Hermitage and Reese’s: a match made in heaven?

As Three Dog Night proclaimed in 1969, one is the loneliest number. That is the number of wines which were consumed during tonight’s Cork Dorks United. Perhaps this demonstrates, if nothing else, the disrespect for which winos hold for drinking red wine with chocolate. It might be the saddest experience that you’ll ever know, but that didn’t keep me from trying to make it work. I even flew a bottle of wine from Lausanne, Switzerland to Walla Walla for tonight’s tasting. Too bad only Mike and I were able to taste it.

1st Place: 2001 Cave de Tain Hermitage

Hermitage and fire, two of the finer things in life

I wasn’t expecting greatness out of this wine, and it didn’t deliver greatness. After a couple hours the nose started to take on some nice dark fruit and pepper aromas, but this might be due to the fact that I added some jelly and a spice mix to my glass. The wine is just so much different than I’m used to. My mind is saying yes, but my palate is saying no. It’s thin, much more acidic than any Syrah to be found in this neck of the woods, and it’s also somewhat bitter. The Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups I chose to pair with the wine didn’t do much good, although they didn’t do much harm either.

Last Place: 2001 Cave de Tain Hermitage

Since Mike is my house mate he had no choice but to show up for Cork Dorks, and after we tried the wine we both agreed it begged for some real food. With some tortellini and tomato-garlic-onion sauce the wine improved greatly. This experience helps confirm that Port (and some California Zinfandels, which might as well be Port) is probably the only good wine and chocolate pairing. I was hoping that a bevy of different wine and chocolate pairings would help to further the case (or shoot it down), but the trial shall live on.

In case anyone was wondering, Hermitage is an appellation of France’s Northern Rhone Valley. The only red grape permitted is Syrah. White Hermitage is Marsanne and Rousanne. The appellation is a single south-facing hillside overlooking the Rhone River and the town of Tain l’Hermitage. There are about 345 acres of grapes planted – thus one reason these wines can be quite pricey. For comparison, there are about 43,000 acres planted in Napa Valley.

Despite a weak showing, Cork Dorks United lives on. The next meeting will be on March 14 and feature a collection of Southern Hemisphere reds. Perhaps we will have two wines to taste in this one, but two can be as bad as one. It’s the loneliest number since the number one.