Food with tasting: Oka, brie and 18 month old Balderson cheddar cheese. Dinner: grilled strip loin.
Wine A
Garnet red with slight fade to edge. Expressive nose with cassis, dark fruits (especially blackberry) and later a bass note of leather – best nose. Bob – violets, #2 pencil lead, and smoky oak. Peter – oak. Nice balance on the midpalate not too big but with good tannins. Dark fruit with nice juicy acidity. Nice medium long finish. Bob – Big with nice finish. Peter - fruit with a bit of caramel. Nice acids and tannins. Finish a bit short at first but better after opening up.
With food: Good with Oka, Great with Brie and 18 month aged cheddar. Peter – best with food. Tom – best wine with our dinner of grilled strip loin.
Wine B
Deep garnet red. Brambly fruit nose with some cassis, black raspberry and hint of tropical fruit. Gorgeous midpalate of dark fruit, especially big tannins and good acidity. A long finish of fruit and acidity. Bob – Nose of fruity black cherry. Heat, not Bordeaux like. Little over extracted. Peter – Dark ruby, with raisins, cherries and spice on the nose. Bit of oak after time. Very mild acid and astringent tannins.
With food: Great with oka and brie. Cheddar brings out the sweet fruit in the wine – nice match. Peter- Liked it with Brie. Tom – second best wine with the steak.
Wine C
Deep garnet red. Earthy dark fruit with mushrooms and some chocolate on the nose. A bit acidic – probably a true Bordeaux. Sweet fruit of dark cherries. Medium long finish that has some fruit and tannic grip but mostly acidity. Bob – Shy veggies with a little bacon on the nose. Needs to open up. Nice but a little simple. Peter – Dark ruby red. Oak, raisins and leather on the nose (more oak and leather with time). Slight pepper, round and balanced midpalate. Mild acid finish. Probably needs more time.
With food: Nice with Oka. OK match with cheddar (somewhat overwhelms the wine). Great with Brie. Peter – Better with old cheddar.
Voting based on just initial tasting:
Tom: #1 Wine B, #2 Wine A, #3 Wine C
Bob: #1 Wine A, #2 Wine C, #3 Wine B
Peter: #1 Wine B, #2 Wine C, #3 Wine A
Ruth: #1 Wine C, #2 Wine A, #3 Wine B
Best overall by tasting: It depends on how you want to score it. Tie of all three wines A, B and C based on a 3-2-1 scoring for 1st , 2nd and 3rd rating. Wine B wins based on number of 1st place votes alone.
Wines revealed:
Wine A: 2003 Chateau Pipeau, St. Emilion Grand Cru 13% abv Peter's wine.
Wine B: 2005 Ferrari-Carano, Tresor 14.5% abv Bordeaux blend (I tried to play with Bob's mind
, but he 
picked it out as a new world bordeaux) My wine.Wine C: 2000 Chateau Latour-Martillac, Pessac-Leognan 11-14% abv (that’s what is on the bottle) Bob's wine.
All three wines were very good to excellent. The Latour-Martillac seems to need more age as it is still a bit on the acidic side and appears to be still improving, according to Bob.