A few weeks ago we had these 2 “island wines” with our dinner. One from Mallorca, the other from Sardinia. First the  ÀN/2 : the thought that instantly crossed my mind when I took a sip was that this represents the kind of Spanish wine that interests me most nowadays. Indeed, I somehow got bored of the traditional Rioja and Ribera stuff, which are made in such standardized ways that it gets hard to see the difference between one and another. At least that is how it seems to me and I definitely need a break of those for a few months at least. Nevertheless, I still keep some in my cellar, because I know the right moment for those will come again. And thank God they can age! Read the rest of this entry »

Red wines from Spain often happen to be a bit too modern for my taste: too oaky, overly fruity, basically just very exchangeable in a New World sense of wine. But if one looks a bit off the beaten path, some very interesting and authentic bottles can be found.
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After having spent some time in Madrid visiting museums and eating tapas, I was on my own for 2 days and had to find a meaningful occupation for myself. Since I already got my dose of art and architecture, I decided to become hedonistic and locate my favorite wine shop Lavinia which I already thoroughly inspected in Paris (they now have shops in Barcelona and Geneva also). Of course, I expected the Madrid mothership to also have a specimen of my favorite toy and I wasn’t disappointed. In the end I spent nearly 3 hours in the store, sipping what “the machine” had to offer. Here are my notes.

2007 Predicador Blanco, Rioja, Benjamin Romeo. A white cuvée made of Garnacha Blanca, Malvasia and Viura. Weird nose to me: rather floral but reminding cidre and furniture polish at the same time. A bit stinging on the palate, rather high acidity, some wax, slightly alcoholic, a little salty in the finish and a very good length. This is a totally untypical wine to me but I would also agree with you if you think my notes are a bit untypical too. Read the rest of this entry »

You and I know it; this blog calling itself a blind tasting blog recently generated far too many posts about food stalls and other dispensable topics digressing far away from the serious duty it bears to throw light on the successful and less successful outcomes of the art of winemaking. Yuck :=) … What I actually wanted to say is that it was really time again for a post justifying the name of this blog. And luckily it occurred that our friend Nick offered to host a blind tasting of Spanish red wines. There were 2 simple rules to follow: the bottles shouldn’t stem from any of the 2 main wine regions (Rioja and Ribera) and they shouldn’t be too old. No problem! Offer accepted! Naturally, as abiding by the official wine tasting protocol, all the bottles were properly covered and mixed before the tasting, thus allowing a fair comparison.

2002 Vietor y Leon Reserva, Valdepenas – Beautiful and brilliant colour. Nose is rather discrete, first only some hints of spice, later some plum fruit but never really getting intensive. Palate starts with light vanilla a.k.a. traces of barrel wood, goes on with Read the rest of this entry »