Friday @ BSS: with cheeses (Zamorano, Idiazábal, Grana-Padano, Gorgonzola)
- Alicante ENRIQUE MENDOZA Chardonnay Barrel Fermented 2000 14% Alc
- Wachau FREIE WEINGARTNER Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Thal Terrassen 2000 13,5% Alc. 6,90€
- Priorat Celler Fuentes VINYA LLISARDA 2001 Barrel Fermented Garnacha Blanca + Macabeo 13,5% Alc. 18-25 €
- Priorat Celler Fuentes FINCA EL PUIG 2000 14,1% Alc. 20-25 €
- Priorat Celler Fuentes GRAN CLOS 2000 13,5% Alc. 45+ €
- Costers del Segre Celler de Cantonella CÉRVOLES SELECCIÓ EN VINYA 1998 14,5% Alc. 40-55€
Weekend @ Home: with different meals and cheeses (Cheddar, Grana-Padano, Peccorino Romano… and black olives)
- WAIRAU RIVER Sauvignon Blanc 2001 13% Alc. 15€
- Domaine de la VIEILLE JULIENNE 1999 14% Alc. 15€
- VT Castilla y León MAURO 1999 13,5% Alc. 18€
- Icoden-Daute-Isora VIÑA ZANATA Malvasía 2000 12% Alc. 6€ for 50 cl.
Well, this has been the Carnival weekend here in Tenerife: Friday to Tuesday in the just-second-to-Rio advertised fashion. Let “the young” have it with their rum’n’coke; for me it’s been an otherworldly weekend of meals and wine and opera (of all things). Dessert and coffee often came by six or so, just in time for a shower and…dinner!
Friday I visited El Corte Inglés and found out the entire 7th floor was devoted to a European Food Fair for most of the month of March. Lots of second and third-rate foreign wines were on the shelves. Italy looked depressing, with few names that rang a distant bell (that might have been good for the same reason, but n
). Bordeaux was represented by al least 20 different names, many under Ginestet labels… Portugal looked promising but expensive too, Germany made you want to cut your wrists with a wooden sp
on…but Austria was somewhat exciting, so I picked up a bottle of FREIE WEINGARTNER Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Thal Terrassen 2000 for 6,90€ and took it to Newcastle (because this is a type of coal they don’t sell at the BSS). I turned up at the Bodega San Sebastián with my Wachau to see what was up. Plenty.
As I walked in Sergio greeted me with a glass of
Alicante ENRIQUE MENDOZA Chardonnay Barrel Fermented 2000 14% Alc
Pretty golden stuff for its age, but Alicante is of course the epitome of Mediterranean climate in Spain, and so this had a New World imprint from eye to nose to palate: very fat, with a heavily sweet nose of good oak that somewhat merely respects the subtle Chardonnay fruit (apple, pear, herbs) with decent citrusy acidity and good finish. Fairly pleasant but impossible for a food pairing. 85-86
Wachau FREIE WEINGARTNER Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Thal Terrassen 2000 13,5% Alc. 6,90€
By the time Nikola arrived (he was just about to leave for the south of Tenerife for the long weekend) this still wanted some chilling. Temperature was good enough for tasting, though. Beautifully glyceric, leaving dense legs and swirling silently inside the glass, this was pretty good for its price. Herbaceous and perfumed (just short of artificial if you ask me) upon pouring, the perfume receded with some air and allowed the wine to express some varietal notes of herbs and white pepper. Fullbodied and very tasty, with good persistence. What a shame that no Riesling was available… As you can imagine I did some minilecturing on the Wachau classification, the coop nature of the firm, etc… 87
Our latest acquisition for the Friday gang, Antonio “the Catalan” (
) turned up and helped give some shape to the tasting panel. Suddenly someone mentioned “the Priorats that Toño [of DOFE distributors] had brought for tasting” [So there’s going to be reds today]…but we still had another dense white to go before that! The reds were cold from the cabinet, so we decanted the first one and opened the white. As I saw the label of the white I practically blinded the
thers with my smile: Cellers Fuentes, a bodega I’d long wanted to try but was never available here (and probably unaffordable anyway…). So these are my first TNs of the 2000 vintage in Priorat.
Priorat Celler Fuentes VINYA LLISARDA 2001 Barrel Fermented Garnacha Blanca + Macabeo 13,5% Alc. 18-25 €
So DOFE are bringing this beauty to the colonies? Not a week ago I bought CTONIA from the Empordá region and this is almost the same thing: 80% Grenache Blanc and some barrel make this a most impressive white in the Rhone paradigm. Another fat white for a most interesting afternoon: the oak has yet to integrate, but smoky notes cannot conceal such a wealth of white fruit, Mediterranean herbs, white flowers, and mineral nuances all over. A bit too cold and restrained initially, when it opened up it proved most impressive. A partner for blue fish rather than poultry, if you see what I mean, not for everyone perhaps. 88
Priorat Celler Fuentes FINCA EL PUIG 2000 14,1% Alc. 65% of oak is Allier 20-25 €
40% Cariñena + 35% Garnacha + 12% C-S + 8% Merlot + 5% Syrah
Talking about bringing coals to Newcastle, ever gone down into the mine and licked the walls?
Pure essence of Priorat soils, this smells like the llicorellas were macerated in the wine for a couple of m
nths. Given the wealth of information in most Priorat backlabels (get the ir
ny there?) this was short of a semiblind tasting, but it was easy to guess this was Cariñena-dominated, whereas Garnacha ruled in the Gran Clos. In fact the difference is negligible, but the age of the vines may prove me right. I had to come home and look up the Spanish prices to know this Finca El Puig costs ½ of Gran Clos. Sure it is more austere and tannic now, but I thought 90+ even before putting it in my mouth. Blue-blackish in color, dominated by telltale Carignan aromas of tar, jammy prunes and currants, licorice and chocolate. Fullbodied and long, superstructured; with Nikola in a bit of a hurry, it lasted but a short time in the decanter (we poured ½ liters). If the prices don’t go through my roof this will be revisited… 90+
Priorat Celler Fuentes GRAN CLOS 2000 13,5% Alc. 80% of oak is Allier 50+ €
80% Garnacha + 10% Cariñena + 10% C-S
As always I lagged behind the group so they were enjoying this when I still was nosing the Finca El Puig. I wanted to give this one ample time in the decanter, since this is the flagship red of the Bodega. Grenache-dominated, to be sure, this was far more approachable, but nothing short of mineral complexity: black cherry, currants, smoke and a superb core of bitter chocolate, with a mouthfilling plushness that manages to kick a tannic finish in the back of the palate. Endless finish.
There’s a second part to this, because Niko and Antonio had to leave and I was left with another two glassfuls of this inside the decanter…so I crossed the shop toward the Tasca and sat at the bar with Jose, our ultraefficient Galician barman, ordered some sparkling water and a cheeseboard…and spent about another h
ur finishing the decanter. 92-93 and what a future…
See the bodega webpage in English at
http://www.granclos.com/eng/index.aspI was in for yet another surprise, because there was a half finished bottle of
Costers del Segre Celler de Cantonella CÉRVOLES SELECCIÓ EN VINYA 1998 14,5% Alc. 40-55€
59% C-S + 21% Tempranillo + 20% Garnacha
“waiting for me” at the bar. Apparently Toño had not finished it during lunch, and the content of the decanter had been repoured into the bottle. This is a bodega owned by the same Cusiné family of CASTELL DEL REMEI, but the winemaker here is the Riojan Miguel Angel de Gregorio, of Allende/Calvario/Aurus fame.
If the regular-label Cérvoles wants two hours of air, this could have been at optimum drinking moment by the time I got hold of the bottle, so I thought … “order another bottle of sparkling water and let’s see if you can still handle this after so much 2000 Priorat.”
It was so much warmer in the nose, fully open, bound to suffer comparatively in my fatigued palate. Ripe red and black berries in the nose, with subtle mineral notes in a context of almost overpowering warm cocoa, pleasantly smoky oak, and BBQ meat. In the palate it had potential to impress me …any other day, I mean, fullbodied, with good complex finish and excellent persistence somewhat wasted on me at the moment. I had two (Spiegelau Cabernet) glasses and enjoyed them a great deal, feeling only minimally guilty for the relative waste. An extra cheese plate brought by Pedro “eased the pain” beautifully: chunks of Grana Padano and some Gorgonzola with nuts. I washed the Grana Padano with the Cérvoles and reserved the Gorgonzola for dessert… 90+
I think I’ll type the Gl
balization part later…
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Free Winona!
