Q1 Tasting - Spanish wines
The Apartment
Tasted Saturday, February 7, 2015 by MC2 Wines with 824 views
Introduction
This was a great tasting for us because our understanding of Spanish wines is relatively limited. On the whole, I was impressed. There were no bad wines in the bunch and many seemed like great QPRs. Lots of bright red fruits. Mostly cherry and cranberry although a few were a bit darker. Preferred the ones that had a balancing spiciness as well. Had a few more folks this time around and so wasn't able to do repours, but would have liked to revisit a few of these.
Flight 1 - Main Tasting (17 Notes)
This was the bulk of the tasting - mostly red (with one white) Spanish wine.
Flight 2 - Dessert (1 Note)
Thought it would be fun to end with a dessert wine especially as one of the group was bringing homemade flan.
Flight 3 - Post tasting (1 Note)
We opened a few bottles after the tasting. I didn't take careful notes on these and have little recollection on the Faust (so did not include it here), but the Force Majeure was drinking quite well.
Closing
Hard to pick a favorite, but really enjoyed 1 through 4, 6, 9, 13, 16 off the top of my head. As mentioned before, there were no bad wines though and great company. Looking forward to our next one.
2011 Clos I Terrasses Priorat Laurel
Spain, Catalunya, Priorat
Wine #1: One of my favorite wines of the night and for the price the value is amazing (we got it for $52, but seems like you can find it for less these days). Opened and decanted ~2.5 hours before consumption which I suspect helped a lot. The wine was very soft. Get some floral and plum flavors. A bit of earth, lots of spice. Really easy to drink and just delicious.
Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
2011 Clos Mogador Priorat
Spain, Catalunya, Priorat
Wine #2: Again opened about 2.5 hours before drinking and decanted. This wine was a bit more extracted fruit than the first. Get a lot of cranberry (which was a theme for me with Spanish wines). Some currant. Nice and spicy and still some good earth flavors. Perhaps just a touch of oak. Enjoyable.
Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
2005 Bodegas Pintia Toro Pintia
Spain, Castilla y León, Toro
Wine #3: I really enjoyed this wine although I think it was a bit more polarizing in the group. Here we popped the cork a few hours before and then decanted maybe 20 minutes before drinking. That seemed to work really well. Wine was very approachable. Started with a nice sour cherry flavor, some cranberry. Opened up a lot in the glass. Good spiciness. Great wine.
Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
2011 Mas Martinet Priorat Clos Martinet
Spain, Catalunya, Priorat
Wine #4: This wine had great red sour fruit - cranberry, cherry, etc. It didn't have the pepperiness that I liked in some of the other wines, but did have some wood which counterbalanced the fruit side of things. Good wine.
Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
2004 La Rioja Alta Rioja Gran Reserva 904
Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alta, Rioja
Wine #5: This wine appeared twice in our tasting and as we handled it differently I am writing two tasting notes. This wine was not decanted. It was clear there was a bit more age on this than some of the early wines. My initial smell/taste was kindof an old shoe which faded with a bit of swirling. Then I get more of the cough syrup flavor that I associate with Tuscan wines. Drinking this I thought it could really have used a decant.
Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
2004 Finca Allende Rioja Calvario
Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alta, Rioja
Wine #6: This was probably the group's favorite wine (or the most ppl's favorite). In my top 4 I think. Would have liked to be able to go back and revisit later, but it was popular. Opened and decanted and prob drank within 30-40 minutes of that. Great cherry flavor, lots of bright fruit. Good tannins backing it up at the end. It again was a bit less spicy but the wood really counterbalanced the fruit and kept the wine together. I enjoyed it.
Post a Comment / 1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No
2006 Fernando Remírez de Ganuza Rioja Fincas de Ganuza Reserva
Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alavesa, Rioja
Wine #7: Red fruit flavor, again a bit of the cough syrup, pepper on the nose and on the palette which I appreciated. Very good structure. Wine felt like it was well put together. I liked it.
Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
2012 Nanclares y Prieto Albariño
Spain, Galicia, Rías Baixas
Wine #8: The only white of the group and not really placed appropriately but as everything is blind and people come throughout the afternoon we generally just add the wines as they arrive. There was a nice acidity to this which I always appreciate in my whites. Kindof a floral flavor. Maybe a bit of a fleshy white fruit, but drier (aka not sweet). After 7 relatively tannic reds it was hard to pull out much more, but nice wine.
Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
2004 Venus La Universal Montsant Vénus
Spain, Catalunya, Tarragona, Montsant
Wine #9: This wine arrived and was opened and later decanted (before I got to it, but not sure how much before). Much darker fruits than some of the other wines (I get more black fruit here - black currant, etc.). Nice use of oak to create a backbone. I enjoyed this one.
Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
NV Bodega As Furnias As Furnias
Spain, Vino de Mesa
Wine #10: My first thought was gooseberry. Very good fruit in general although again I missed a bit of the pepperiness of some of the others. Good strong tannins which were relatively dominant. Should prob have decanted this. A bit later I started to get more of the sour fruit. Overall enjoyable and interesting that it was an NV
Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
1982 Bodegas Olarra Rioja Añares Reserva
Spain, La Rioja, Rioja
Wine #11: This was clearly the oldest of the wines. Lighter brickish color and has that older wine flavor that I can't quite describe but is easy to recognize. Someone noted a licorice note to it (more red than anise flavored). I enjoyed it - was a nice counterpoint to some of the really young wines - although I'd say prob past its best days.
Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
2001 Bodegas El Coto Rioja Coto de Imaz Gran Reserva
Spain, La Rioja, Rioja
Wine #12: Not as old as Wine #11, but still had that very noticeable old wine flavor to it. The fruit was still very present here as well. Interesting. In general I like my wines with some age, but I did miss some of the brighter flavors that the younger Spanish wines had with this one.
Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
2004 La Rioja Alta Rioja Gran Reserva 904
Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alta, Rioja
Wine #13: This was the same as Wine #5 although I'd never have guessed that and didn't realize it until we did the unveiling. This wine was opened and decanted. Interesting because it had very strong tannins, much stronger oak flavors than some of the other wines. I believed it needed more time to come together. Surprised it was an '04 since it was drinking younger than some of the 2011's (although to be fair they had longer decants). Would be interested to revisit with some time.
Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
2005 Baron de Ley Rioja Siete Viñas Reserva
Spain, La Rioja, Rioja
Wine #14: This one had a fruit candy flavor to begin, more on the sweet side, very sturdy tannins, really needed more time. Would love to revisit in 5-10 years and see where it's at.
Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
2003 Condado de Haza Ribera del Duero Alenza Gran Reserva
Spain, Castilla y León, Ribera del Duero
Wine #15: Again very tightly wound. This wine was actually decanted relatively quickly upon arrival and then rebottled. In retrospect could have used the full decant. Tastes a lot younger than I would have expected for a 2003 - still just felt like a baby. There was a bit of fruit poking through. Would be interesting to try again in 5 years.
Post a Comment / 1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No
2002 R. López de Heredia Rioja Reserva Viña Tondonia
Spain, La Rioja, La Rioja Alta, Rioja
Wine #16: I enjoyed this wine. It had a great cranberry flavor and a nice touch of spice and just was drinking very well. We decanted it prob 45 minutes before my taste which I think really helped the wine. Enjoyable.
Read 1 Comment / Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No
2010 Cellers Can Blau Montsant Mas de Can Blau
Spain, Catalunya, Tarragona, Montsant
Wine #17: this definitely suffered a bit from being the last wine of the tasting (except for the dessert), but I still enjoyed it. A young wine with good cranberry flavor. Could have prob used a decant, but we were out of decanters by the time we got to this one. Did benefit from being open for awhile as it was the last wine and had some time to air.
Post a Comment / Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No