The other night, I conducted a wine tasting after my Spin class.  I started doing these several years ago after I went to the owner of the club with the idea as a way to increase interest in the Spinning® program (I figured we needed to appeal to the alcoholic demographic).  Surprisingly, he agreed and over the last several years I have done about 25-30 of these tastings.  As it has turned out, there is a core group of about a dozen attendees at the Sip & Spins* who come to every stinking one.  All of these drunks also come to my ‘normal’ classes every week, so I guess I already had cornered the market on alcoholics without knowing it.

I try to have some sort of cohesive theme for each of the tastings: I’ll usually select the wines for the evening based on shared characteristics of the wine such as ‘big reds’ or ‘sparkling wine’ or I’ll highlight a very specific region (like ‘France’).  There are a couple of obstacles, however.  First, I am on a rather tight budget.  Second, being a ‘Wine Guy’, I kind of have to refuse to drink any wine that sucks (all ‘Wine Guys’ are required to live by the mantra “Life is too short to drink wine that sucks” or something like that–I’ll need to consult the manual).  Third, the first few Sip & Spins* only had a few people, so everyone went home rather loaded.  As more and more people started to attend, the expectation of leaving shitfaced has remained, so I have to buy a lot of wine.  Thus, these three limitations make it difficult to taste wines that cost more than a Happy Meal.  Add that many of the Drunken Dozen get a little irate if I (heaven forbid) repeat a theme, the challenge is not minimal.

So this week, I decided I would potentially violate one of the aforementioned obstacles and buy wines from producers that I had never tried before.  So the wines, I feared, might suck.  I figured it was not that big of a deal since the people coming to the class didn’t give a honey badger as long as they were getting their drink on.  So I decided the theme would be ‘Argentina’.  I have not had a lot of wine from Argentina, so I thought I might learn a bit as well.  Given the limited options of retailers in PA (there is only one–the state), I went over to Delaware to get these from a huge warehouse wine store place.  Unfortunately, the only Argentinian wine I could find there seemed to come from really big producers. Being short on time, I got my wine there any way.  I just hoped they wouldn’t suck….

Here were the wines:

2010 Phebus Torrontés–Paid $10.  This was rather bright and acidic with a lot of fruit up front.  So much so that it even seemed sweet (although I do not believe there is much, if any, residual sugar–I could not find any information on that, regrettably).  Lots of lemon, peach, and grapefruit.  Not much in the way of a finish and a pleasant enough wine, I guess.  Good for a hot day, out on the patio, maybe pair it with a spicy Asian dish?  83 points.

2010 Finca Flichman Aberdeen Angus Rosé–Paid $8.  This is a blend of 50% Malbec and 50% Shiraz.  Like the Torrontés, this was not horrible, but I will not be running out to buy any more either.  Some fruit, mostly strawberry, but rather flabby and just not very interesting.  Virtually no finish to speak of.  This is the kind of wine you like seeing at a barbecue that is about two hours away.  You are not going to drink much of it so you will be able to drive home.  78 points.

2010 Finca Flichman Shiraz Reserva–Paid $12.  OK, so this one sucked. Not all that surprised, but you can always have hope.  Now I admit that I knew I was not going to like this–I figured it was not the style of wine I tend to like, but just because I don’t like the style of a wine, it could still be good and not suck.  This wine sucked.  No real discernible fruit, no balance, no finish, not much of anything except suckage.  It had that in spades.  68 points.

2010 Cruz Alta Bonarda–Paid $14.  Bonarda is a curious grape variety.  Until recently, it was the most widely planted variety in Argentina (recently surpassed by Malbec).  Most think it is native to Italy and the same as the Charbono grape of California.  What I do know is this is a pretty dark, fruity wine.  A lot of dark fruit here–plum and black cherry.  Somewhat viscous and interesting.  This is not a complex wine for the most part, and it screams for a big juicy steak.  I liked it, but did not love it.  85 points.

2009 Bodega Tamari Malbec Reserva–Paid $15.  I figured that we should have at least one Malbec for the Argentina theme.  Malbec is native to France, specifically the Cahors region, where it is called ‘Cot’ and in Bordeaux, where it is called Malbec, and used mostly as a blending grape.  It was introduced in  Argentina in the middle of the 19th century.  For me, this was the wine of the night (but as you can see, a rather low bar).  It was the most complex and the best made.  This, too, screams out for cow flesh, and had the longest finish.  I would consider buying this again if my wife would let me buy more wine.  87 points.

*I know, I know, it’s a stupid effing name–if I remember correctly, it was the owner of the club who came up with the name, so you can’t blame me.  OK, to be honest, I have had more than enough time and ample opportunity to change it, but I am simply not clever enough to come up with anything else.  So I guess that means you should blame me.  Blame away, blame away.