We had a strong turnout for our Spanish Reds tasting this past Tuesday April 12, 2011, when we tasted some truly remarkable wines from all four corners of Spain.
Our guest speaker for the evening was Charles Jewett. Charles has been involved in the Ontario wine scene for many years and played a big role in spearheading an effort to provide Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET) courses in Canada.
Charles briefly spoke about how Spanish wine makers are moving away from the old style of wine making in favor of much more modern and innovative techniques, and that these wines tonight would be some excellent examples of this new breed of wines.
With that, the group go on to tasting the wines, and overall, we seemed to agree with Charles when it came time to rank them, both scoring the 2004 Bodegas San Román, San Román, Tinto (Toro) as the top wine of the night. Charles comments on this particular wine were that it had a lovely black cherry nose that made you sit up and say ``Hello!!``, it had elegant fruit and a full flavour with a long finish.
Some of his other comments on the top wines of the night:
2000 Resalte de Peñafiel's Gran Resalte, Ribera del Duero - ranked 2nd
This wine was the most interesting and represented a classic style Spanish red that we don`t often see anymore. It had classic barnyard and leather notes on the nose. It has been aged in large wood barrels for 2 or 3 years, but that the oak didn`t over power the natural grape tannins.
2003 Baigorri Vino De Garage DOC, Rioja - ranked 3rd
This wine had great coffe and mocha aromas in the glass, but tasted more of just mocha and the sweetness that one would expect to accompany with it. Was full of strong and long flavours that lasted right to the end.
2004 Valdrinal Reserva - Ribera Del Duero
This wine had notes of coffee, chocolate and truffle on the nose and that continued on through the tasting. It presented with some beautiful berry tannins, but finished slightly weak. This wine would greatly benefit from another couple years in the cellar to really reach it`s true potential.
The rest of the ranking are as follows:
Name of Wine (in order poured)
|
Group Ranking
|
Guest Ranking
|
| A. 2005 Vall Llach Idus De Vall Llach DOC, Priorat | 7 | 5 |
| B. 2001 Cellers Fuentes, Gran Clos De J.M. Fuentes DOC | 5 | 4 |
| C. 2004 Bodegas Tardencuba, Valnuevo Seleccion (Toro) | 8 | 7 |
| D. 2004 Bodegas San Román, San Román, Tinto (Toro) | 1 | 1 |
| E. 2003 Baigorri Vino De Garage DOC, Rioja | 3 | 6 |
| F. 2006 Balbás Gran Reserva - Ribera del Duero | 6 | 8 |
| G. 2004 Valdrinal Reserva - Ribera Del Duero | 4 | 2 |
| H. 2000 Resalte de Peñafiel's Gran Resalte, Ribera del Duero | 2 | 3 |
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