Meet The Mötley Crü

mot‧ley  [mot-lee] adjective, noun, plural -leys.
1. exhibiting great diversity of elements; heterogeneous: a motley crowd.

cru [kroo; Fr. kry] noun, plural crus [krooz; Fr. kry]
1. (in France) a vineyard producing wine of high quality, sometimes classified by the government as either a Great Growth (Grand Cru) or a First Growth (Premier Cru).


La & myself have been tossing around the idea of starting a wine club for the last year or so. We finally got motivated & sent out emails, MySpace messages & spread the word with our friends & this past Saturday we had our second meeting. Each month we decide on a theme, the first meeting was Bring Your Favorite Wine, this weekend's theme was Wine from the Southern Hemisphere & everyone that comes must bring one bottle that coincides with the theme. Next months theme is Old World Wines.

We are not your average group of stuffy wine geeks. In fact the only rule is no pretentious wine drinkers. We are a rough & tumble group who buck the typical stereotype of a wine drinker. We are tattooed, pierced, professionals, students, artists, etc.. The conversation usually drifts in all directions & I mean all directions. No topic is too taboo. There still is wine talk, with the occasional chit chat about who is enjoying whatever wine at the moment.

Our group has grown from seven people to eleven with friends & family in town for the holiday, we had people from New Jersey, Texas & of course Memphis.

The wines for this meeting were all great picks with nearly every major wine player in the Southern Hemisphere represented. Here is our list of wines.

2006 Crios de Susana Balbo Rosé of Malbec Mendoza, Argentina

2005 Pannotia Vineyards Torrontés Mendoza, Argentina

2004 Melipal Malbec Mendoza, Argentina

2005 Dos Lomos Malbec Mendoza, Argentina

2002 Marques de Casa Concha Cabernet Sauvignon Puente Alto, Maipo Valley Chile

2005 Caillero del Diablo Cabernet Sauvignon Central Valley, Chile

2004 Root 1 Cabernet Sauvignon Colchagua Valley, Chile

2004 Three Rings Shriaz Barossa Valley, Austrailia

2004 Rawson's Retreat Merlot South Eastern Austrailia

2005 Suavignon Republic Cellars Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough, New Zealand

2004 Luzon Jumilla, Spain*

*someone needed a geography lesson but this wine ended up being one of the favorites, plus our unofficial motto is "the only good rule is a broken one".

Our next meeting is sometime in December so be sure to look for the report on our Old World Wine tasting (this time a map will be distributed for the geographically challenged).