For the evening, our hobo bag theme was lackluster blockbusters, or blockblunders, or just plain crappy box office hits: Titanic, Wild Wild West, Speed 2, Men in Black, Armageddon, The Phantom Menace, Waterworld, and Pearl Harbor.

We discovered that in general, Cabernet was a lighter, fruitier red wine, and ranged from extremely dry to nearly dessert wine sweet. In several wines, the alcohol taste came through rather obnoxiously.

Last place went to a $14 bottle of Avalon from Sonoma, California, 2004. In a near-tie for last place was a $9 bottle of Bolla from Italy, 2006. A few weeks ago, Bolla won first place for Chianti.

A $13 1-liter box of French Rabbit from France got second place. It was very sweet and light, but easy to drink and approachable. It had flavors of honey and strawberry.

When we pulled the first place winner out of the brown paper bag, the room was full of gasps and groans as we learned that it was Yellow Tail, Australia, 2007, $6.50. Much to our dismay, its rich christmas-like flavors of vanilla, licorice and cloves earned it the highest score we have given to any of the twenty-seven bottles we have tasted so far.

For dinner I made Emeril’s recipe for ratatouille as well as sage roasted potatoes. David made a dessert with poached meringue floated on a martini glass of custard and garnished with a wafer of caramel.

If we learned anything that night, it’s that consuming food at unnatural speeds and set to music is hysterical.

All the Shiraz(es?), even the lowest rated, still scored higher than any other class of wine we had before: Chianti, Zinfandel, and Merlot. The biggest surprise was that the box wine (which was classily strapped to the rack on the back of my bike for the trip home) scored the highest! Coming in at an extremely close second was the $45 bottle from Australia.

From my research, it appears that shiraz pairs well with spicy foods such as Mexican, Cajun, and barbecue. So some of our visitors prepared beans and enchiladas. For dessert, David made flan that turned out amazing!

Next week: Cabernet

For dinner we had pizza with homemade crust, fresh buffalo mozzarella cheese, and ridiculous amounts of fresh basil. For dessert David made zabaglione with fresh fruit.

So I’m a little late with posting our review of red Zinfandel. About two weeks late.

Zinfandel is grown world-wide, but the vast majority of Zinfandel available in the US is from California. As a matter of fact, we were unable to find anything outside of California to taste.  Also difficult to find was any bottle over $20. It pairs well with barbecue and spicy food, so I made Emeril’s vegetarian chili.

We had five bottles, and not one scored well. The more we drank, the more we realized that Zinfandel did not sit well with us. They reminded us of the Argentinean wine from the previous week. The tastes were all tar, petroleum, and dirty socks.

At least the chili was a hit.

Last night was merlot, a grape native to France, but grown virtually worldwide. We served it with fresh red sauce on linguini, with an assortment of French-seasoned olives and robusto cheese, stella gorgonzola, and brie. For dessert David made chocolate mousse with whipped cream, shaved dark chocolate, and orange zest.

For kicks we started with a Sutter Home white merlot, $6. We did not rate it according to our rating system because it was entirely different. While not offensive in taste, the flavor was about as complex as Kool-Aid and finished quickly in a light Capri Sun taste. This drink was more of a punch or a sangría than a wine, and was better fit for a hot summer day with a few ice cubes and a slice of orange. I’m sure the glass bottle was a significant portion of the cost, and distributing it in a juice box with a straw to pierce the foil hole on top would certainly bring the cost down significantly.

Our least favorite was Trumpeter from Argentina, for $10, which was complex in a rotting chocolate sort of way. Coming in at nearly the same score was a $22 bottle of Château Marcadis from France which tasted as though it was aged in green wood barrels. Third place went to an $11 bottle from France called Red Bicyclette. While unremarkable, it would work well with a simple meal such as spaghetti. The light petroleum finish wasn’t enough for any of us to not consider this wine again considering its price class. In second place was Kendall-Jackson from California for $24. And first place goes to a 1997 Philippe Lorraine from California, $35. It was by far the most complex and interesting wine. Not that the taste was complex at any given point, but the taste always seemed to vary from sip to sip, with new flavors coming out throughout the glass.

Next week: Zinfandel.