Spanish Notes

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Notes from a Spanish off-line.

For a normally wild and crazy group, it was interesting to see that most people stuck pretty close to the traditional wines rather than bringing one of the many ‘new’ styles now available.

2001 Valsaero Dioro Rioja – no indication of whether this is a Crianza or not. It showed medium colour, sweet oak in the nose, some soft tannins and lively acidity, and ended with a medium long earthy finish. Some spice developed in the nose with time in the glass. This was a new style wine that I am not familiar with.

1970 Marques de Caceres Gran Reserva – a youthful wine with a nose that was quite rubbery at the start. Relatively pale colour, browning at the edges – the only sign of age, as we all figured this was a wine from the 80s. The nose became more cherry with some air, a little stewy, the fruit was still bright and the length was quite good. I liked this a lot.

1999 Rochioli Russian River Pinot Noir – similar light colour, but with still purple edges. Nice cherry fruit, medium body with good flavour concentration in the middle, and good length. We disagreed about this ‘ringer’, some thinking it would continue to develop and some (myself included) thinking it as good now as it will ever be, though it will certainly continue to coast.

1994 Gaudium Rioja – made by Caceres with Tempranillo and 25% cab, this wine has always shown a funky nose, but this one was definitely slightly corked. You could tell there were some good things – nice fruit etc., but it wasn’t possible to properly evaluate the wine.

1993 Conde de Valdemar Rioja Gran Reserva – nice mellow oak and fruit nose, very silky smooth on palate and nicely balanced with good length. This one just slipped down the throat.

2001 Neo (Ribero del Duero) – OK, we did have a new style wine (the Gaudium was AWOL so doesn’t count). A definitely new age Tempranillo, this product of JC Conde was dark purple with a Bordeaux style nose but a bit sweeter, and was slightly hot in the mouth with some raspberry flavour. In fact the wine was very good, with my only criticism being a slight sourness on the finish.