Nachdem ich vor einem Jahr noch recht euphorisch über diesen Wein berichtet habe, muss ich jetzt feststellen, dass er sich langsam aus der Fruchtphase verabschiedet und sich immer mehr ins Klassische entwickelt. Read the rest of this entry »

Sundays can be days when you want to leave the wine in the cellar, especially because Saturday evenings can be pretty… “rough”. But if the right people come together, there’s no reason not to pull out the corkscrew. And even more so, those happen to be the days when you’re most relaxed and savour the wine as you should! A recent Sunday was such a day – we ended up drinking 3 bottles of red wine from 3 different countries.
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So wie man von einem klassischen Bordeaux redet, wird auch oft vom Typus klassischer Rioja gesprochen. Doch heutzutage, so ist überall zu lesen und so habe ich es auch selbst erfahren, gibt es diesen Stil immer weniger, schreiten doch die modernen Spanier, marmeladig und holzig scheinbar unaufhaltsam voran. Read the rest of this entry »

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 »

Die Farbe dieses CVNE erinnert an dunkles Ziegelrot, das aber zum Rand hin heller wird. Die Nase zeigt sich anfangs zwar beerig aber auch mit leicht portiger-madeirisierter Note. Nach einer halben Stunden verfliegt diese und der Wein riecht prall nach reifen Brombeeren und leicht nach Gewürzen wie Nelke und einer Prise Pfeffer. 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 »