WTN: Spain
Posted: Sat Feb 23, 2013 6:21 pm
Notes from a Spanish themed dinner.
Jacques Picard Champagne Brut – nice fresh wine showing some floral and apple notes in the nose, clean and crisp with good acidity. Lacks only that bit of complexity that age may bring.
1990 Vina Tondonia Rioja Reserva Blanco – this white Rioja was now a medium yellow hue and the nose showed some excellent resin and caramelized apple notes that followed through strongly on palate. Good acidity and a very dry finish. You either love or hate this sort of wine, and I am in the former camp. Some old white Riojas become quite Sherried and bear oxidative notes, but this avoids that and is very vibrant.
1978 Torres Gran Coronas Black Label (Penedes) – my last bottle of this excellent wine. Someone called it Mas La Plana, and I corrected them – that was a name not yet coined by Torres for their top bottling. They started calling it Mas La Plana some time in the 1980s. It is 100% cabernet, aged in new American oak for 18 months. The remarkable thing is that at this age, we all had the same reaction that this couldn’t be American oak and must be French, until we checked it out. None of the dill hints of young American oak you often get. Mature and elegant, the wine still has excellent colour with garnet edges, not browning appreciably. The nose was mellow aged wood and soft fruit, the tannins all resolved. Lovely mature elegant cabernet. Wish I had bought more when it was released almost 30 years ago! This would make out very well indeed in a tasting of 1978 clarets or Californian cabernets (some Beaulieu Georges de Latour has also fooled me into thinking it wasn’t American oak when it was at least 20 years old)
1995 Vina Tondonia Rioja Reserva – corked!
1998 Vina Tondonia Rioja Reserva – a nice rounded vanilla and cocoa nose emanating from a dark red wine that still has pretty significant tannin as well as ample acidity. The question in my mind was whether or not this somewhat acidic wine has enough fruit to merit the additional ageing that the tannins clearly warrant. Time will tell. A reasonable showing at this point with a question mark for the future.
2001 Alion Ribera del Duero – this wine from the owners of Vega Sicilia was attractive at first sniff and taste and it just kept growing on me until it was finally all gone from my glass. It was dark and had a sweet nose of currants and berries, some up front soft tannin, well balanced in the middle with a lot of vanilla coming in, and a medium long smooth finish. I caught faint hints of dill after awhile. Very good showing.
2004 Pintia (Toro) – an first tasting of this wine for me, made by the same owners of Vega Sicilia, this showed sweet plumy fruit in the nose and was veritably stuffed with fruit on palate….but it was simple fruit in a simple wine that I doubt will ever develop complexity. Tasty, like a boysenberry cocktail, but hard to take too seriously as a vin de garde. Maybe others can prove me wrong with more data from older vintages? This reminds me a lot of some of the in-your-face Californian wines intended to impress and garner big point scores with shock and awe but then often seem to mature poorly and decline prematurely. Count me as not impressed on this one, but quite impressed with the Alion. Perhaps that’s just my taste preferences showing.
2004 Jorge Ordonez Malaga Seleccion Especial ‘1’ – instantly identifiable as Muscat by the nose that was almost crawling out of the glass at you, but contrary to my fears and expectations (I was thinking about the cloyingly sweet PX Malagas such as Lopez Hermanos (?) in a gold covered bottle that haunted me in year’s past) it was not cloyingly sweet, showed interesting notes of caramel and candied orange. Delightful!
Jacques Picard Champagne Brut – nice fresh wine showing some floral and apple notes in the nose, clean and crisp with good acidity. Lacks only that bit of complexity that age may bring.
1990 Vina Tondonia Rioja Reserva Blanco – this white Rioja was now a medium yellow hue and the nose showed some excellent resin and caramelized apple notes that followed through strongly on palate. Good acidity and a very dry finish. You either love or hate this sort of wine, and I am in the former camp. Some old white Riojas become quite Sherried and bear oxidative notes, but this avoids that and is very vibrant.
1978 Torres Gran Coronas Black Label (Penedes) – my last bottle of this excellent wine. Someone called it Mas La Plana, and I corrected them – that was a name not yet coined by Torres for their top bottling. They started calling it Mas La Plana some time in the 1980s. It is 100% cabernet, aged in new American oak for 18 months. The remarkable thing is that at this age, we all had the same reaction that this couldn’t be American oak and must be French, until we checked it out. None of the dill hints of young American oak you often get. Mature and elegant, the wine still has excellent colour with garnet edges, not browning appreciably. The nose was mellow aged wood and soft fruit, the tannins all resolved. Lovely mature elegant cabernet. Wish I had bought more when it was released almost 30 years ago! This would make out very well indeed in a tasting of 1978 clarets or Californian cabernets (some Beaulieu Georges de Latour has also fooled me into thinking it wasn’t American oak when it was at least 20 years old)
1995 Vina Tondonia Rioja Reserva – corked!
1998 Vina Tondonia Rioja Reserva – a nice rounded vanilla and cocoa nose emanating from a dark red wine that still has pretty significant tannin as well as ample acidity. The question in my mind was whether or not this somewhat acidic wine has enough fruit to merit the additional ageing that the tannins clearly warrant. Time will tell. A reasonable showing at this point with a question mark for the future.
2001 Alion Ribera del Duero – this wine from the owners of Vega Sicilia was attractive at first sniff and taste and it just kept growing on me until it was finally all gone from my glass. It was dark and had a sweet nose of currants and berries, some up front soft tannin, well balanced in the middle with a lot of vanilla coming in, and a medium long smooth finish. I caught faint hints of dill after awhile. Very good showing.
2004 Pintia (Toro) – an first tasting of this wine for me, made by the same owners of Vega Sicilia, this showed sweet plumy fruit in the nose and was veritably stuffed with fruit on palate….but it was simple fruit in a simple wine that I doubt will ever develop complexity. Tasty, like a boysenberry cocktail, but hard to take too seriously as a vin de garde. Maybe others can prove me wrong with more data from older vintages? This reminds me a lot of some of the in-your-face Californian wines intended to impress and garner big point scores with shock and awe but then often seem to mature poorly and decline prematurely. Count me as not impressed on this one, but quite impressed with the Alion. Perhaps that’s just my taste preferences showing.
2004 Jorge Ordonez Malaga Seleccion Especial ‘1’ – instantly identifiable as Muscat by the nose that was almost crawling out of the glass at you, but contrary to my fears and expectations (I was thinking about the cloyingly sweet PX Malagas such as Lopez Hermanos (?) in a gold covered bottle that haunted me in year’s past) it was not cloyingly sweet, showed interesting notes of caramel and candied orange. Delightful!