2012 Holiday Gift Guide Participant | Wine Battles

Company: Wine Battles
Item Reviewed: Wine Battles Pinot Noir Battle

Wine Battles offers experiences that two people or a group of people can do at home alone or as a party. It is a unique opportunity to explore, experience and engage in something new and exciting every time. Each week of the tournament, you and your partner will receive two bottles of wine and help decide the winner. Enjoy amazing wines, expand your wine knowledge directly from the wine makers and engage in a social competition where picking the winning wine moves your ranking up. You can watch the video here.

My Thoughts

Ah wine…my one weakness. When I learned there was a company called Wine Battles I was intrigued, I mean what is better than one bottle of wine? Well two of course! And what makes it even better is playing a game with family and friends to determine who the winner of the round is! Wine Battles is a fun game to play with my favorite beverage and one that will test your senses and have one bottle emerge the victor! I invited my brother-in-law and my sister over to experience this battle along with my husband and myself. We teamed up and set the playing field (shown above).  Next we opened the rules and passed out the score cards.

Then we poured the wine, the fun part! We were playing the Final Round Battle between two Pinot Noirs. One was Trione Russian River Valley Pinot Noir 2008 and the other was Keller Estate La Cruz Pinot Noir 2008. These are the items we vote on:

• Aroma & Bouquet
• Body
• Acidity
• Sweetness
• Overall Score

I marked the glasses and taste testing was underway. My husband and I agreed on every topic which was a first. I loved the discussions that we had about each topic and how we liked each wine. After two hours and two empty wine bottles later we had a winner! Drumroll please……

KELLER ESTATE LA CRUZ PINOT NOIR 2008

For both my husband and for my sister and brother-in-law Keller Estate won in Acidity, Sweetness and Overall. We all loved the Trione but felt it would be a better pairing when eating something like a steak, it was good but the Keller Estate was better overall for our tastes.

Enough about us though. I want to talk to you about the holidays that are coming up and how great a gift this would be for the wine lovers in your family. Great time with great people drinking great wine, what could be better? I have the upcoming schedule for the battles and they are:

• November 2012 – Push your Palate Red Blends
• January 2013 – Sexy Chardonnay Battle
• February 2013 – Bubble Battle (champagne)
• March 2013 – Boutique Cabernet Battle
• May 2013 – Spain v. California Grenache

Check out how the whole thing works here and join in on the fun! And with this upcoming holiday season fast approaching think about giving a gift certificate for a Wine Battles Membership this holiday season and you will be a hit!!