booby prize

This is the "prize" that goes to the last place wine at our tasting group meetings. (It's also known as "vag-wine-a." For real.)

And tonight, our wine very much deserved the honors.

The theme for the evening was "Bargain Bordeaux Under $25." We brought a bottle of Château Les Ancres 2000 that I bought from Garagiste, my go-to wine retailer, almost two years ago. According to them, the wine arrived in "impeccable provenance" and was stored in "ideal conditions" until shipping. And when we got it here, it went straight into the wine refrigerator. So as far as I know, there were no storage or temperature problems.

And yet the wine -- which is only 7 years old -- was showing major evaporation. The fill level was at the top shoulder of the bottle (this is the part just below the neck, where the bottle starts to widen). For a wine that's 10 years old or older, the top shoulder is fine. But for a 2000, it's a little strange -- like this wine is ageing at superspeed. There was also a ton of sediment in the bottle -- looked like the inside had been coated in tar.

I should've taken this as a warning sign, but I brought the bottle to the tasting group anyway. Man, it was not good. Not good at all. It smelled like cough syrup, and the taste was bizarre -- like a combination of overripe (prunes, raisins) and underripe (green, vegetal).

Our group ranked it last. (Although I have to admit I ranked it second-to-last because there was another wine -- the Château Brandey 2006 -- that I just didn't like at all -- tutti-frutti flavors, too much wood, no finish.)

Overall, this tasting was tough. Seemed like there was a lot of flawed wine. Here are my rankings and notes:

1. Château Falfas 2004: To me, the most complex of the group. Pretty nose of berry, vanilla and clove with a hint of green pepper. Voluptuous mouthfeel, good tannin. Slightly young, but to me, definitely drinkable. I would order this in a restaurant.

2. Château Loudenne 2001: At first, I thought this wine was a little too barnyardy, even for my taste (and I tend to like poopy wines). But I ended up liking it better than the other wines we tasted. I wouldn't say it was very Bordeaux-like, though -- more like a Pinotage.

3. Château Lestrille-Capmartin 2003: A light-bodied wine, but balanced with bright cherry and spice flavors. This was the group's favorite wine. I liked it, too, but I thought the Falfas was more interesting and I have a soft spot for the flavor profile of the Loudenne, so I ranked those two higher.

4. Château Faure-Beauséjour 2003: An OK wine (and a lot of people voted it first in the tasting), but for me, too much wood and too much vanilla. Not enough complexity.

5. Château Peyraud 2005: At first, I really liked this wine and thought it was going to be one of my favorites. But when I tasted it a second time, I found something really off-putting in the finish -- something slightly bitter.

6. Château Les Ancres 2000: See my notes above.

7. Château de Brandey 2006: Like jungle juice.