 Flying Winemaker from Lodi, CA.

The second meeting grew in participation to ten people.  Participants sat along a long bar and spent the night describing Gewurztraminer in inventive new ways.  Words like "crisp" and "spritsy" sprang up. Although there was no mention of Chinese hot mustard, the taste of manchego cheese was used to describe one of the wines.  The second meeting ended with the 2008 Chateau St. Michelle earning the highest score.

Rioja Wine Club Meeting

The third meeting focused on Rioja wines from Spain.  By this time, it had been decided that a presenter be chosen to discuss the wines.  This was the first meeting where someone raised the bar and actually provided a powerpoint presentation.  We learned about the process that Spain goes through to accept the wines as Crianza or Reserva or Gran Reserva.  The winning wine ended up being  a 2006 Crianza by Viña Alarde.

The fourth meeting we agreed would focus on Chardonnay.  Out of the five Chardonnay's that were tried, no one really liked any of them.  The Barefoot brand ended up the winner by default.

For Bordeaux wines, a fairly large group showed up to taste at the fifth meeting.  The clear winner was a relatively cheap bottle of wine 2006 St. Sulpice.

The sixth meeting focused on a wine variety made famous by the movie Sideways; Pinot Noir.  (Side-note: If you haven't seen Sideways, do yourself a favor, and rent it! You will not be disappointed.) There were several bottles of wine neck and neck for the winner, but the cheapest came out ahead by one point; Mission Point's Pinot, purchased at Trader Joe's for only $8.

The seventh meeting focused on wines from Chile; this country produces a vast array of wines, so it pitted Shiraz versus Malbecs versus Cabarnets.  Of the wines brought to the gathering, the Viu Manent Malbec outshone the rest by a very good margin. 

The Chilean wines meeting happened in April 2010 and we are slowly getting organized to hold several more meetings soon.