In the latest blind tasting episode of GuildSomm: Into the Glass, host and Master Sommelier Chris Tanghe chats with Erica Orr, a Washington winemaker and enologist. Erica crafts the wines for her own label, Orr, and also has a lab service providing wine analysis and consulting for other Washington wineries. Chris pours her a white, a rosé, and a red. After Erica tastes the wines blind, she and Chris discuss winemaking cause and effect.
Erica ran analysis on the wines that she and Chris tasted—find it below the fold, but don't scroll until you're ready for the wines to be revealed!
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Learn about Orr Wines.
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Erica Orr has been in the wine industry since 1998. While working as a biochemistry lab technician at UCSF, she spent a harvest with Cathy Corison in Napa Valley and decided to enroll in the enology master's degree program at UC Davis. There, she researched the indigenous yeast microflora in native Chardonnay barrel fermentations. Erica completed her master's degree in 2003 and went on to work harvest at Domaine Dujac in Burgundy, Gary Farrell in the Russian River Valley, Yering Station in the Yarra Valley of Victoria, Australia, and Cain Vineyards back in the Napa Valley.
Today, Erica is a winemaking and enology consultant in Woodenville, Washington, working with wineries including Baer Winery and Guardian Cellars. She has her own wine label, called Orr Wines, which she started in 2013.
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See Erica's analysis of the wines tasted on this episode: