TNs: Mostly Spanish wines

[Michael Malinoski]

There were 9 of us recently at Portugalia in East Cambridge for a delightful dinner of Portuguese specialties paired with some terrific wines. There was no official theme to the wines going into the evening, and nothing was served blind. Still, some interesting flights managed to take shape and several wines really stood out as fantastic.

White and sparkling wines:

There were a number of sparkling wines to start with, including a N.V. Luis Pato Vinho Espumante Bruto and a N.V. Codorníu Cava Pinot Noir Brut, but I didn’t get a chance to try either of those two.

2010 Raventós i Blanc Cava de Nit. This was the only sparkling wine I tried. A light pink-colored cava, this comes across as quite mineral-laden and smoky, with mostly herb, soda water, chalk and light strawberry aromas. In the mouth, it’s vibrant and bitter-tinged with tongue-cleansing acidity and some smoky red berry fruit flavors. It’s not especially friendly, but it is chiseled and bright.

2012 Anselmo Mendes Alvarinho Vinho Verde Muros Antigos. This wine presents a fresh and extremely floral bouquet of pretty cut flowers, melons, strawberries and peaches underscored by crunchy bits of mineral and chalk. In the mouth, it follows a similar progression—leading out with soft flowery flavors of canteloupe and peach fruit cup but quickly undershot by crunchy acidity and a freshening lift. It’s quite a fun, clean, and honest wine that’s easy to sip and enjoy.

2001 Trimbach Gewurztraminer Cuvée des Seigneurs de Ribeaupierre. There’s such an engaging nose to this wine—full of rich and oily aromas of lychee, honeycomb, melon and wild exotic spices that just keep pulling you back for more sniffs. In the mouth, it’s a bit softer and more rounded than I was maybe expecting, but it really fills the mouth nicely with plenty of giving lychee, spice, toast, rosewater, melon, smoke and star fruit flavors. It has a nice acidic undertone, especially on the sligthly bitter-toasted finish. I enjoyed this alot.

2010 Saint-Cosme Condrieu. There’s a rather stony nose to this wine, much more focused on rocks, minerals and subtle white flowers than anything else—coming across as chiseled, cool and clear. In the mouth, it’s tight and coiled with flavors of pear, green apple, white peach, mineral and flowers that are direct and tangy though not all that sharp. It’s deftly-made, in my opinion.

1995 M. Chapoutier St. Joseph Blanc Les Granits. There’s a bit of an orange tint in the color of this wine, and indeed on the nose one senses gently oxidative notes of praline, walnuts and browned butter. In the mouth, it again features nutty flavors at the core, with some sherried tones in the background. The solid acidic balance and the cohesive finish are nice but I’m afraid this is past its peak.

2007 Schloss Saarstein Riesling Serriger Schloss Saarsteiner Spätlese Mosel Saar Ruwer. I like the young and direct, but nicely lifted nose of white peaches and cream aromas accented by fine maraschino cherry bits one finds with this young Riesling. In the mouth, it exhibits very good balance, gentle sweetness, and effortless flow—with fine top notes and solid bass notes kicking in at the same time. It could stand to lengthen out a bit with more time in the cellar, but it’s easy to drink far too much of this right now.

Red wines:

1998 R. López de Heredia Rioja Reserva Viña Tondonia. As noted above, there was no theme set for the dinner, yet five bottles of Lopez de Heredia were brought by various parties—a happy happenstance, indeed! Although this particular bottling can’t claim to be quite as complex as some of the later offerings, it still delivers a fun, layered and very appealing bouquet of dried cherries, violets, leather, earth, tobacco leaf and pencil shaving aromas. It’s a bit more direct and strident than the later wines on the palate, but it delivers wonderful flavors of dried cherries, sweet raspberries, leather and clean earth to go along with a violet-infused inner mouth perfume. There’s a more obvious acidic underpinning here and there’s gentle tannin still in play toward the back, but this is tasty and very nicely done, in my opinion.

1994 R. López de Heredia Rioja Reserva Viña Bosconia. This one smells a bit over-ripe or possibly heat-damaged to me—with aromas of nuts, figs, black cherry paste, praline, caramel and Christmas fruitcake. In the mouth, it’s spicy, juicy and tangy—with more obvious tannin than anything else in the flight and flavors of nuts, figs, plums and black cherries that are pretty big-framed and mouth-filling but seemingly a bit out of balance to my tastes. It’s not up to the standards of the rest of the flight, but may not have been a perfect bottle, either.

1994 R. López de Heredia Rioja Gran Reserva Viña Tondonia. Now, this is the real deal. It opens with absolutely gorgeous aromatics that are incredibly enticing and inviting—with finely-aged scents of pounded leather, incense, lilac bunches, dried cherries, dried raspberries, graphite powder and pencil shavings, among others. It’s lilting, soft, complex and layered--with outstanding old world personality all the way. It’s so smooth and finely-aged with dired cherry and raspberry fruit flavors on the palate, too—with fine acidity and earthy savory underpinnings. It’s medium-weighted, tasty, poised and smooth-finishing—a huge winner from start to finish.

1985 R. López de Heredia Rioja Gran Reserva Viña Tondonia. This is another wonderful wine, but quite different in personality. It’s deeper, darker and more robust on the nose, with great depth and density of aroma in its notes of cedar wood, smoke, crayons, dark cherries, leather, black currants, earth and graphite. It’s wonderfully expansive, rich and intense, yet also nuanced and finely-layered in the top registers. It’s a very thought-provoking—though less obviously pretty—nose when compared to the 1994. In the mouth, it’s beautifully smooth in texture and flow, and is loaded with ink, blood, seaweed wrapper and iodine sorts of flavors lending support to the core fruit elements of black cherries and black raspberries. It feels significant all around and just keeps on pumping out the flavors. It’s a delicious wine all around.

1981 R. López de Heredia Rioja Gran Reserva Viña Bosconia. CORKED.

1996 C.V.N.E. Rioja Imperial Gran Reserva. This was brought out as the back-up for the corked ’81 Bosconia, and we were quite glad to have the opportunity to drink it, as it is absolutely hypnotic on the nose, with wafting aromas of old book leather, dried sweat, black figs, blueberries and fun oak spices galore coming forth right from the start. On the palate, it’s absolutely loaded with sweet blueberry fruit and exotic spice flavors. It’s still mildly tannic at times, but it’s fun and playful despite being rather sappy and concentrated in texture and flavor. It all works together beautifully and is just a delight to drink.

2004 La Rioja Alta Rioja Viña Ardanza Reserva. This wine presents maybe the darkest and earthiest bouquet of the night—with scents of smoke, ash, saddle leather and savory spices coming together quite nicely. It’s solidly-built on the palate, with full flavors of spiced blueberries and blackberries to go with toasty oak and cedar notes. It has a creamy texture, solid stuffing and fine acidity. It’s young and it’s full of nice fruit flavors, but it’s showing some encouraging secondary development and I suspect it will keep on getting better over the next several years.

1987 Bodegas Vega-Sicilia Ribera del Duero Único. This wine was double decanted about 5 hours before dinner. Man, it’s gorgeous stuff on the nose, with dark and smoldering aromas of black cherry and blackberry fruit, iron filings, toasted herbs, cedar, leather, tobacco and scorched earth rising up from the glass. It’s pretty intense still on the palate, too, with a deep and inky concentration of dark cherry, raspberry and cassis flavors that are drinking quite nicely right now. There are still some rounded tannins evident, but the wine delivers so much delicious flavor that they don’t impact the palate that much at all. It’s loaded with flavor, character, depth and life, and I see no signs of it dropping off any time soon. It’s a real treat.

1999 Domenico Clerico Barolo Ciabot Mentin Ginestra. Here one finds a wonderful nose of roses, tar, smoked cherries, green tobacco leaf, menthol, classy wood, earth and chicory. It’s serious, fine, earthy and layered, and just really engaging all around. Palate-wise, it’s chock-a-block with chewy red and black fruit and tons of earthy flavors. It’s still rather tannic and structured at this stage, but it’s showing off a lot of cherry, blackberry and savory earth flavors that are generous and giving. It’s impressive and exciting, but clearly needs more time, so check back in in about 5 years.

There were also bottles of 2007 Quinta de la Rosa Douro Passagem - The Crossing and 2010 Calantica Alentejo, but I didn’t get around to trying those.

Sweet wines:

1996 Domaine des Baumard Quarts de Chaume. This wine presents classic aromas of liquid caramel, lanolin, wool, minerals and soft nuts. In the mouth, it delivers a good dose of light caramel, quince, spiced pear, dried pollen, nut and honeycomb flavors. It has great length and staying power, too, and is just a really tasty Chenin Blanc.

1990 Château Rieussec Sauternes. There’s a beautiful orange-gold color to this Sauternes to go along with fabulous aromas of dried apricots, orange slices, persimmon and classy brown botrytis spices. It’s beautiful in the mouth, with classy nectrarine and marmalade flavors accented by creamy toasted meringue and exotic spice notes. It’s not flashy, just pleasingly fleshy, balanced and well-defined all the way through. This is really well done and drinking quite fine right now.

N.V. Gonzalez-Byass Pedro Ximénez Jerez-Xérès-Sherry Viejo Noé (30 Years/Años). This is absolutely glass-staining in viscosity, with luxuriant aromas of figs, dates, toasted nuts, and slate. It’s full of sweet fig, date, raisin and walnut flavors that are intense and pasty, full-bodied, weighty and viscous. It’s tasty and rewarding.

2005 Jorge Ordoñez & Co. Málaga #3 Old Vines. I didn’t think this was showing quite as exciting on the nose as the last time I tried it, with some lifted and bitter-tinged aromas of caramel, botanical herbs, nuts, honey and browned butter. In the mouth, though, it’s very sweet, with lemon-lime flavors to go along with sweet apricots and brown sugar. Again, it’s been better in the recent past.

2007 Peller Estates Cabernet Franc Icewine Andrew Peller Signature Series Niagara Peninsula. This pours a dark brownish-red color and smells of spiced nuts, toasty oak, brown spirits and raisin box. In the mouth, it’s wonderfully funky-sweet and luxuriant, with sexy incense, blueberry preserve, spiced plum, dark honey and raisin flavors in spades. It’s rich, dense and full-flavored, and sticks to the palate a good long while.

1994 Taylor (Fladgate) Vintage Porto. There’s a dark nose here of horsehair, iodine, black plum and moist earth, without any significant spirit aspects. It’s rich and dark on the palate, with black cherry, date, caramel and sweet cocoa flavors that are pasty and delightfully persistent. It’s an excellent exclamation point on a tremendous evening.


-Michael

[Nicklasss]

Thanks for this report Michael.

R. Lopez de Heredia is a special producer, like Quintarelli or Joly, and I only had one of their wine once, but liked the traditionnal aspect of it.

OK, the next great great wine I need to try, is a Vega Sicilia Unico, as all reviews about it are always very favorable. But when will I try it?

Nic

[Nicklasss]

Taking about Joly, I've tried the 2009 Coulée de Serrant, and would be interested in your description of it. A superb white wine, with it own style, so light but complexe and intense at the same time, that it is a bit mindboggling!

Nic