If you are an avid fan of Project Runway, America's Next Top Model, or Zoolander, like I am, you may know the term "walk off". If you do not, it is a way to settle a fashion crisis between models. Well, as much I long to be a male plus-sized model I have never thrown down in a "walk off" (I know I would be fierce), but last December I did the wine industry equivalent, I challenged a fellow wine geek to a "taste off".
The "taste off" challenge was thrown down at the annual Sausage Fest (Though the name of the fest is misleading, it is a beer party with grilled sausages) to an acquaintance of mine, Jay, who happens to work for an importer who specializes in the wines of Burgundy. Now Jay really loves Burgundy,for good reason, but I felt that he did not appreciate some of the other great wine growing regions of the world. So, with the help of ample Belgium ale running through my system I sauntered up to Jay and threw down my challenge: Nebbiolo based wines from Piedmont (primarily Barolo and Barbaresco) offer more consistent quality and value than red wines from Burgundy. As I expected he took exception to this and began to tell me of all the wines he sells that are of good quality and fairly priced. I countered that if I lined up 30 randomly chosen Barolos and/or Barbarescos and tasted them blindly and did the same with 30 red Burgundies I would find more than 85% of the Nebbiolo based wines to be good or possibly great. Conversely, I believe that I would find only 10% of the randomly chosen wines from Burgundy to be good or great. Now any Burg-lover will tell you it is all about the producer and that holds true for almost everything but the issue is for the everyday drinker finding a good bottle of red Burgundy at a fair price can not only be a challenge but such a turn off that he or she may forgo one of the greatest regions in the world. Once the argument was established, the debate heated, and the majority of the party involved I decided that we should have a taste off. I would pull together a team of 6 Nebbiolo lovers and Jay would pull together a team of 6 Burgundy lovers and we would settle our score.
I really wanted to be proven wrong and wanted to find some great bottles of Burgundy that I could go buy and put in my home cellar and I was hoping to get some Burghounds more interested in Nebbiolo. After a few months we settled on a date, recruited our teams and set the ground rules. The tasting was a head to head tasting performed in 6 rounds. Each round we would taste a Burgundy and a Nebbiolo. Each wine was judged on a 100 point scale (Aromas = 15 pts, Flavor profile = 15 pts, Structure/Texture = 15 pts, Length/Finish = 15 pts, and Balance/Overall = 30 points) with the wine receiving the highest total winning the round. After the 6 rounds all the scores were totaled and the cumulative highest score determined which team won. It seems complicated but it really is not. In addition to agreeing on the format we also agreed that we should have 3 rounds, with each round representing a retail price point: $60, $120, and no limit. This was mainly a concession to give the Burg-boys some hope of actually winning one round. We set the first round for a Sunday in late March and the teams scrambled to find their wines.
Each team was able to discuss their wines prior to the tasting and put the wines in the order that the team felt would show best (think a batting order in baseball). There were specific standards that we made so that no team could accuse the other of cheating. (Tom O'Conner and Noah Dorrance of Team Burg)We all had the same stemware, each wine was decanted into the same brand and style of decanter and we all had the same food, an amazing stew of mushrooms and beef.
On the day of the tasting each team came with wine in hand and shrouded in secrecy to not let the team switch their tasting order to get an edge. Though it appears that the tasting was super serious it was all in pure fun and for the love of wine.
(Team Burg's line up)
Overall, the tasting went very well. The Burgundy team took their wines right to the edge of the price point maximum with an average of $59.67 per bottle. The Nebbiolo team had an average of $51.83.
The Results:
Group 1: Winner Team Burg
Domaine Robert Chevillon, Nuits-St-Georges, "Les Saint-Georges" 1er Cru 2001 ($60.00)
versus
Bruno Giacosa, Nebbiolo d'Alba 2004 ($35.00)
Group 2: Winner Team Nebbiolo
Kalin, Cotes de Beaune, "Les Pierres Blanches" 1er Cru 1999 ($61.00)
versus
Cascina Luisin, Barbaresco, "Rabaja" 2001 ($53.00)
Group 3: Winner Team Nebbiolo
Domaine Henri Gouges, Nuits-St-Georges, "les Pruliers" 1er Cru 2004
versus
Pio Cesare, Barolo 2001
(Team Nebbiolo's wines)
Round 4: Winner Team Nebbiolo
Nicolas Rossignol, Beaune, "Clos du Roy" 1er Cru 2005 ($60)
versus
Roagna, Barbaresco, "Paje" 1999 ($58)
Round 5: Winner Team Nebbiolo
Emmanuel Rouget, Vosne-Romanee 2002
versus
Beniai Batasiolo, Barolo, "la Corda della Briccolina" 1990 ($45)
Round 6: Winner Team Nebbiolo
Joseph Drouhin, Gevrey-Chambertin 2005
versus
Fratelli Alessandria, Barolo, "Monvigliero" 2003
Overall: Team Nebbiolo 5 Team Burg 1
Winner for Round 1: Team Nebbiolo
As you can see, though Team Burg "lost" this round, we all tasted a ton of great wine. The overall impression was at this price point one can purchases many really high quality wines with age on them that are ready to drink. On of the members of Team Burg went and sold some of his Burgundies and bought some Barolos! Part of my mission was accomplished but I was hoping that Team Burg would show up with a group of wines in the $30 to $40 range that would be ready to drink and from village AOC's versus 1er Crus. Our next tasting is in two weeks...it is time for you the reader to pick a team and have your voice heard.
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