Blind Wine Tasting and Top $50 Wines.

Blind Wine Tasting and Top $50 Wines. – Episode #131

November 20, 2006

Today Gary does a blind wine tasting using the bags from www.baggedwine.com and does the top five $50 wines in honor of IPTV’s Top 50. Sit back and enjoy one of the most outside the box episodes in a long long time.

75 Responses

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September 24, 2009

John J.
Great Episode Gary, would love to see one on vin jaune’s, 1 on tasting different charbono’s would be great. You could do that blind too even.
February 3, 2008

Klassh
Well that was sort of dull, I always thought blind tasting was trying to guess the region and grape variate.

If you ever try that, maybe get Mott to do an on-screen score sheet. He opens the show, shows the bottle, the wine pops onto the screen Texas hold’em style, then he bags it. THAN you come in. As you guess, a little [X] or [O] and your score fills the empty spot. Fun for us. Lots of work for Mott and you
November 30, 2006

Gabby
I love wine tasting! If you get a chance try this web site I found that sells a whole wine tasting game that is blind! its most appropriately named BlindWine.

Tell Gary to check out http://www.blindwine.com !
November 27, 2006

Brandon M
QOTD: Jim McMahon

I thought this was one of the best tasting epsiodes to date. It would be so cool if you could at least single blind every episode. It’s asking a lot, but it certainly gives even more credibility to your allready bad ass reputation!
November 23, 2006

phig
Ditka
November 22, 2006

Joe P.
Gary,
The coat on the hed was hysterical!!! I don’t know if you can top that! jp
November 22, 2006

karl satirev
Liked the blind tasting very much. Now let’s do a double blind! I don’t care for the Bears and never have because they play DULL football.
November 22, 2006

Shahar Golan
QOD: Why do I hate Da Bears? I don’no; maybe because they hibernate and I can’t?
November 21, 2006

JayZee
Gary,

Excellent episode – I loved the blind tasting and I’ll have to check out the bags. They beat my homemade system.

QOD: I hate DA BEARS because one of my officemates in Cleveland is from Chicago originally and constantly has to tell me how great DA BEARS are.

BTW, I noticed in this episode that you didn’t rinse the glass between wines. Any reason? Do you think that it mattered at all in your evaluations?
November 21, 2006

Lawrence Leichtman
Loved the blind tasting. Thanks for doing that but next time you need to actually guess which wines are which though you did get the 2004 right. Really diaappointed in the Viader score as I have two bottles cellared. The O’shaugnesy sounds like a good buy. Will have to try some.
November 21, 2006

JR Laz
Great job! GV keep those blind tastings coming more often as all have suggested, hope to see the double blinds very soon. Though that whole bottling exercise kind of looked like an Al Jazeera broadcast of Abu Ghraib or Al Queda or something, creeped me out seeing the poor wines gagged and bound with you under the hood and all.

Hope to see that O’S back in stock….sounds like an awesome free shipping candidate if you can acquire enough additional cases, mmmm??
November 21, 2006

devin
lurker right hurr
November 21, 2006

Tony S.
Gary, Great episode…blind tastings are the best way to go, I can’t wait until you do the completely blind one.

QOD: Why do I hate DA BEARS? Well, let me tell you: Because now that we swept New York (and New Jersey for that matter, since you guys don’t even have a football team, but you have to “act” like it) but now that we swept NY, the Chicago papers yesterday were saying “We Love NY” and crap like that.

Everyone knows New York is far inferior to Chicago, and now that we own that place, I’m upset. We’re close enough to Wisconsin, I don’t want to add NY to the mix. So I’m very upset with DA BEARS. They could’ve at least had let the Jets win so that you guys over there could at least keep a little bit of dignity and pride. And if we start serving the excuse you guys use for pizza and hot dogs in NY over here in Chicago, then I’ll be REALLY pissed.

So that’s why. Great episode Gary…see you next time!
GO BEARS!!!

T
November 21, 2006

Bruce S
Gary,

I don’t hate the Bears at all. They were kind enough to turn the ball over to the Dolphins 6 times to let us win a game. How could I ever say anything bad about someone so generous?
November 21, 2006

GOL
GV – Great episode, the blind tasting was awesome, I think it should be a regular feature, e.g. “Blind Tasting Monday.” By the way, whoever filmed that intro needs to fix the lighting .

OK, now for the QOTD. Many interesting responses here. Before I give you my answer, here is my response to some of the other answers:

“Rex is Overrated” — Rex may not be Tom Brady, but who was the Ravens QB when they won the SB? I want to say Trent Dilfer. I think Bears D is as good as that Ravens team, and I’ll take Rex over Dilfer.

“DA BEARS is stupid” — In general, Chicagoans don’t take themselves too seriously, unlike some people in certain other areas of the country . It is a city whose sports fans have almost without exception experienced massive disappointment with every team in every sport forever. This is a tongue-in-cheek affectionate nickname that obviously became famous per the SNL skit, which was started by George Wendt, aka Norm from Cheers. Wendt is a proud Chicagoan. I won’t bore you with a deep psychoanalysis, but I’ll leave it at this. When a Bears fan makes a ridiculous prediction like 78 to -3, it is a crutch as this outcome is impossible. Losing is possible, and the history of losing plus the one great season amongst decades of disappointment is what inspired the skit.

“The Fridge isn’t Athletic” — I played hoop with and against the Fridge after he retired from the NFL. Trust me when I tell you he is athletic. Any man that size who can make jump shots and handle the rock might actually be the definition of athletic.

“Payton didn’t score a TD but Fridge did” — A valid response, but close but DA COACH will not give a cigar for this one.

“I don’t hate the Bears I just hate what they did to Soldier Field” – I concur wholeheartedly. This is the correct answer! When the spaceship that landed on it leaves all will be right in the world. Of course, it’ll probably take Urlacher back to his home planet when it does, so that’ll suck
November 21, 2006

Jason
Sold out of the O’Shaughnessy already – what a tease!
Great episode. Thanks!
November 21, 2006

Steve B
QOTD: I’m a lifelong Bears fan and love Mike Ditka, but I’m still mad that he didn’t allow Walter Payton to score a touchdown in Superbowl XX. Payton WAS the Bears and Ditka didn’t make sure he had the chance to score a TD. McMahon had 2 and the Fridge got one that Payton should have had the chance at.
November 21, 2006

Susan
Gary-
WOW!
I give this one a 99.
I LOVE the blind tasting.
This should be the new standard –
once a month you should do a blind tasting.
I didn’t think it was possible for you to blow me out of the water AGAIN!
Fabulous episode!
Keep up the great work!
November 21, 2006

Julius
I submitted this last night but it must have gotten stuck in the transporter, so I’ll repost.

Gary – Since I have had three of the five wines tasted in this episode, I made certain not to see which wines went into which bags so that I could try to figure out what bags those wines were in based on your tasting notes. Well it turned out to be easier than I thought. And in this case I agree with you on the O’Shaughnessy, a truly outstanding wine. I would be also be interested in the Mt. Veeder cuvee, but unfortunately it’s too expensive ($165-175) and tough to find. BTW, the Numanthia probably needed to be decanted rather than just having the bottle opened for that time. Both the two previous vintages have displayed the same tightness in their youth.
November 21, 2006

MichaelP
I hate the bears (not in caps by design) because urlacher is so damn good. I must go hurl now…
November 21, 2006

Jonathan G
Gary,

Only real men wear pink!

And I hate the bears because of that terrible SNL skit about Ditka with the guys around the poker table.
November 21, 2006

Russ J
Oh, and Gary, please try these:
Coturri Estate Zinfandel 2003 Library Code: 7768
Acacia A Pinot Noir 2005 Library Code: 9087
Thanks!
November 21, 2006

Matthew L
Nice tasting episode. Thanks for the tip about the bags. They would be a nice gift.

QOTD: I grew up in western Michigan. A lot of people loved the Bears. I used to have a Chicago Bears trash can. (dating myself) I have been a life-long Detroit Lions fan, so the only time I hate the Bears is when they play and put a big paw print on the ass of the Lions.
November 21, 2006

SS Chris
Gary, I think you need to keep Adriel (sp) on Graphics….I think he paniced a little

~After putting the first bag on, he was moving onto the second bag…without tightening the first…fortunately for him, you said, at exactly the right time, “remember to tie the bags”
~He WAS keeping the wines in the exact same order they were in before you got up from the desk….once again, you said, “you mixed up the order, right?” …at which point he does mix up the order.
~They should have been put into the order of the #’s on the bags….he put them in a focata order which made it difficult to follow.
~Then, even after he mis-ordered the bags, only 3 of the bags end up facing the viewers to see the bag #’s. (You then turned those two bottle around).

On the glass half full side, at least he didn’t slip the bag over the neck which wouldn’t have allowed you to pour….lol

Gary, watch it….it’s hysterical how you somehow know what he’s doing incorrectly and say something at EXACTLY the correct time.

Adriel (I just bustin’ chops…it’s what us VaynIACS do…part of our code)

SS QUESTION: You gave the O’Shaugnessy a 95, but in the recap said, “that if you weren’t thrown by all of this, you might have given it a 96.”

So, whats’the final verdict?
95, 95+, 95-96 or 96
November 21, 2006

TimF
QOD: Because they haven’t won a Superbowl in over 20 years, but the way the fans talk about it you’d think it happened last week.