This is a wine traditionally made with Tempranillo and is aged 12 months in oak. It comes from the Rioja region of Spain (the most famous of Spain's regions) and from a prestigious producer of the area - LAN. Now that the preliminaries are out of the way its time to get down to those brass tacks people talk about ... the wine itself. As mentioned in a previous post, I'm doing my typical winter wander through my cellar and picking out old bottles to taste. This wine is only 6 years old - so not the oldest I'll subject my taste-buds to, but it might turn out to be one of the best. This was an absolutely stellar wine that kept getting better and better the more it sat open in the glass. The nose was earthy (at first - this dissipated with an hour in the glass) along with plum, cedar and some strawberry aromas, which seem to struggle to get through, but did eventually make it. That earthy note that was on the nose was no where to be seen on the palate: plum, blackberry, sour cherry, and smoky ... but wait, near the finish it (the earthiness) did pop in to play with some cassis that lingers on. At about the hour-and-a-half mark it hit its stride and showed black cherry and cocoa from mid-palate to finish (and into the long linger). Simply lovely.
Friday, January 11, 2013
Thursday, January 10, 2013
McKinley Springs 2007 Bombing Range Red (Washington)
It's been just over a year since I cracked the cap of my last bottle of Bombing Range Red (November 2011), enjoyed it then and was planning to enjoy it now ... and I did, a little after the fact ... Upon first pour I thought it a bit too acidic, had the fruit really disappeared in such a short period of time? I'm happy to report, no. It took about a half hour in the glass but that lovely rich fruit managed to show itself and then stayed front and center for the rest of the drinking. Dark berries dominate, a little smokiness with hints of cranberry and plum take a backseat but are most definitely there. Still a very tasty bottle.
Wednesday, January 9, 2013
Marchigue 2004 Reserve Cabernet Franc/Petiti Verdot (Chile)
It's winter, and that means it's time to dig deep into the cellar to see what kind of finds we can locate to warm up our cockles; hibernation does that kind of thing to a person. This evening I opened up an odd Chilean blend of Cabernet Franc (80%) and Petit Verdot (20%) - not a combination of grapes you usually see standing on their own. Upon opening it was a little harsh, both on the nose and the palate - so I decided to give it a little time and a little aeration. With a pour through my VinOair I was able to achieve something closer to what I was hoping for: the nose had smoky tobacco notes along with some cedar and cinnamon ... and it continued to get pleasant the more it opened. The palate had an ebb and flow of interesting fruit flavours - dried and sweet - that reoccurred after each two or three sips, it materialized between the cedar and cinnamon notes that seemed to be ever-present. The finish was enticing with licorice and mocha which was very tasty almost made the wine worth every sip ... the only drawback was the dry cigarette ash linger which left a little something to be desired, but it meant you had to keep sipping to keep those pleasant flavours going - that way it was only the last sip you had to endure the ashtray on.
Tuesday, January 8, 2013
Finca El Retiro 2001 Syrah (Argentina)
A few days ago I tried a bottle of the 2004 version of this wine (see review here) - I was impressed that an eight year old bottle of Argentinian Syrah could taste so good ... well I can now also tell you that an eleven year old bottle did not fare as well. The 2001 Syrah was a wooden, earthy, long-gone-to-the-Yukon mess that showed little sign of what must have been a beautiful past. Little to no fruit (actually I didn't taste a drop), the nose was wooden and earthy with forest floor running through it all the way to the finish. The palate was like drinking pressed wood with a cedar mid and a hint of something smoky (which is the best flavour I could find in the bottle. Not sure I'm going to let the other bottles get to be this old so I know what I'll be drinking during BBQ season this year. Sorry Finca El Retiro Syrah - at 8 you were tasty, at 11 you were gone.
Saturday, January 5, 2013
4 Bottles from 3 Countries (Ontario / New Zealand / Portugal)
An interesting night of wine. Started with one of my last two bottles of Stoney Ridge's inaugural Sparkling wine from 2005 ... sadly it was corked, you could smell it right off the bat, thankfully the taste was intact for the first few sips so we could see where it would have been - it was still fresh and lively with acidity, sadly the flavour was consumed with cork notes within minutes.
Next up was a bottle of Angels Gate 2005 Old Vines Chardonnay - the tasting of this wine is documented here - so there is little more to say about it. Next up was a bottle of Marisco 2010 Marlborough Pinot Noir, which I tried last on November 14 - little has changed with this wine, it is still delicious and I expect it to get more so in the next few years, if I can just leave some bottles alone and stop showing them off. The real surprise of the night was a bottle of Ferreira 1999 Late Bottled Vintage Port. Now I know people say that LBV Port does not age nor does it change and needs to be drunk within a few years of purchase, but I disagree ... I think this bottle is still as delicious as the day I bought it, maybe even more so, it is smooth and delicious with chocolate and cherry's galore along with great spice and herbs on the finish. A surprise and a real treat.
Wednesday, January 2, 2013
Finca El Retiro 2004 Syrah (Argentina)
I have to admit that some things in life come as a complete surprise - like finding an older vintage of a wine in your wine cellar that you had no idea you had. That came to me the day after I had the wine mentioned in this title of this post: Finca el Retiro 2004 Syrah - in the next few days I will be posting my notes from a bottle of 2001 I seem to have lolly-gagging in my cellar. But let's first move on to this bottle. There are time when I am a totally inappropriate wine drinker - that does not mean I get sloppy drunk and lounge about the house without any pants on (heck I do that second thing on a day-to-day basis) ... by inappropriate I mean I drink things that are not suppose to go together. Take tonight's dinner: Pesto crusted Cod, and pair with it a Syrah from Argentina - I find these experiments fascinating and fly in the face of the white-with-fish, red-with-meat crowd. Now would I recommend this pairing, not really, but I can tell you this the dinner was good and so was the wine and if that's the case you don't necessarily have to put them in your mouth together if they don't compliment one another - this one was hit and miss as far as a pairing; but this 8-year-old Syrah was very interesting and inviting right from the get-go. Nose and palate seemed to be in unison most of the way through. Aromas of mocha, spice, coffee with a touch of wood and/or cedar (depending on the sip) coming through. Where the palate seem to diverge was with the fruit - while there was nothing on the nose the palate showed signs of blueberry, black cherry and dark raspberry nuances before being enveloped by the aromas that turned into flavours. A very tasty bottle - can't wait to see how the 2001 has stacked up.
Tuesday, January 1, 2013
New Year's Eve 2012 (New Zealand / Ontario / France)
A quiet night at home, just the way we like it ... ordered Chinese from our favourite place (Magnolia in St. Catharines), got our favourite oriental dishes to send off the old year and bring in the new - even made us a plate of brownies to eat before the new year's diet kicks in on the 2nd ... plus a few movies sure to keep us entertained until midnight: Barney's Version, The Gauntlet and The Expendables 2 (that should bring the New Year in with a bang). Thing is ... we never made it to midnight, we fell asleep about an hour short, but we still had great wines, a great meal and each other to ring the whole thing in with, both the night before and the morning of ...
The wines we rang old the Old Year with were eclectic: My wife, the Riesling fan, chose a 2011 Quarry Road Riesling from Tawse (she finished the whole bottle) from right here in Ontario. I went outside the province, the country and the continent - going all the way to New Zealand for a bottle of Akarua 2011 Rua Pinot Noir for its black cherry, cranberry, coffee and licorice nose, which leads to an earthy, cassis, black cherry and licorice palate - think I'll let my other couple of bottles sit a few more years and come back to them. I'm sure the Riesling paired better with the Chinese than the Pinot but it was still a delicious bottle of wine.
The next morning we did what all great alcoholics do - start the day with a drink - we did not pop the cork on the Champagne the night before so it seemed only right to pop it at 6:30 the next morning (only 6 and a half hours late): Louis Roederer Brut Premier (non-vintage) with delicious almond biscotti and crusty bread notes ... after a nice hefty glass to ring in the New Year we did the unthinkable (to some - sorry Carolyn) we made Mimosas (you know combined orange juice and sparkling wine, I would say 75-25 in favour of the wine) ... and that really got the day started right ... we also finished the last half of the Expendables 2. Happy New Year Everyone.
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