Cameron Hughes Lot 51 [Malbec from Lujan de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina, 2004]: The only way to describe this wine was something like “all treble.” Fairly lovely, higher altitude fruit without much in the lower octaves. Good value, but nothing mind-blowingly good.Cameron Hughes Lot 25 [sparkling wine from Carneros, presumably 1999] Hate to say it, but a poor example of California sparkling wine. The fruit was too heavy, too rich, too ripe; the bead was anemic and it all felt like an overwrought California chardonnay that had been forced through a soda fountain. On the other hand, it didn’t smell too bad… but seriously: if you’re gonna buy California sparkling wine, there are better options. Beautiful bottle, however.St. Benno sparkling scheurebe [around $22] – Found this in a department store in Berlin. I thought it was intriguing with notes of lemon and pepper, but my partner felt it smelled and tasted like rotting celery or a dirty greengrocer’s. Definitely an acquired taste.Rotkäppchen sparkling pinot blanc (Weißburgunder) [around $27] – Rottkäppchen was the premier producer of sparkling wine in the GDR, and they’re one of the very few businesses to have prospered after German reunification (I think, but I’m not sure, that they now sell more sparkling wine than anyone else in Germany). This is their high end product – méthode traditionelle wine from Saxon grapes, no corners cut. It displayed definite varietal characteristics, but not much else: of course, proper stemware would have helped (I was using hotel room water glasses, what can I say?). Of course, for the money, there are probably better options available, but I was feeling adventurous.Franz Keller [?] Baßgeige Spätburgunder [pinot noir] – You want proof that climate change is a bad thing? Well, here you go. From Baden – ordinarily home to reasonably good Riesling – comes a German pinot noir that has all of the jammy, overripe lameness of too-warm California pinot noir. Very disappointing, especially compared with a pinot noir-gamay noir wine from the Valais that was drunk on the same evening.