Aquilon My Friend: Ringland in Spain

WINE TALK
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Four Chris Ringland-involved Spain wines. Nothing like each other.

A few weeks ago Chris joined me and some friends for an SF dinner based on my sole bottles of a few of his historic Shirazes (by the way everyone reading this was invited on Offline Planner; you screwed up bigtime if you could have attended and did not. Just to be tacky, many wines now selling for well over $500.).

As for Spain. One of our members with an excellent Spanish palate raves about Alto Moncayo; plus, Chris told me he is excited about his new Spain project Triga, of which I had never heard.

So, after the dinner, I bought one of each of four sampler wines having had no Ringland Spain wines. I was going to hold them for a four wine tasting but decided (since the box wasn’t blocked by other boxes) to drink them by myself one at a time over several days. After these, I guess I go back to the boxes of 2012 Rhys in my bedroom.

I am a huge Ringland fan (of the wines he made before Grateful Palate) but I am going to point out mainly the negatives here.

All four wines, though, are bargains at what I paid, from Ultimate Wine Shop a month ago. I love their selections and website. All four bottles are strikingly beautiful with respect both to label and glass.

2010 Alto Moncayo Veraton Garnacha $23.99
Loved this. Grenache. It straddles the line between pure like rainwater (a la Birichino at the same price) and richer and buffetted. There is some oak but you’d have to be a real oakaphobe to think it unnecessary. I’m awfully close to giving this 93 points. A wine to buy by the case and don’t worry about giving it an hour air or over ten years of aging.

2011 Triga. Alicante. $39.97
A terrific story on the back label. So many reasons for me to love this: Chris’s emotions, the bottle, the variety, the story. But of the four wines, this is the one that makes me think of an Australian Parker 95 (I adore many Australian wines and abhor some too): clearly not in harmony yet, a big wine but the oak treatment might or might not be too much especially vis a vis lesser-oaked Italian Alicante. If you buy it, drink now if you love oak; if not, age for ten years. For me, I’ll buy an aged vintage in a few years off Winebid. If I had a bottle with extensive decanting I might find this expressive and very deep and exotic. But as I write this I realize, this…needs…age, and not because of structure.
Verdict: ??? At worst, a Caymus (from the old days, not the obscene lab concoction of today) at half the price; at best, Insignia.

2012 Clio. Jumilla. $39.94
The little sibling of El Nido, which the one time I had it reminded me of a $150 Napa cabernet in treatment. I like this better. It’s extremely satisfying in every way. But to me it adds nothing to my catalog of wine experiences. I would serve the Nido and Clio to people who have great palates who don’t want a challenge. Underpriced.

Aquilon 2006 Garnacha $84.99 Tempranillo (edited to add, see below: nope, grenache)
Campo de Borja; Alto Moncayo
What can I say? Huge, some oak, pure are my descriptors. But it gives me the thrill of the greatest Napa Cabernets I’ve had, and is in the same wheelhouse of Merlot but surpasses every merlot I’ve had. I love this wine too much to give people advice, it seems both nearly perfect and totally hedonistic but in a slightly restrained and utterly classy way. Should be double the price.

[intermission/interlude]

As I was cleaning up misspelled words before posting I took another sip of the Aquilon totally forgetting what it was. My brain SCREAMED Three Rivers as the closest thing it could relate it to. (The Three Rivers I poured last month for Chris is $1000 a bottle)

I am broke wine-wise but right after I click on Submit I’m getting six more bottles of the Aquilon.

And I have never discussed Aquilon with Chris, or anyone, or read anything about it, tonight this is my discovery, my wine, my palate, my soul.

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Your posts are blooming like madness in the spring.

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Picking up pieces of my broken luck. Snot running down my nose. Seriously Craig. A half hour later. This stuff is Tempranillo (edited to add, see below: nope, grenache) given the full (high-class, restrained, beautiful) Ringland treatment. As it airs the treatment fades and the Tempranillo (nope, grenache) comes out, leaner and earthier, a whole new chapter. I absolutely love this stuff irrationally!!! On a par with Vega Unico but a much richer wine that has far more than eternal purity going for it, if I were immortal I’d buy all the Unico I could find but the Aquilon is a wine to acknowledge mortality. Since my previous post I cleaned out Ultimate and cleaned out another merchant for a total of six bottles and now I’d have to pay three digits to get more. I am self conscious about my palate but once a year I find a no brainer for what makes me happy and this is it! Not an experiment, a revelation!

OK now I’m almost bullshitting.

By the way Craig your daughter has tremendous acting potential (edited to add: Craig’s child and my child just finished performing in the same high school play).

What the hell.

Whee!!!. I have 2/3 of the bottle left!

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George,

Maybe things have changed, but I could swear Aquilon was Grenache/Garnacha-based. Not that you shouldn’t love it, regardless.

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If you were immortal, wouldn’t you need to save more for retirement?

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I effed up. I have all four bottles next to me. After writing what I thought, caring little for the variety, I then picked up the bottles to add the variety to my notes. I picked up the Aquilon bottle and carelessly saw that it was IMPORTED by “Tempranillo Inc.” and carelessly said hey that’s the variety. Oops.

Aquilon is Garnacha. Now that you corrected me (THANK YOU!!) I can relax a little, because me adoring tempranillo in a Three Rivers kind of way makes less sense than me adoring grenache.

Usually at this point I feel shame. Nope. Too excited by this wine.

(Edited to add: Why did they have to call themselves Tempranillo Inc. and make me look even stupider than I am?)

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Yes I would need to buy more Unico, and 2009 Bordeaux, and 2005 Grand Cru Burgundy, which would make no sense for someone like me to buy unless I plan on living through the next Ice Age.

Next post: “Vinotemps and Ice Age: How to Reconcile?”

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[cheers.gif]

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Not that you have to age it to enjoy it but the Moncayo also ages and develops gracefully. Had recent bottles of the 2004 and the 2005 and they were great.

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I have still not had a Moncayo. But I shall. Thanks for the ageability data!

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Buy that Aquilon in SF? I eschew further Tull excerpts.

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Nah, it was from wherever Wine-searcher led me, I think out of state I don’t remember.

Sitting on a computer bench
Eyeing little listings with bad intent