WINE SMACKDOWN IN HILLCREST
or The Blind leading the Blind

By Ron James

Humankind has always competed. It’s in our genes. Our caveman ancestors probably had great woolly mammoth tipping contests. Today there’s competition for just about everything we own or do. Midget or dwarf tossing became a big game in Australia in the ’80s. In the Extreme Ironing World Championships, laundry is pressed in the world’s most dangerous places. And then there’s the World Sauna Championships that are very hot in Finland and the very messy Yorkshire Pudding Throwing Championship in Lancashire, England. I think you get the picture.

Wine enthusiasts have had their own competitive drinking games since the 14th century. And, being as competitive as the next wine columnist, I thought it would be fun and instructive to invite some of San Diego’s most prominent wine enthusiasts to a little wine tasting showdown. So Ken Mills, founder and owner of Wine Steals, helped me set up “The 2009 Great Uptown San Diego Double-Blind Wine Tasting SmackDown.”

The competition, held at Wine Steals in Hillcrest a couple of weeks ago, was an epic affair with challengers swirling, smelling, slurping and spitting their hearts out. This was a gathering of some of the best palates in San Diego. All of our wine tasters and the wines we tasted will be featured in the upcoming San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival Nov. 18-22.

The contestants were the very anti-snooty John Alongé, also known as The Wine Heretic; the “Bubbly Girl” Maria Hunt, food and drink editor and author of “The Bubbly Bar;” Tasha Kuxhausen, CSW (Certified Specialist of Wine) and corporate wine buyer for Wine Steals; Lisa Redwine (no kidding, that’s her name), Certified Sommelier and manager and wine director for the Shores Restaurant; and Ken Loyst, founder and co-producer of the San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival. And me, the Uptown News wine scribe.

In the world of competitive wine tasting, there are three basic ways to do a tasting. The first is a standard tasting, a relatively simple one where the participants are given the identity of the wines to be judged. Each taster shares his or her assessment of the complexity, character, drinkability and faults of the wines with each other. Generally, tasters will base their findings or scores on the appearance, aroma and flavors, the sensation in the mouth, and the aftertaste.

A blind tasting is similar but a little more difficult. Each contestant knows the names of the wines being tasted but does not know which wine is in their glasses. Each taster then tries to match and assess the wines tasted with the known selected wines.

Then to assure a completely unbiased competition, and potential taster humiliation, there’s the dreaded double-blind tasting. Here the competitor knows nothing at all about wines they will be tasting. Each taster attempts to identify the varietal and its characteristics, the winemaking techniques used to make the wine, where it came from and the vintage. If you can identify the winemaker’s dog you get extra points.

So that sets the stage for the “The 2009 Great Uptown San Diego Double-Blind Wine Tasting SmackDown.” Ken Mills decanted the wines about an hour before we arrived at Wine Steals so that they could breathe and open up in order to release the flavors and aroma. There were clear decanters of three red and three white wines. As we all took our places at the table we were helpfully told that the wines could come from anywhere and could be any varietal or blend. There are literally thousands of blends and varietals from all over the planet — we thanked our host for narrowing down the selection.

The tasting was a very collegial but competitive affair. Most of us did pretty well identifying the varietals and vintages of the wines.

Kuxhausen started things off by identifying the first varietal as a 2007 sauvignon blanc, and indeed it was a 2007 Elizabeth Spencer Sauvignon Blanc from Mendocino. Alongé and Hunt scored on difficult wines, identifying the varietal and the wine characteristics that pinpointed the wine region.

Every taster had some highlight-reel moments, but the star performance went to Ken Loyst, who accomplished wine tasting’s Full Monty. He identified not only the varietal, but the vintage, winery and winemaker — a 2006 syrah blend from Léal Vineyards near Monterey. He did not however, name the winemaker’s dog.

But the top taster at this year’s smackdown was Lisa Redwine, who nailed four of the six wines for varietal, vintage and region. I personally blew two of the six varietals, confusing a malbec with a merlot and a sauvignon blanc with a pinot grigio. When we finished the last wine in the tasting we all went back and tasted and chatted about them again.

Our hearty band of tasters unanimously agreed that a little competitive wine tasting beginning at 11 a.m. was a great way to start the day. We bid a fond adieu and promised to meet and compete again as soon as possible. You can meet the entire tasting crew at the San Diego Bay Wine and Food Festival, and a future tasting competition that will be open to the public at Wine Steals. Better yet, get a few of your friends together and have your own tasting event — wine tasting competition is much more fun and socially acceptable than dwarf tossing.

Ron James is a wine and food columnist and radio host whose columns and features have appeared in newspapers and magazines across the country.