Christopher Tracy, Channing Daughters.

Riverhead - Blind tasting a series of wines and getting even within range of accurately guessing the varietal, much less the vintage, location and maker of the wine, is no easy task and certainly not an undertaking for the faint of palate.

That was abundantly clear last Saturday evening at the second installment of the "Winemakers' Smackdown," hosted by Richard and Soraya Pisacano's Roanoke Vineyards, when two of Long Island's most prominent and talented winemakers, Wolffer Estate's Roman Roth and Channing Daughters' Christopher Tracy, struggled in their assessments, along with Palmer winemaker Miguel Martin, Paumanok's Kareem Massoud and wine consultant, writer and lecturer Louisa Hargrave all of whom rounded out the tasting panel. The setting could not have been more perfect - a rare cool August evening with clear skies, the picturesque Roanoke vineyards as backdrop and a large but manageable crowd on hand to blind taste the seven wines picked to stump the winemakers by Roanoke Creative Director Scott Sandell, with assistance from Mark Grimaldi, wine consultant and East End sales representative for Michael Skurnik Wines.

Palmer's Miguel Martin and Louisa Hargrave.

Emceeing the "smackdown" was Sandell, who introduced the panel of winemakers and had the envious responsibility, fortunately or unfortunately, of revealing the identity of each wine after a five-minute tasting period after every blind pouring.

But lest anyone there thought that this might be an altogether serious and pedantic affair meant for deep-thinking wine experts, aspiring East End oenophiles and assorted wine geeks, Roth demonstrated all to the contrary by trotting out to the winemakers dais under the tent while shadowboxing and adorned in a leopard print Snuggly and a pair of boxing gloves hanging from his neck. Roth then proceeded to recite a series of groan-inducing rhymes intended to lampoon his competition on the panel. Ever the showman, the German-born winemaker, in his own indomitable way, consciously set the tone for the evening, putting everyone at ease and eagerly anticipating the fun that was to ensue.
And fun it was.

Roman Roth, Wolffer Estate.

This writer guessed just one out of the seven wines poured, which turned out to be the final wine - a 1988 Chateau Cissac from the Haut Medoc region of Bordeaux. And though that appears to be a less than stellar scoring, the truth is that the panel of "expert" winemakers didn't fare any better, much to the amusement of those in attendance. Curiously, the first wine poured - a white - turned out to be a 2007 Chardonnay from Chateau Montelena, the Napa Valley winery noteworthy for beating out every French white wine in a blind tasting in France in the early 1970s and the inspiration of the recent hit movie, "Bottle Shock."

Only Palmer's Martin guessed the wine correctly and proclaimed it a Napa Chardonnay. Roth, like this writer, was convinced the wine was from Burgundy. The rest of the evening involved subsequent misses by the panel, some near, some way off.

Perhaps most hysterical were the nuance-like characteristics - spicy, citrusy, white flowers, peach-like flavors, lychee - most of the winemakers gave to what turned out to be a boxed Chablis from Franzia, an inexpensive wine (often considered as "plonk" by wine snobs) of suspect quality. Only Martin, once again, got it right and claimed it had "no finesse" and was "probably from a mass producer."

Roanoke Owner Richard Pisacano with Louisa Hargrave.

The high point of the evening was wine number six, a clearly powerful red with intense, complex aromas that virtually leapt from everyone's glass. This writer proclaimed it a Hermitage from Australia, while the winemakers almost unanimously guessed Bordeaux. Everyone was in shock when it turned out to be a 2005 Barolo from Giovanni Corino that recently earned 96 points from Wine Spectator Magazine.

Despite the mistaken identities across the board from the winemaking panel in guessing the wines (Roth never needed those boxing gloves), the entire evening appealed to the senses on so many levels - a sense of taste, of smell, of visuals. And lest anyone forget, a sense of humor.

Wines That Stumped The Winemakers

(1) 2007 Chateau Montelena Chardonnay - Napa Valley
(2) 2007 Olivier Leflaive Puligny Montrachet - Burgundy
(3) NV Franzia Chablis - Lodi, CA
(4) 2008 Orin Swift Cellars "The Prisoner" Meritage - Napa Valley
(5) 2008 Broadley Vineyards Pinot Noir - Willamette Valley, OR
(6) 2005 Giovanni Corino Barolo Vigna Giachini - Italy
(7) 1988 Chateau Cissac Haut Medoc - Bordeaux

Audience participation made the tasting interesting.