Pour Lance

This was classic stuff. Lance, George, a friend Mark, and I showed up last Wednesday for the Pratt’s Inn BBQ-bring-yer-own, and we poured our wines blind. Lance added an element of competition to the festivities, and suggested that anyone who guessed someone’s wine, right down to the producer, vintage and single-vineyard would have his dinner paid for by the rest of the group.

Lance poured his white first, and we immediately began to brainstorm. Most of us thought Burgundy, but I came to the conclusion that I was sipping California Chard. I entered a guess of Kistler Vine Hill Road Chardonnay ’05, a wine I’ve never tasted, but suspected tasted like this. Poker-faced, Lance attempted to discourage my guess, but ultimately revealed the ’04 vintage of that very wine! A near miss, but an impressive enough attempt as to concern Lance about how guessable his red would be.

Half an hour later, confident and poised for success, Lance poured his blind red. Smelling it, it seemed mature and had us all stumped. This could have been anything from Malbec to Brunello. After about 3 minutes of cold silence, as if he were directed by Rob Reiner, George randomly uttered “I’m gonna go with Leonetti ……’97…...Sangiovese”. Now, although this was a wine he knew Lance to have recently acquired, it was still a clever and more-than-educated guess. And when I saw Lance’s I-don’t-wanna-play-anymore gesture, I nearly flipped. Out of the paper bag came the ’97 Leo! Ding, ding, we have a winner.

Lance, I think we have your number. Next time, you might as well bring your wines wrapped in Ziploc bags. A good sport, you are. Overall, it was a great night with some generous wines. Nice job, guys. –Michael Koehler - www.suburbanwines.com