WTN: Viva la Espana, Noland Brothers tasting

Noland Brothers Viva la Espana Tasting Jan. 2, 2009
Tasting Theme: Spanish red wine tasted blind.
Best wine with food wins tasting.
Best wine for drinking comes in second.

Wine A: Deep ruby red color with slight fade to the edge. Interesting nose of plums, raspberries and a tad of licorice. Sweet fruit, skittles, bitey tannins and balancing acidity on the midpalate. Funky earth at the start and black pepper notes filling out the medium long finish. This medium bodied wine had great balance.
Best food match with Navarra cheese which brought out beautiful sweet fruit in the wine and a enhanced the finish.

Wine B: Medium ruby color. Expressive nose of oak, vanilla, cedar, and a spice box. Midpalate of big tannins, vanilla, and nice sweet fruit. Soft medium long finish. Nicely balanced. Evolved with time with the oak eventually blowing off.

With food: nice sour cherries with the creamy Oka cheese with mushrooms. Navarra makes this wine shine with sweet fruit also and lengthens the finish.

Wine C: Deep violet color and the darkest of the three wines. Oak with a nice dark fruit underlay on the nose. Black fruit and oak on the midpalate with tannins that are nicely bitter with a bit of pucker power. Nice long finish of cherry fruit and oak. This wine tended to get stronger oak with time. Shows potential but needs some age.
With food: Navarra cheese goes well with this wine and enhances the midpalate by smoothing the tannins but tends to kill the long finish.

Note: all 3 wines thought to be quite nice .
Voting on wines:

Best sipper
James C>A>B
Bob A>C>B
Tom C>A=B

Favorite food wine
James A>B>C
Bob A>C>B
Tom A>B>C

Wines revealed:
Wine A: 2004 Vega Sindoa, Navarra, 13.5% abv 60% cabernet sauvignon 40% tempranillo James’ wine
Wine B: 2003 Altos de Luzon, Jumilla, 14.5% abv 50% monastrell, 25% cabernet sauvignon, 25% tempranillo, Bob’s wine
Wine C: 2005 Emina Prestigio, Ribera del Duero, 14.5% abv 100% tempranillo (16 months in French oak) Tom’s wine

[David M. Bueker]

It is interesting to me that for the Altos de Luzon (I think it's Altos, not Aldo) you don't have any fruit elements in the aromas.

It is interesting to me that for the Altos de Luzon (I think it's Altos, not Aldo) you don't have any fruit elements in the aromas.

David,

Even though it had been open for about 2 hours or so, this wine was predominantly oak on the initial nose. It did develop some nice fruit about 2 hours into the tasting and actually became quite fruity on the midpalate with air time also. It evolved the most of the three wines after opening. Mine, in contrast seemed to shut down in the fruit department with time and became more oaky. Strange!

It is interesting to me that for the Altos de Luzon (I think it's Altos, not Aldo) you don't have any fruit elements in the aromas.

David you are correct, it is Altos. This was my wine and it definitely needed decanted. This wine did show very well at dinner of Spanish Paella but was a bit shy when I popped and poured. Unfortunately I did not get enough time before the tasting to decant as we were preparing dinner, etc. I have had a few of these before this tasting and they have always shown well with lots of fruit components.