Last night Sweet, Bold and I took part in an online twitter wine tasting with TasteLive. The idea is that a bunch of wine bloggers sit down at the same time and taste the same wines, then tweet about them through the TasteLive website. The tastings are usually sponsored by a specific winery, in this case Kunde Family Estate from Sonoma, and each blogger receives a few sample bottles to taste the night of the event.

We’ve taken part in a few of these events during the past year and have found them a nice way to try new wines and meet like-minded people.

Usually the SG’s try to gather in one place and taste the wines together. But this time we had other plans, so we split up the 3 bottles we’d received and decided to do a relay of sorts. Sweet took the 2009 Magnolia Lane Sauvignon Blanc, I took the 2008 Sonoma Valley Chardonnay, and Bold got the 2007 Reserve Century Vines Zinfandel. Both the white wines sell for $15 on Kunde’s website and at Total Wine, and between $15-$17 elsewhere online. The Zin is $30 on Kunde’s site.

The event started at 8 p.m. and Sweet was the first woman up. Here’s some of the conversation she had with the other bloggers who participated:

SwirlGirls: Great minerally nose. I like the description of rain.

MichaelGortonJr: Nice acidity, herbal taste, dired basil. Grapefruit and wet rock

Winereview: my twin 6 year old boys are here with me and they smell lemon cake and jalapeno peppers from our garden from the nose

SwirlGirls: Grapefruits and lemon zest and raindrops oh my!

Winereview: 09 Kunde Sonoma Sauv Blanc flavors are soft with great acidity on the finish. What is the retail?

MichaelGortonJr: the $15 price point on the sauv Blanc makes me want to consider this as a great summer table wine.

Amateurwino: Oh gosh, this Kunde sauv blanc is reminding me real fast why I love Sonoma!

SwirlGirls: So we’re fans over at Swirl Girl Sweet’s house. One guy finds it too sweet though. More for me!

I was next up with the ’08 Sonoma Valley Chardonnay. I’ll be honest, I wasn’t so excited to be the chard taster for the evening. Usually California chards have me running for the hills. I equate them to the girl who is pretty without makeup, but insists on caking so much on, she ends up looking cheap and garish. So, too, can the regal chardonnay grape be trashed (in my opinion) by the heavily oaked style of many California chards. So I had my doubts going in. Here’s some of last night’s discussion:

SwirlGirls: SG “sweet” has now passed the baton… er, mouse… to SG “Dry” who gets to try the Chard… getting a lot on the aroma – tropical fruits, orange, peach, honey, butterscotch

MichaelGortonJr: Creamy, toasty, apple, and clean on the palate…with a hint of spice.

Winereview: 08 Kunde Chard very nice creamy butter popcorn nose baked yellow apples on the nose

SwirlGirls: I love that the oak isn’t overwhelming – it’s playing backup and still letting the fruit shine. Nice job #KundeEstate

MichaelGortonJr: Wow, likeing this. Not over oaked, showing fruit and balanced.

Cailynq: Tim Bell has just announced “The Kunde Chardonnay Fruit is the best I have ever worked with in my career.”

Winereview: the 6 year old nose test honey and lemon, for what it is worth, and dad is not saying anything just putting glass under nose

SwirlGirls: digging the yummy caramel and vanilla aromas – just like mom’s kitchen before she pulls the peach cobbler out of the oven!

Amateurwino: I dig the nose on the Kunde chard – blind, I might’ve thought it was a Burg.

MichaelGortonJr: Yes this calls for Risotto….and scallops.

SwirlGirls: For $17 this chard is a steal.

Winereview: 08 Kunde Chard as it warms up in the glass it gets softer and the fruit just gets more silky!

In between talking about the wine, we also chatted about Kunde’s certified sustainable estate and some of the cool hikes they offer in addition to wine tastings on their property. But pretty soon, the bloggers moved on to the zin, and it was Bold’s turn to chime in:

MichaelGortonJr: Gonna get my zin on!

KundeEstate: Vines were planted in 1882.

SwirlGirls: This is SG Bold – the zin is v pretty – like a light, red velvet curtain

MichaelGortonJr: Leather and tobacco with concentrated dark berries on the 2007 Zinfandel nose

LoganDC: This Zin, smells great, taste great & goes down great. No heavy tannins.

SwirlGirls: I’m getting red licorice, raspberry on the nose. Course I love Twizzlers, so this bodes well…

Myvinespot: I would not call this is fruit bomb or jam bomb – does have some jammy character, but more elegant :-) Nice job friends

SwirlGirls: Not feeling the bomb, but rather a zin with a zin(g).

Gonzogastronomy: Zin vines planted in 1882?! Yowza!

Myvinespot: I bet those 100+ yr old Zin vines look pretty wicked!

Winereview: 07 Kunde Resv Zin Nose very intense but flavors very much like red velvet just flow over the mouth

SwirlGirls: Reserves are wine equivalents of the playoffs; you gotta step up your game. The Kunde 07 Reserve Zin qualifies in a big way.

Myvinespot: I could see this Zinfandel going well with a rib-eye. May have the rest of this w/ one tomorrow… The more this wine airs out the more interesting it gets.

projecthope7: This Zinfandel has now takn a fave spot! Creamy texture. Lingering smoothness. Rich & elegant.

MichaelGortonJr: Very happy and very impressed with the quality and craftmaship with these wines that Kunde presented tonight.

SwirlGirls: Kunde had 3 for 3 tonight. Impressive showing at all price points. Congrats!

All in all it was a good night of wine and conversation, in the virtual sense, and the SG’s found another winery to recommend.

~ Dry (J. Gwen)