And tasting even better

I spent two days at the Grand prix du vin suisse wine competition as a judge, at the start of the week. People always ask me afterwards what great wines I tasted, assuming I’ll give them the name and maker. Can’t do it – we taste blind, and about the only thing we know most of the time, is the grape variety(ies). And I can’t make any kind of quick judgement about 2014 wines, for example, because I only know what my table of five tasted. With 12 tables, 60 judges, what I had isn’t representative.

But I can say this much: the Syrahs I tasted were good to excellent, especially older vintages going back to 2009. It gave me pause; we drink these too quickly, too often here. I’m going to sit longer on a couple of bottles in my cellar, I decided.