Another dinner in the garden, this time to taste some wines from the Ribera del Duero.
But first, after tapas and Manzanilla, we had an asparagus tortilla and:
2005 Davila Albarino – clean stony lemony nose, crisp on palate and very dry. Probably a better representation of Albarino than the next wine.
2006 Terras Gauda Albarino – slightly more colour, and significantly more nose, almost intense floral with good fruit, clean and with good length
Then three tarts – tomato, a kidney and snails, with a couple of Riservas:
1996 Alion – slightly warm toasty nose, quite a bit of tannin, and almost jammy fruit. This needs more time.
1996 Pascuas Vina Pedrosa – a more traditional presentation, with mature toasty nose – lots of vanilla, some remaining tannin, but smooth and long. We felt this drank better now but that the Alion would probably surpass it with time.
With clams and pork, and then meatballs with saffron, and finally with cheese:
Pesquera:
1991 (magnum) – this was a reserve bottling and the story was that they didn’t bottle Janus in magnum but that they finished the Janus singles and then from the same tanks did these mags. No idea if that is true or not. All the other wines were the crianza. Dark with a lifted nose with a hint of VA, but also dark fruit and vanilla, toasty presentation, medium body, quite good length, mature. The owner was a little disappointed but I thought it a very nice wine.
1994 – this was the favourite of several people. Similar lifted slightly VA nose and lots of resolved tannin, good length. Nose became oakier with air, but also showed more dark fruit.
1995 – big vanilla nose on this one, and it was drinking quite well, without a lot of tannin and with good length. Probably more forward than the 94.
1997 – bigger, sweeter vanilla in this nose, and a nice sweetness, but I thought it a tad dilute on palate.
1998 – sadly a little corked, though that pretty much became undetectable after the first while (definite wet cardboard though so it wasn’t just musty). Same signature vanilla nose, full bodied and it would be worth giving this one another shot with a perfect bottle.
These courses were punctuated by games of Bocci/Petanque (whichever you like depending on what country’s wine you are drinking, I suppose. The irony of drinking Spanish wine while playing a similar game to that enjoyed by Francis Drake before putting paid to the Armada was not lost on us) in the garden. The garden has a gentle slope throughout and though we picked the flattest area, it was still a pretty challenging situation, with much searching for errant balls that had gone to ground under border plants. It was interesting to observe that the level of confidence went up in inverse proportion to the level of demonstrated skill as more wine was taken on board. Yours truly and his partner were victorious in all three games, by a good margin. We waxed them 9-1 the first game (we figured that playing to 13 might take us into the dark, so played a ‘short’ game), then 9-2, then somehow they rallied and got 7 points in the third game before we surged ahead to victory. We will no doubt take our boules in hand again (that doesn’t sound quite polite, does it?) and summarily dispatch the scurvy dogs at the next meeting, no doubt over different wines.