With only ‘travel days’ left in our trip, which means lots of time sitting around waiting, I will only have one or two more posts to add for this trip. Unless of course something very interesting or important warrants its own record.

During this around the world trip we have spent a significant amount of time in four different wine regions in different parts of the world. We have tasted lots of different wines in each region, and bought quite a few bottles of wine which we drank more slowly, often with food for me, but never for Mick. This gave us the chance to make some notes about the bottles we bought, and to see if aeration opened the wines up, etc.

We started off very diligently trying to record the wines we bought, their prices, their characteristics and whether or not we would buy them again. Theoretically of course as we possibly wouldn’t be back to the vineyard where we purchased the wine from.

I don’t expect you to be able to read these notes made in our joint travel diary, but it shows we were taking things seriously.

At the start at least. Not that I wish to lay blame, but Mick’s interest was more in the ‘tasting’ than the recording.

I have loads of photos of bottles of wines that we bought; front and back views of labels to help remind us of where we were when we tasted it and bought it. For Mick that can be the trigger for him to recall the characteristics of the wine. To me, that’s a gift; like a keen golfer who can describe every stroke played during a game of golf, even from several years ago, or a retired rugby player who can remember who won Best and Fairest for a certain game, close game scores and even what the weather was like during a key game.

Yep. That’s Mick.

Anyway, we have sat down independently at first, and then together to put together this summary of our thoughts on our wine experiences.

Our conclusions must come with a disclaimer – that we are not experts. And there is possibly a bias towards our own personal preferences for wine. We agreed pretty consistently with the red wines, but there was a slight difference for the whites.

Best Region for Red Wine

1. Southern Rhône
2. Piedmont
3. Northern Rhône
4. Willamette Valley

Best Region for White Wine

1. Piedmont
2. Southern Rhône *
3. Northern Rhône
4. Willamette Valley

*Mick and I differed here. I had the Northern Rhône before the South.

Best Region for Value for Money

1. Southern Rhône
2. Piedmont
3. Northern Rhône
4. Willamette Valley

Best Region for Tasting Experiences

1. Southern Rhône
2. Piedmont
3. Northern Rhône
4. Willamette Valley

Now to some more specific conclusions.

Best Red Wine Tasted

1. Chante Le Merle Vielles Vignes, 2022 Bosquet des Papes, €51
2. Domaine Durieu 2020 Lucille Avril, €33
3. Fletcher 2020 Barbaresco ‘Recta Pete’, €50
4. Paul Jaboulet Aîné 2018 Côte Rôtie – La Pierrelles €90 (we only bought this one by the glass) for me and Domaine de Montine 2022 Essencia, €19 (for Mick).

Best White Wines Tasted

1. Vietto Guiana 2022 Nas-cëtta,
2. Stra Langhe 2022 Nas-cëtta, €12
3. Casa Boffa Roero Arneise, €25
4. Paul Jaboulet Aîné Les Grands Amandiers 2021 Condrieu (for me), €9 per glass / Satyr 2022 Riesling, Glacial Age from Willamette for Mick, $40USD.

Best Tasting Experience

1. Cantina Comunale di La Morra
2. La Morra Growers’ Event
3. Best Vintage, Châteauneuf,
4. Cave de Tain ( for Mick) / Pinot Vista Willamette for me

With so many wine tastings, it is quite possible that Mick is suffering from ‘tasting fatigue’.

Our son Edward suggested that might be the case, so I looked it up.

Wine tasting fatigue, also known as palate fatigue or taste bud exhaustion, is a state where wines begin to taste the same after tasting many different wines in a row.

It went on to say that repeatedly smelling wines or tasting wines can dull the senses and make them less sensitive, and concentrating on wines requires a lot of energy.

No wonder Mick slept pretty well each night on this trip.

I think he thinks he needs a holiday!!

And that might explain why Willamette Valley wines didn’t get any top places. But that doesn’t mean that we didn’t enjoy them.