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In this week's Premium Edition: The road less taken in Southern Italy One well-known principle in the quest for wine value is to look at the top wines from less-familiar wine regions as a good way to beat the supply-and-demand equation. In this week's Wine Advisor Premium Edition we'll take a look at a hearty, highly regarded red wine from Southern Italy, where unfamiliarity holds even the best wines well under the lofty price peaks reached by their cousins from Piemonte and trendy Tuscany.
The Premium Edition, our subscription-only E-letter, helps you shop with confidence when you're considering a more pricey bottle for a special occasion. The $24 subscription price - no more than you'd pay for a bottle of exceptionally fine wine - will bring you a full year of biweekly E-mail bulletins. Proceeds go to buy these special wines at retail, and help support WineLoversPage.com too! For a free sample of a previous edition, click here:
Click here to subscribe today: WT101: Rioja, plus Ranked third in the world after Italy and France for the title of top wine producer and actually leading in vineyard acreage, Spain may also outpace the competition as the source of wine value. With the limited exception of a relative handful of pricey "cult" reds from Rioja, Ribera del Duero and Priorat, Spain pours out a river of affordable, amiable red, white and pink wines that offer good drinkability and admirable value, remaining good bargains even in a weak-dollar era. For this month's topic in our Wine Tasting 101 Forum, let's explore two key Spanish wine regions. Rioja, the historic wine region in Northern Spain's Basque country, near the Pyrenees; and Castilla y Leon, a broad term for the wide upland plain that extends from Rioja south and west to the outskirts of Madrid and to Spain's border with Portugal, a geographical region that includes such wine-producing areas as Ribera del Duero, Rueda and Toro. Rioja, on the banks of the Ebro river, is subdivided into Rioja Alta, Rioja Baja and Rioja Alaversa. A little white Rioja is made, but red is the dominant style and Tempranillo is the dominant grape. In recent times, like many other European wine regions, Rioja has seen a growing gap between "traditional" producers and "modernists" who experiment with innovative wine-making processes and blends. We'll hope to explore these differences in more detail during February. Tempranillo is primary, too, in Ribera del Duero, although - as befits the region's size - there's a diverse collection of grapes and wines throughout Castilla y Leon. It's my pleasure to introduce my friend Joe Perry, a Boston-based wine lover and Rioja enthusiast, as guest host of Wine Tasting 101 for the month. Joe will participate regularly in the forum, offering tasting notes and responding to questions and comments about these regions and their wines. He has already begun a couple of active topics, which you're welcome to read and join in:
• Joe introduces himself and the topic in "February, Spanish Wine Month,"
• He provides a good, concise overview of Rioja, including an extensive wine-shopping list, in "Rioja: Searching for the end of the rainbow," As always, I've selected a couple of "benchmark" wines for the month, for those who wish to calibrate their palates, and compare tasting notes, with the same wines. • From Rioja, Faustino V 1998 Rioja Reserva ($16.99) from Bodegas Faustino, a major producer that's said to be Spain's largest exporter of Rioja wines. • From Castilla y Leon, an excellent value, low-end wine that I featured in the June 30, 2004 Wine Advisor, Osborne 2001 "Solaz" Vino de la Tierra de Castilla ($7.69).
My tasting note on the Faustino V is below. My report on the Osborne "Solaz" is online at
TALK ABOUT WINE ONLINE If you prefer to comment privately, feel free to send me E-mail at wine@wineloverspage.com. I'll respond personally to the extent that time and volume permit. 
Faustino V 1998 Rioja Reserva ($16.99)
This is a clear, dark reddish-purple wine, blackish in the glass. Black-cherry and brown-spice aromas add a whiff of oaky vanillins; swirling the glass brings up perfumed notes and a heightened sense of alcohol. Flavors follow the nose, rather light-bodied and tart, but there's plenty of crisp, spicy black fruit. It's a straightforward Rioja, not overly complex, but I wouldn't bet against it evolving with cellar time. Crisp acidic snap makes it a good food wine. U.S. importer: Palm Bay Imports, Boca Raton, Fla. (Feb. 6, 2005) FOOD MATCH: It made a fine match with hearty buffalo-meat cheeseburgers lightly seasoned with Tex-Mex spices. VALUE: The mid-teens is an appropriate range for a mass-market Rioja reserva. More sought-after labels will go for substantially more. WHEN TO DRINK: Rioja reserva is built to last, and even this relatively simple rendition should last for years in a good cellar. It's ready to enjoy now, though, so there's no need to wait.
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FIND THIS WINE ONLINE: The California Wine Club: Tuscan Sun Sweepstakes
To enter, visit The California Wine Club's website at www.cawineclub.com. In addition if you join The California Wine Club's International Selections, you'll be entered again. Plus, each time you send a gift of the International Selections you'll be entered again!
For details on the "Tuscan Sun Sweepstakes" please visit This week on WineLoversPage.com Here are links to some of our recently published articles that I think you'll enjoy:
• Wood on Wine: African-Americans and Wine
• Bucko's Wine Reports: Winter Releases
• QPRwines: Where wine quality and price relate
• Wine Lovers' Discussion Group: The magnet effect Last Week's Wine Advisor Index The Wine Advisor's daily edition is usually distributed on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays (and, for those who subscribe, the FoodLetter on Thursdays). Here's the index to last week's columns:
• Wine from ... India? (Feb. 4, 2004)
• Offbeat grapes and wines: Sagrantino (Feb. 2, 2004)
• What's up with French wine? (Jan. 31, 2004)
• Complete 30 Second Wine Advisor archive:
• Wine Advisor FoodLetter: Duck pasta (Feb. 3, 2004)
• Wine Advisor Foodletter archive:
SUBSCRIBE: Administrivia To subscribe or unsubscribe from The 30 Second Wine Advisor, change your E-mail address, or for any other administrative matters, please use the individualized hotlink found at the end of your E-mail edition. If this is not practical, contact me by E-mail at wine@wineloverspage.com, including the exact E-mail address that you used when you subscribed, so I can find your record. We do not use our E-mail list for any other purpose and will never give or sell your name or E-mail address to anyone. I welcome feedback, suggestions, and ideas for future columns. To contact me, please send E-mail to wine@wineloverspage.com All the wine-tasting reports posted here are consumer-oriented. In order to maintain objectivity and avoid conflicts of interest, I purchase all the wines I rate at my own expense in retail stores and accept no samples, gifts or other gratuities from the wine industry.
Monday, Feb. 7, 2005 |
