It’s nice to know that wine lovers will set aside national chauvinism to vote for what they like. At least that’s the case when the labels are covered, if a recent around-the-world tasting of chardonnays is any indication.
The event, dubbed “the game of pleasure” by its sponsor, the Italy-based Slow Food movement, was a low-key sampling of six wines, one each from Chile, Australia, the U.S., Israel, Italy and France.
The twist? While a group of 30 or so Chicagoans sipped and sniffed at the House of Glunz wine store on North Wells Street, Slow Food-isti in 25 other cities, from Athens to Tokyo, were assessing the very same wines. (Well, time zones were taken into account.) Results were phoned into headquarters and posted on the movement’s Web site, www.slowfood.com, for next-day surfing.
And the winner? Chile’s 1998 Montes Alpha Special Cuvee from the Valle de Curico, a $15 wine. In second place was the Australian 1997 Coldstream Hills Reserve ($27), followed by an American, Mondavi’s 1997 Carneros ($23).
Game-players in Alba, Italy, snubbed the Italian Cabreo la Pietra ($19) in favor of the Mondavi, as did the Veronese. Berliners, not having a local hero, went far afield in choosing the Yarden ($10) from Israel’s Golan Heights Winery. Australians in Melbourne and Sydney both graciously preferred the Chilean entry. And we Chicagoans couldn’t make up our minds, putting the Australian and the Chilean in a tie for first.
In last place, just a few points behind the Cabreo la Pietra, was the 1997 Toques et Clouchers Sieur d’Arques (not available here), from Limoux, France. Even the French didn’t much care for it.
