Virtual Tasting Series - VIVA ESPANA (Spanish Reds)!

Tag, I’m it. Thanks Scott for the hand-off, hope I can keep the great themes rolling!

So I’m fired up about Spanish reds right now. Just came back from a wonderful trip to Spain, drinking some really nice, inexpensive, food-friendly wines, and just got in 1.5 cases of Spanish reds that I bought to sample. Seems like quite a few folks on the Board enjoy Spanish wines as well, with some recent postings by, among others, Neal with a very mature Rioja, and BrianG with a 2005 La Rioja Alta Arana, which I happened to have popped a few days ago as well.

My hope is to reacquaint myself with a country known for its wine and cuisine culture and history. I used to drink quite a bit of Spanish wines years ago and just drifted away. It seemed like my local stores started carrying the more modern-styled Spanish wines from Jumilla and Priorat rather than more traditional Rioja and Ribera producers. Not a crack on the modern stuff, it’s just not my style. I do, however, have some 2004 and 2005 Clio that I will pop this week in the interest of science, checking in to see how they mature.

Tonight I popped a 2004 La Rioja Alta Vina Ardanza Reserva and have a 2001 904 in que for Friday. The Vina Ardanza, according to TWA, “is a blend of 80% Tempranillo and 20% Garnacha from 30-year-old vines in Fuenmayor and Cenicero. It is aged for 36 months in four-year-old American oak.” Stated ABV of 13.5%.

Pretty nose of sweet dried cherries, tobacco, cinnamon and vanilla. Crisp, clean melange of red fruits, tangy, sweet, reminiscent of dried fruits. My Cuban mother makes the best christmas fruit cake on the planet, dry, nutty with a mix of sweet dried fruits of all sorts. This wine is a liquid version of that cake, sending me down memory lane. My wonderful mother also has a sophisticated, traditional red wine palate. I think she would like this wine. My preference would be to see less maturation in American oak, but I guess this is a house style. It’s sexy and traditional at the same time. Comparatively, the 2005 Arana is larger in scale, more pronounced oak, less sophisticated. A yummy wine in its own right, but given the choice, I lean toward this bottling. At $27.99, this is a tremendous value.

Oh, the charity. . . .

I hope this does not sound selfish, but tomorrow I’m committing $250 to my son’s public school. Florida public schools, probably like many states, have had their budgets slashed, and sports have been a prime beneficiary of reduced budgets. As a freshman, he just made the varsity tennis team. Their facilities are not so good. All of us parents spent the day on Saturday sprucing up the courts and grounds, laying mulch, installing wind screens, etc., but they need balls, travel budgets, miscellaneous equipment. The school is hosting a 5k fundraiser in February for the athletic departments. If you sponsor, you can designate which sport gets the bulk of the money. I will commit to $250 (and told my son he must run, plus committed another $50 if he breaks 22 minutes). Every kid on the varsity tennis team must run - coach laid down the rule!

I donated $250 a few weeks ago to the school’s charitable closet, which provides clothing, basic necessities and school supplies to high school kids in need, on a very confidential, respectful basis. I will donate another $10 for every additional note over 25. Please push me up to another $250 for this wonderful charity. That’s only 50 notes on this thread. The charity is called Kemosabe’s Closet. Not sure the genesis of the name, but the school sports teams are called the Boone Braves.

Looking forward to hearing some great recommendations from this wise crew! Thanks for playing.

Nice selection, wine and charity.

CLICK HERE for a list of eligible Spanish red wines from your cellar.

Good news, I have some.

Add three for charitable purposes . . .

Nothing, nada, zero, zilch, zip. Starting become a recurring answer for me.

Rob, you need to place your post in Spanish too, to get into the flavor!

Come on guys - go to your local store! Spanish wines are abundant and cheap!

Or just steal them.

[quote=“Brian G r a f s t r o m”]
2005 La Rioja Alta Rioja Viña Arana Reserva > - Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alta, Rioja (12/31/2013)
– popped and poured –
– tasted non-blind over approx. 90 minutes –

NOSE: oaky; red berries; violets.

BODY: blood red color of medium depth, with slight bricking at the edges; medium-light bodied.

TASTE: very oaky — coconut; 13% alc. not noticeable; fine tannins; very oaky right now; lightly tart; non-descript red fruits. Hold.

---

2011 Celler Piñol Terra Alta Raig de Raïm > - Spain, Catalunya, Tarragona, Terra Alta (12/31/2013)
– from a half-full bottle that was opened the previous day –
– tasted non-blind over approx. 30 minutes –

NOSE: very fruity — purple fruits.

BODY: violet color of medium-deep to deep depth; medium to medium-full bodied.

TASTE: quite fruity — cherry and non-descript purple fruits; 14% alc. stands out a bit; medium tannin.

---

2012 Pazo de Barrantes Albariño Rías Baixas > - Spain, Galicia, Rías Baixas (12/31/2013)
– popped and poured –
– tasted non-blind over approx. 30 minutes –

Light yellow-green color — nearly colorless. Nose is floral, with a mineral-tinged lime aroma. Light bodied on the palate, with lots of mineral and a floral/powder aspect.
[/quote]

Sitting here minding my own business, and I get this friendly email offer for a 97-point Rioja for $30 . . . .

http://www.bestwinesonline.com/product/3507/Faustino_I_Rioja_Gran_Reserva_2001.html

Anyone try this wine?

I quickly came up with four wines I could open and stopped looking at that point. I will probably only be able to get to two in a week so I may choose one inexpensive red blend Montsant Can Blau from Catalunya in the spirit of bargains from Spain, and one older Rioja, a 1998 Gran Reserva which hopefully is a more traditional Spanish style. (The other two I am considering are a 2004 Lar Paula Rioja from old vines and a 2009 Arrocal Ribera del Duero which is probably a bit young at this point–Richard Jennings suggests giving it until 2015 before opening.)

Chirp, chirp . . . .

Hope I didn’t pick a dud theme here, boys and girls.

So here is another:

2005 Dehesa La Granja, Alejandro Fernandez, Ribera del Duero.
100% Termpranillo, matured 24 months in American oak

Moons ago I used to drink lots of Pesquera and Condado de Haza. Alejandro made some nice stuff back then. Imagine my surprise in the '90s, then, to hear his niece was marrying a close cousin of mine, and a big society wedding was planned in Boca Raton, FL, with Mr. Fernandez himself in attendance. I was excited to meet the man, but sadly, he did not speak a lick of English and my Spanish, at the time, was pathetic. So we drank, toasted, drank and moved on. The marriage later failed.

At $15.99, this is a decent wine. TWA and IWC seem to like it quite well, perhaps slightly better than me.

Clean, pure red and dark fruits, cedar, spice and slight kick of balsamic. Full-bodied, still fairly structured and tannic. Nice acidic crisp. Should soften in a few and will be interesting to see where it heads. Lacking the complexity I once found in Pesquera and Condado de Haza, but a damn fine QPR.

Getting the ball rolling:

2001 La Rioja Alta 904: notable bottle variation, at best, young but good potential, with a smoky, Graves-like note, some bottles plagued by a bit of dill pickle.

1991 Lopez Heredia GR Bosconia: seems to show better with an extended decant, can be shy and even shrill at first but unfurls with time, at best shows like a mature burg with Vosne-like spiciness

1991 Lopez Heredia GR Tondonia: always a strange wine from my perspective, more acid with a nose that reminds me of 30 year old nebbiolo, also a fair amount of bottle variation compared with its sibling

1952 Lopez Heredia GR Tondonia: pretty glorious wine, at times Graves-like, at times more like an older Barolo, but in each case, a lovely, lovely wine

1962 Vega Sicilia Unico: lots of variability in this wine, but great bottles show depth and silkiness, one bottle ended up in a tasting with a Vandermuelen bottling of 47 Cheval and there were remarkable similarities

2010 Bodegas El Nido Jumilla Clio Red Blend
Drank on 1/26/2014
750ml
B; reticent nose belies intensely rich wine; syrupy texture; clear red fruit flavor with tart acid and slight heat; all of the elements are in balance, but the experience is overpowering in every respect; a true cocktail wine. Will this soften with age? I will wait at least a year before trying another of these

2009 Cellars Can Blau Monsant Can Blau
14.5% abv. Mazuelo grapes: 40%; Syrah: 40%; Garnacha (Grenache): 20%. Very dark purple color and opaque in the glass. Nose of dark fruits with maybe a hint of rhubarb. Somewhat tannic but the blackberry/boysenberry fruitiness makes it an easy drinker for a casual meal such as burgers, sloppy joes or maybe tacos. I also tried it with smoked Gouda cheese and liked the pairing. Usually this wine is available for well under $20 in USA and thus is good QPR for a modest weekday wine.

Next I will open a 1998 Rioja Gran Reserva.

I’m generally a big fan of Spanish wines and drink a good bit of Rioja and RbD. I prefer the more rustic, smoky, earthy expressions. I drank one Wednesday/Thursday that I reviewed on CT, that wasn’t to my style:

2007 Bodega Carmen Rodríguez Toro Caro Dorum Seleccion Especial Crianza

Big, jammy, oaky, high-alcohol, with little complexity. The vintners at Bodega Carmen Rodríguez are chasing Parker ratings. If I had been served this in a blind tasting, I’d have guessed this to be a California Zinfandel from a hot vintage. The finish features puckering tannins.

Might be better after years of cellaring. 83 points.

Addendum: with aeration, a strong dill note emerges on the palate.

Popping one tonight. My last one showed this way as well.

planning to join the fray this evening

I’ll join at the end of this weekend as well. Already have two or three older riojas standing and waiting. Great theme.

I’m in tonight for Viva Espana.

Yep, I’m in for a Spanish Red too…Just decanted a Goyo Garcia Viadero and will report back tonight. (If I can wait that long. It smells amazing)

Some wines from Peter Sisseck, I have a lot of Spanish wines… will contribute more during the week!

All wines showed an undeniable style that connected them, however each was true to its own terrior. All of them showed complex aromas and flavors that would reveal themselves slowly in layers, they seemed to be built with an engineering like precision. You could sense the impeccable nature of the winemaking by the silkiness of the texture, and the delicate yet clean fruit flavors. Although the fruitiness seemed to take center stage, most of the wines showed an undeniable minerality that intermingled with the acidity to create a sensation of freshness. Is Pingus worth the high price tag? In my opinion I would avoid buying this wine solely because their second label, Flor de Pingus, offers a very similar drinking experience. In fact, they are so similar that the only real difference I could taste was the weight of the wine; Pingus boasted more body as well as a bit more persistence of dark fruit flavors on the finish, but besides this all else was similarly consistent.

Pingus PSI 2009
Aranda del Duero, Ribera del Duero, Valladolid, Castilla y León
Spain

A wine that goes extremely well with food, boasting a mid-bodied structure, with a black semi-translucent core and bright red hue on the edge. The aromas are a bit muted but you can pick up some sour cherries, raspberries, blackberries, licorice, smoke, and spices. Very forward, showing juicy fruit up front like strawberries, cranberries, raspberries, with subtle hints of blackberries, plums, and refreshing acidity on the mid-palate. The acidity lingers through the short finish where notes of spices, saline minerality, and sand like tannins appear.
90+ points

Viñas de la Vega del Duero Quinta Sardonia 2009
Sardon del Duero, Valladolid, Castilla y León
Spain

A dense wine with a glossy surface, black colored core with beautiful purple rims showing a perfume laden nose of plums, blackberries, blueberries, black cherries, violets, cedar, incense, burnt soil, Indian spices, stone dust, and a dollop of creamy vanilla. Rich textured with suave luscious flavors of dark cherries, blueberries, blackberries, that rush into the mid-palate where notes of raspberries, dark chocolate, roasted meats, and espresso appear. A long finish on this mid to full bodied wine with flavors of milk chocolate, cassis, spices, vanilla cream, hints of citric peel, and gritty yet polished tannins. Impeccably constructed, exuding elegance, and complex.
94+ points


Hacienda Monasterio Reserva 2007
Pesquera de Duero, Ribera del Duero, Valladolid, Castilla y León
Spain

An opaque black colored wine with bright ruby rims showing aromas of dark cherries, plums, blackberries, roasted red peppers, roasted meats, spices, incense, espresso, violets, and a lot of oak imparted vanilla. A smooth textured mid to full bodied structure filled with juicy dark fruit flavors on the attack with roasted meat, dark chocolate, raspberries, roasted peppers on the mid-palate. The finish is quite succulent and long with dark cherries, blackberries, plums, spices, and chewy tannins. A classic rendition of Ribera del Duero, a bit sweet on the end and almost monotonous, otherwise really well built.
91+ points

Flor de Pingus 2001
La Horra, Ribera del Duero, Valladolid, Castilla y León
Spain

An opaque wine with a dark core and bright ruby red rim, showing aromas of cherries, raspberries, cranberries, plums, blackberries, cassis, new leather, burnt soil, cedar, dried forest leaves, smoke, espresso, roasted red peppers, and spices. On entry the wine shows an explosion of sweet red berries, sour cherries, and blackberries that lead to a complex mid-palate filled with refreshing acidity and flavors of plums, coffee, dark chocolate, roasted meats, with small hints of saline minerality. As the wine progresses towards the finish the minerality takes over along with dark berries, spices, small hints of creamy vanilla, and polished chewy tannins. A mid to full bodied wine with a Bordelais character, showing layers of flavors, precision, and elegance.
93+ points

Pingus 2001
La Horra, Ribera del Duero, Valladolid, Castilla y León
Spain

An opaque black core with intense red rims and viscous texture that is apparent to the eye. Very pungent Bordelais nose with blackberries, blueberries, plums, cassis, cedar, tobacco, smoke, leather, humid forest floor, grilled meats, spices, crushed rocks, and subtle vanilla. Opulent full bodied wine with sweet plums, blackberries, blueberries, cassis on the attack, leading to dark chocolate and refreshing acidity on the mid-palate. The juicy fruit lingers up to the long finish, where it mixes with smooth polished tannins, revealing notes of cloves, cinnamon, black pepper, roasted meats, subtle creamy vanilla, and mouth drying minerality. Very balanced, smooth textured, light but intense flavors.
96 points