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If you remember, Thursday and Friday brought us no big surprises in the Whole Foods bracket. The top seeds easily took out the bottom seeds and moved on to fight another day. Then, on Saturday, our first upset in the Whole Foods bracket with Castle Rock Pinot Noir Monterey County beating out the York Creek Red in a tight match-up.

So, that leaves us with one more match-up of a #1 and #2 seed to close out the first weekend of Grape Madness - the 2006 Klinker Brick Lodi Old Vine Zinfandel and 2006 Stephen Vincent Crimson.

In first round play, the Klinker Brick scored an 86 to beat out the Quail Creek Shiraz and the Stephen Vincent scored an 89 to crush the HM Rex Goliath Zinfandel. Going into this next round, it could easily be assumed that the Stephen Vincent would win handily, but that's the beauty of blind tasting - every wine has the same chance at a win.

Both wines started off pretty strong. The Klinker Brick was rich and lush, with soft tannins and a nice array of cherry and cedar. An interesting vanilla and caramel mixture gave the wine a sweetness I didn't expect or identify in the first round. But, the Klinker Brick quickly ran into trouble with low acidity and a bit of a dull, over-ripe jamminess that slowed it down and made it feel too heavy...like today's Charles Barkley trying to huff it down the court on a fast break.

The Stephen Vincent, on the other hand, definitely came to play again. Strong in the first round with a nice fruit and earthy blend, the consistency on this wine became clear on the fist sip of the second round. Good solid acidity kept the wine feeling vibrant and alive throughout the tasting and my old friend menthol delivered a punch on the nose that I'd come to expect and love from the Crimson...no problem hitting breakaways that the Klinker Brick couldn't get the energy to pull off.

Overall, not as interesting a match-up as I had hoped for and this round came up with the same scores as round 1 with the Stephen Vincent beating out the Klinker Brick 89 - 86.

Where does that leave us? Two days, two straight upsets...both my #1's went down and my #2's sailed right past them. With the 2006 Stephen Vincent Crimson and the 2007 Castle Rock Pinot Noir Monterey County coming out on top, I'm a little nervous going into the next round knowing that both my wines are #2 seeds and scored below 90. But, the beauty of the NCAA tournament is that you never really know who's going to win and everyone has a chance. So, I'll bank on that, get out my foam fingers and root for the underdogs...being a Seattle sports fan, I've been there before.

What do you think? Surprised my #1's went down? Did you pick any #2's in your bracket? Let me know.