Butler College, Princeton University
Tasted Friday, November 14, 2008 - Saturday, November 15, 2008 by RajivAyyangar with 810 views
Having tasted a killer row of Spanish wines at the Martin Scott tasting back in September, I wanted to introduce the club to the joys of layered, integrated oak. I can't stand the sawdusty, obvious, fakey-fake oak found so much in CA cabs, zins, and chards. However Martin Scott was an epiphany, and part of me wanted to re-live it. So I got some reccs from JoeG and since I knew that the Corkscrew people hate oak, I sourced the wines from Wine Library (CoolVines had nothing in the way of Spanish wines at the time). I have to say, I love WL, and the service was superb to the Nth degree, but I was disappointed with the group of wines as a whole.
After some bad experiences with oxidation, I decided to pre-taste the lineup (like a dutiful somm) to weed out bad bottles. Since this event was being held twice, I figured at least one of the bottles would be good, no? Wrong. Both bottles of each oxidized wine were bad.
Both bottles of the Vinedos Maurodos San Roman (Toro) 2004 were oxidized. Of the two Campos Reales (La Mancha) Gladium Crianza 2006, one was clearly oxidized, the other was just faintly oxidized.
The Cigarral Pago Del Ama Syrah 2002 tasted really off - borderline oxidized, plasticky, but I didn't realize this until the actual tasting.
The Ercavio Roble (La Mancha) 2006, Taja (Jumilla) Reserva 2003, and Castano Hecula (Yecla) 2005 tasted really weird to me and some of the other people - they had this faint pear/honeyed character that I associate more with white wine than reds, they also had plasticky, or otherwise non-fruit-like aromas. But I didn't catch them as oxidized before the tasting.
This tasting left me rather dissatisfied. None of the wines displayed even an intermediate modicum of oak, and certainly none were integrated. Furthermore there were several bottles that just threw completely bizarre aromatics, puzzling both Doug and me. Oh well... next time.
2004 Bodegas y Viñedos San Roman Toro Viña San Román Flawed
Spain, Castilla y León, Toro
(11/14/2008)
Both bottles were oxidized.
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2006 Bodegas Campos Reales Tempranillo Gladium Crianza Flawed
Spain, Castilla-La Mancha, La Mancha
(11/14/2008)
Both Bottles were oxidized!?
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