“If you want to impress someone serve a Barolo.” East Hill Bottle Shop 18 Jan.

One of my favorite parts of wine tasting is listening to bold wine statements, said with such passion that it MUST be true. They don’t happen often, but when they do my entertainment factor goes to the next level. There were two “bold” wine statements this evening. The first was from a taster that was innocent yet passionate. The second by one of the employees in an attempt to answer a question. Both were wrong, and can absolutely mislead other tasters.“If you want to impress someone serve a Barolo.” This came from a fellow taster. “Wow,” I said, “Is there one that you go to?” The response was “No, they are all good.” I taste a fair amount of wine, and I have had some very good Barolos, but I have also had others that were so earthy and acidic that I poured them out. Barolo is a Demarcated Wine region in the north of Italy, a DOCG to be exact. Very intrigued I asked a few more questions to my fellow taster and quickly realized that my fellow taster thought Barolo was a grape. Soooo, I brought up some wines that I like to serve to “impress” someone. “Those sound great!” was my fellow taster's response, after realizing that the “bold” statement was not a good one. It was a great conversation, cordial and fun, that ended with a little more knowledge about “bold” wine statements.The second was from an employee. I will preface this with: The rest of the staff is above and beyond in wine knowledge and recommendations. So a bad apple can really be an issue. Also, people do make mistakes and misspeak. Sadly that was not the case with this individual, not the first, or third misspeak that I have witnessed. I asked about the percentage of Cabernet Sauvignon in our Crowd Favorite from tonight. The accepted rule (law in some areas) is that if it has 75% or more of a grape varietal, then the wine maker does not have to put the other varietals on the bottle. A fellow taster on the same wine asked why I asked that. I explained the above information when the employee who poured the wine jumped in very “correctively” and said “No no, it’s 70%.” Well I took several steps back to enjoy the wine and pulled up the California Wine rules and after a few minutes went to the side and showed him. He was a little dismissive but more importantly I showed my fellow taster. Misinformation can really throw off folks sorting through the huge world of wine.So, two Crowd Favorites tonight. Twin Vines Vinho Verde 2020 from Portugal, and Caparzo Sangiovese Toscana 2019 from Italy. Tasting notes? They were good.