Browse Tag

spain

Bajoz the dwarf

[bottle]Bajoz 2004 Tinta de Toro “Joven” (Castilla & León) – There’s little reason to think this is still drinking well, but for $3.99 (on closeout) the cost of failure is pretty low. And indeed, the first half-hour or so of this wine’s uncorked life is a mess of embittered dark red fruit and scraping tannin of the sort common to drink-now wines taken well past their expiration dates. But then, surprisingly, the tannin smoothes a bit, and the fruit hefts up to something a little darker and a lot rounder, and suddenly the wine’s fully mature and drinking beautifully. Who’d have guessed? (3/09)

Basque salad

Amesguren “Ameztoi” 2007 Getariako Txakolina (Northwest Spain) – Very spritzy and electric, but strangely vacant. It’s like a freezing wind barreling down a skyscraper wind tunnel, bringing nothing but a cold hollow to one’s bones. With a lot of air, there’s some hints of chalk and paper, but this never really develops into anything except a persistent live current. By a huge margin, the most disappointing bottle of this wine I’ve ever tasted. Hopefully just bottle variation. (3/09)

Albares necessities

[vineyard]Dominio de Tares 2003 Bierzo “Albares” (Northwest Spain) – There’s a struggle here, in that a wine that wants to be lighter and more aromatic tries to, but cannot, escape an inherent gravity that no doubt comes from the vintage. There are hints of enticing crushed-petal aromatics, but they’re sensed only through shadow and density, rather than in full burst and bloom. It’s a good wine, but the weight it carries can’t quite be supported by its skeleton or flesh. (2/09)

Peter North

R. López de Heredia “Viña Tondonia” 1981 Rioja Blanco (Center-North) – Served too cold, but that’s easily resolved, and the wine improves as it rises through the degrees. Wax, old maple furniture, immovable slabs of granite, and gentle hints of old lemon lead to a candle-flame finish. A little subdued vs. other semi-recent tastings, but still nice. (9/08)

Big old txakolina, don’t carry me too far away

Arabako Txakolina 2007 Txakoli de Álava Txakoli “Xarmant” (Northwest Spain) – Filled with the spike and needle of bubbles, quite acidic, and elusive in its bare-bone, eroded-sand fashion. I love the tactility, but the wine within is a little too absent for me. (1/09)

Muga-chaka, muga-muga-muga-chaka

[vineyard]Muga 2007 Rioja Rosado (Center-North) – Seems gentler than it is; a fading salmon sunset with a surprising depth and weight to it, rich with old pinkish fruit, guava, and a bit of persimmon. Then there’s apple skin, which adds a bit of tannic complexity, and a finely balanced acidity, and a mild oxidation, yet the wine remains well-knit and beautifully formed. A sophisticated rosé. (1/09)

Alta states

Piñol 2005 Terra Alta “Sacra Natura” (Cataluña) – Surprisingly advanced, but perhaps due to that advancement drinking even better than it did in its flavorful but noisy adolescence. Dark fruit with a significant lean towards maturing, pie-like complexity, black earth, and a nutty/spicy zing doing some light lifting underneath. Fun. (1/09)

Today or to Mauro

Mauro 1998 Vino de Mesa de Castilla y León (Castilla & León) – Lavishly (and, based on the taste of it, expensively) wooded, but that element has matured nicely into its old-furniture, spicebox stage. However, the fruit dries out rather sooner after opening than I’d like. In the early stages, it’s plummy, texturally lovely, and maturing. Later, it kinda disappears into its wood. I’m not sure if this is just a transitionary stage or the wine’s coda, but I’d be inclined towards the latter interpretation. For a short while after opening, however, it’s quite nice. (12/08)

The Master

[label]El Maestro Sierra Oloroso Sherry “15 años” (Jerez) – Frankly, this is a difficult wine for me, and I’m not sure I can do it justice. Intense almond aromas – but more the shells and skins than the sweeter nuts within – and the usual arid, almost-mold-but-more-ancient-than-that, topnote, but with more space and singularity than I’m used to. Then, a stark dryness that tastes…well, it tastes like a decaying building. I suppose that doesn’t make much sense, but try to think what the Acropolis might taste like, were it to suddenly become consumable rather than viewable. Absolutely planar throughout, and eventually I begin to suspect that the wine’s finish doesn’t ever actually end, but just continues to some sort of infinitely-distant asymptote. An extremely intellectual sherry. I think it might be terrific. I’m not sure I like it. Obviously, I need someone to explain it to me, and then we’ll see. Or not. (12/08)

Roman Colosía

Guitiérrez Colosía “Elcano” Fino Sherry (Jerez) – From 375 ml. Very, very fresh-tasting, in a way that almost transports me to Spain. That said, I’m not entirely sure what I’m tasting. Bony and yet overly affable, like a skeletal puppy leaping at one’s palate, there’s an upfront intensity paired with an airy hollowness that I can’t quite wrap my head around. (12/08)