Wine by numbers

Wine by numbers, with a digital content twist.

It's an interesting debate when you have old school wines on the one side vs. technological innovation on the other. The one cannot be without the other. By old school I mean wine in glas bottles, with a lable and a cork, made in a traditional way. Technolical advancement is usually anything that challenges the status quo. As written by Springwise.com "Dutch startup 94wines is now bringing a new technological twist to the table, so to speak, by offering a line of numbered and colour-coded wines that can be personalized with digital content."

"Launched a week ago, 94wines offers a line of French wines in which each variety is indicated by a number and a bottle colour rather than a name linked to its maker, vintage or region. Consumers begin by taking a short quiz of six questions regarding their likes and dislikes. That, in turn, produces their personal WineID, which can then be used to guide their choices from among the company's series of wines. The use of numbers and colours makes wine preferences easy to remember, while personal ID profiles allow friends to see each other's preferences for gift-giving purposes."

There's more to read on Springwise.com.

The second wine tasting

The second wine tasting has come and gone as fast as the first one did. For the second one the theme was Europe. The group was only allowed to buy wines from one of the 27 countries that form part of the European Union, which includes all of the following: , Åland Islands, Albania, Andorra, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Faroe Islands, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Guernsey, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, the Isle of Man, Italy, Jersey, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia, Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Norway, Mayen Islands, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Ukraine, United Kingdom, Vatican City.

The strange thing was that everyone arrived with only wine from France and Italy. Perhaps it says something about the other countries on the list? Perhaps it was just an easier decision? One positive from the night though was that three out of the eight wines were ecological.

Chateau Pech-Latt Corbieres (2007)

Wine tasting 2

I'm not sure why, but there's a lot of really terrible ecological wines on the market. This one is one of them. There's a lot of hoops you have to jump through to be able to call your wine ecological. I don't know why anyone would jump through all of them just to put a wine like this on the market.

There's a lot of good ecological wines on the market, and cheaper than 70kr.

Panel's rating: 2,1 out of 5

Price: 70SEK

Country: France

Grapes: Carignan, Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre

Colour: Purplish tones, Scarlett with purple tones, Blue red, Purple red, Ruby, Purple.

Nose: Warm and simple, Very strong with warmish tones and a bit mettal, Warm iron with alcohol and raisins, Soft, A little metallic.

Taste: Sweet berries, Very strong alchohol, Bitter, Strawberries, Rasberries with light acidicy and liquirice, Smooth and resberries, Sweet and smooth with a light taste of rasberries.

Chateau de Seguin Grand Vin Bordeaux (2007)

Wine tasting 2

I've written about this wine before (Read here), when I had it at a new years party with some excellent cheese. I was very impressed then and vowed to buy it again. However the second time around it was not the same story. It only scored 2,6 out of 5, which shows that not everyone loved this wine. It lacked character and tasted weak. Perhaps I'll buy it again and judge it a third time with a good meal, just to be fair.

Panel's rating: 2,6 out of 5

Price: 89SEK

Country: France

Grapes: 45% Cabernet Sauvignon, 45% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Franc

Colour: Brownish purple, Brown red, Brownish tones,

Nose: Raisins, warm plums, cedar and blackberries, Minty, Warmish and strong, Citrus, Warm smell, Sharp and fruity, Plums, Warm cider,

Taste: A very round taste, Coffee and cherries, Short taste of green peppers and pencil shavings, Short after taste, Cider and grass, Butterscotch and grass with hints of barrel.

Millésime Parallèle "45" (2006)

Wine tasting 2

I nearly bought this wine for the tasting, but in the end settled for wine number 4, the Corvina. I really expected more from this wine though. So did Alex, who bought the wine. 3 out of 5 still rates as a wine that's better than most. I would not buy this wine in the future, but would love to try it again one day.

Panel's rating: 3,1 out of 5

Price: 89SEK

Country: France

Grapes: 55% Grenache and 45% Syrah

Colour: Dark red, Dark purple-brown.

Nose: Liquorice and cherries but very smoky and earthy, Strawberries, Cigarette paper and very earthy, Smooth, Citrus.

Taste: Smooth with hints of cherries, Strawberries, Cherries with hints of tar.

Chateau de Seguin

Coming from South Africa, I tend to drink mostly South African wine. It's most likely the same when you're from another wine producing country like France, Italy or say Agentina, that you tend to drink the wines from your own country. I don't think it's always necessarily that we think our countries make the best wines. Perhaps it is that we don't know enough about the other country's wines to make an informed decision when we buy, and hence just go with what we know. There is the language barrier to consider as well, with labels in Italien, French or Spanish, then the thousands of different grapes and the list goes on.

In Sweden we're lucky, in that Systembolaget, the government owned liquor outlet has wines from every wine producing region in the world, so they pretty much do a lot of the decision making on your behalf. I tend to still choose from what I know, but lately I've been introduced to other wines from other countries and I've started to look for some that I know now, when I'm out shopping. Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, a grape variety from Italy or Bordeaux, a blend from France are my current favourites.

This new year I tried another wine from France, from a farm called Chateau de Seguin. The wine is called Chateau de Seguin Grand Vin De Bordeaux 2006. We had it with some really strong French cheese and the wine came across very smooth, with a taste that lingers in your mouth. Exactly what I want from a wine, with the South African Pinotage being my usual favourite.

Here's what the wine maker has to say: "This is our regular prizewinning wine, which is made acording to the best winemaking methods by our professional staff. It was the first wine made by the Carl family after they bought the Château de Seguin. The wine has aged for 6 months in oak barrels. and is bottle 18 month after the harvest."

My rating: 4/5, just perhaps because we've had lots of wine the whole night, and it stood out from the crowd. I'm going to put it into my basket next time I'm wine shopping to see what it's like the second time around.

The first wine tasting

The first wine tasting has come and gone, and it was fantastic. I learnt so much, and was introduced to so many new wines and new tastes. Just to recap, we were 8 people, which meant 8 wines. Each person gave me a bottle of wine of their choice one week before, which I then "prepared" for the night, after reading up on them a bit.  A blind tasting of 8 bottles of wine. The wines were from Australia, Germany, Argentina, Spain, France, South Africa and Italy. The prices ranged from 58kr to 105kr and we tasted 2 whites and 6 reds.

The night was also one where we had fantastic home baked bread and excellent cheeses to accompany each wine and give the taste buds a break in between each bottle. You can read more about the format here. Here's the "esteemed" panel, deliberating during the night.

Bourgogne - Couvent des Jacobins (2005)

Wine tasting 1

Another winner on the night, but one that I'm afraid most forgot shortly afterwards. It had everything and yet lacked that little something to make it memorable. I am buying this again though to have with a meal, because I find it intriguing and love the label story about Dionysus or Bacchus.

Panel's rating: 3,4 out of 5

Price: 105SEK

Country: France

Grapes: Pinot Noir

Colour: Ruby | A little lighter | Light | Lightish red | Ruby | Christmas red and ruby.

Nose: Wild stawberries, vanilla and caramel | Strawberry sweet, cinnamon fragrance with a caramel finish | Sweet smell of strawberries and caramel | Wild strawberries | Wild strawberries and cinnamon.

Taste: Butter caramel, light with less cedar | Short with a little caramel | Light with wild strawberries | Light and some mushrooms | Very light with a berry taste | A little volatile.