| Super Spaniards Tasting Recap |
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Cathy's house, and soon to be Jim's too, in Addison,
TX was the scene for our Super Spanish Red Wine
Tasting featuring wines all made from the greatest of
all Spanish grape varietals, Tempranillo. Although
we had a few "No Shows", a disturbing trend, we had
quite a fantastic time sampling the wines and grazing
on the myriad of Spanish Tappas that Jim & Cathy
put together for us. There was also a small selection
of Spanish cheeses to try like Manchego, for
example. All indeed were quite complementary to
our line up of wines. Thank you so much Jim &
Cathy, for all of your hard work and your gracious
hospitality!
Speaking of the wines, we had one from Rioja, which
is probably the best known wine region in Spain, six
wines from my personal favorite region, the Ribera
del Duero, one from La Mancha and one from Toro.
In all of these wine regions, Tempranillo is the star
varietal, in fact, I believe that with the exception of
Rioja, which is mostly Tempranillo with a little
Garnacha (Grenache) and other varieties added to it,
the rest were 100% Tempranillo wines.
Five of the wines we were tasting this evening were
the masterful creation of one Alejandro Fernandez,
who is probably one of the most influential people in
the Spanish Wine Making Regime and the man most
responsible for putting the Tempranillo grape on the
world stage. The El Vinculo from the La Mancha
region is a relatively new project for Alejandro and it
was the first wine of his we tasted. Then we
proceeded on with a small vertical of his most
famous estate, Pesquera, covering the 2001, 2002 &
2003 vintages. Lastly, we tasted his 1999 Pesquera
Riserva, which tragically was corked. Bummer!
Shawn tried saving the wine using a seran wrap
technique, but to no avail! At first some people did
not believe me that the wine was corked because the
tasting notes indicated that it would have some damp
forest floor aromas, but once I made them smell the
cork and it indeed smell exactly like the wine,
everyone agreed.
Since this tasting primarily featured Alejandro wines,
we started this tasting off with a short five minute
video of Jancis Robinson interviewing him at his
home in Pesquera in the region of Ribera del Duero.
It is just kind of neat to put a face and voice to the
name on the bottle and to see the exact vineyards
were the wines come from. I will from here on out
list the wines in the order we tasted them along with
the wine critic notes and followed by my personal
observations from the reactions of the crowd.
Muga 1998 Seleccion Especial Reserva
Robert Parker – 90pts
Notes - Made in a traditional style, it exhibits a
medium ruby color along with scents of lead pencil
shavings, earth, strawberries, black cherries, tobacco
leaves, and cedar. Richer and more intense than the
modest ruby color suggests, with a long finish, it may
add additional weight in the bottle.
Observations - This wine was popular amongst half
of the guests. It was noticeably lighter in both color
and body than the rest of the wines and that is due to
in no small part to the addition of lighter grape
TX was the scene for our Super Spanish Red Wine
Tasting featuring wines all made from the greatest of
all Spanish grape varietals, Tempranillo. Although
we had a few "No Shows", a disturbing trend, we had
quite a fantastic time sampling the wines and grazing
on the myriad of Spanish Tappas that Jim & Cathy
put together for us. There was also a small selection
of Spanish cheeses to try like Manchego, for
example. All indeed were quite complementary to
our line up of wines. Thank you so much Jim &
Cathy, for all of your hard work and your gracious
hospitality!
Speaking of the wines, we had one from Rioja, which
is probably the best known wine region in Spain, six
wines from my personal favorite region, the Ribera
del Duero, one from La Mancha and one from Toro.
In all of these wine regions, Tempranillo is the star
varietal, in fact, I believe that with the exception of
Rioja, which is mostly Tempranillo with a little
Garnacha (Grenache) and other varieties added to it,
the rest were 100% Tempranillo wines.
Five of the wines we were tasting this evening were
the masterful creation of one Alejandro Fernandez,
who is probably one of the most influential people in
the Spanish Wine Making Regime and the man most
responsible for putting the Tempranillo grape on the
world stage. The El Vinculo from the La Mancha
region is a relatively new project for Alejandro and it
was the first wine of his we tasted. Then we
proceeded on with a small vertical of his most
famous estate, Pesquera, covering the 2001, 2002 &
2003 vintages. Lastly, we tasted his 1999 Pesquera
Riserva, which tragically was corked. Bummer!
Shawn tried saving the wine using a seran wrap
technique, but to no avail! At first some people did
not believe me that the wine was corked because the
tasting notes indicated that it would have some damp
forest floor aromas, but once I made them smell the
cork and it indeed smell exactly like the wine,
everyone agreed.
Since this tasting primarily featured Alejandro wines,
we started this tasting off with a short five minute
video of Jancis Robinson interviewing him at his
home in Pesquera in the region of Ribera del Duero.
It is just kind of neat to put a face and voice to the
name on the bottle and to see the exact vineyards
were the wines come from. I will from here on out
list the wines in the order we tasted them along with
the wine critic notes and followed by my personal
observations from the reactions of the crowd.
Muga 1998 Seleccion Especial Reserva
Robert Parker – 90pts
Notes - Made in a traditional style, it exhibits a
medium ruby color along with scents of lead pencil
shavings, earth, strawberries, black cherries, tobacco
leaves, and cedar. Richer and more intense than the
modest ruby color suggests, with a long finish, it may
add additional weight in the bottle.
Observations - This wine was popular amongst half
of the guests. It was noticeably lighter in both color
and body than the rest of the wines and that is due to
in no small part to the addition of lighter grape