A series of events leading to opening some tasty bottles.
The reason for celebration was my wonderful girlfriend. She is both more intelligent and more likable than me (naturally), and we celebrated both her birthday and her first pitch competition win(!!!) last week. It was also the first she has ever entered! I am immensely proud of her, and retrospectively should’ve opened a Barbera. That’s the only grape she seems to have any interest in. Regardless, though wine is not her first choice of beverage, she at least tried a sip of each of the below.
2021 Coto de Hayas Grenacha Centenaria: Tasty value wine that pleased her parents palates (big, bold) and paired with dinner. Unfortunately, I cannot claim that accolade as it happened to be one of the 3 bottles we receive for a wine club (through the same restaurant, so no corkage to open with dinner). Worked quite well with a marrow appetizer and a superb polenta bbq sausage dish for dinner. So fruity and up-front in the nose, there is lots of ripe red fruit and oak. Pleasant acidity in mouth to keep everything balanced. Surprisingly long finish with some lovely bits of spice. For a sub $18 bottle, this falls under the “would buy” category. Curious how this will develop in 5 years, might have to buy some to try that.
2000 Bodegas Urbina Rioja: Underwhelming experience. While it was certainly a cool experience to have an older wine that’s readily available for under $50 ($61 in the restaurant), this was just mediocre. Nice layers of leather, some soil for sure, and some dried, sweetened cranberries came out of the nose and in the mouth. All was subdued initially. A decant, 3 hours, and some extensive swirling showed more expressiveness over the evening. Curious what this would be like after a day, or several, of being open. Moderately tasty, I’d give it a solid “Only if it’s on sale” on my buy-again scale. Paired nicely with the few bites of dinner that remained.
2016 Travaglini Gattinara Riserva: Now this is what I was most interested in. A bottle I got for my 21st, so I’ve been thinking about it for a whole year! Given that it’s now turned 10, I figured it was appropriate to try. I was wrong. Serious Nebbiolo, with an overwhelming tannin. It’s as if the wine had a vehement opposition to my mouth feeling anything other than dry. That said, it was delicious. Wonderful aromas of raspberry, blackberry, dried floral notes, and dry soil. Supporting those flavors was a wonderful level of acidity. Really wanting to go find one of these that is 20 or 30 years old and experience what it is like. This was after dinner had concluded, so pairing was with nothing but crackers and some sharp cheddar. Would’ve been very happy if a plate of creamy pasta buried in truffles had fallen from the sky. On a side note, it’s always a hilarious experience having wines with this particular friend. He’s more of a Coors and lifted truck guy. Thus, I of course got great grandma’s crystal candelabra out for some comedically romantic lighting while we sat on my little balcony and enjoyed Gattinara out of my fanciest glasses. Anyways, time to find more of this and then forget about it for a decade.
While the wines were not the highlight of the evening, they certainly didn’t detract from the experience at all! If you (or someone you know) are interested in women’s specific cycling clothing, check out Addison’s early access site here: https://ridelikeagirl.club/.
