The theme of our regular group's tasting this month was anything goes Spanish. Our hostess cooked up some delicious tapas, people brought tasty additions to those, and there was even a birthday cake. The wines were all served blind and were then sorted into a random order (other than #1). The line-up proved to be quite interesting:
1979 Miguel Torres Gran Coronas Gran Reserva Penedes. The first wine of the night was clearly on the older side, showing pale ruby color with a clear rim, but otherwise with a healthy-looking patina. It offers up a lovely, complex bouquet of pine tar, roasted cherries, figs, dusty red licorice rope, brambly berries and perhaps a hint of melted milk chocolate. In the mouth, it is light to medium-bodied with a nicely resolved feel. It still has fine tingly acidity to bounce up against strawberry and other soft red fruits and soft herbs. It fades just a bit on the finish and is not a wine of huge depth, but there is a ton of old-world character that is a delight to drink. This was my runner-up for WOTN and tied for group WOTN.
2006 Bodegas Exopto Rioja Horizonte de Exopto. This is a whole different beast, obviously. The nose is dense, with hints of rubber, white pepper, nettles, plum and brambly dark berries. In the mouth, it is less rich or goopy than the nose may have suggested, but it is still fairly large-framed, with a warm fruit profile. Fine tannins mostly stay out of the way and there is a good spine here. Smoke and some bitter mineral notes come in on the finish, which also may be showing just a hint of heat. It is rather modern-feeling and did not really connect with me. It certainly appears to need more time.
2005 Bodegas LAN Rioja Edicion Limitada. This could be one of the heaviest bottles I have ever tried to lift. Anyway, the wine is dark and densely colored. The nose is fairly taut and reveals notes of hickory wood smoke, rubber and black cherry. It is big and rich in the mouth, with a pleasingly plush texture married to lush velvety tannins. It shows tons of fruit through the mid-palate, but turns a bit smoky, bitter and rougher-hewn toward the back of the palate and on the finish. It seems like it needs some time to pull itself together, as it begins after a while to find more palate length, more lifted acidity and greater sex appeal—but not yet in an integrated fashion. I would give this 5-7 years and see what emerges.
2004 Alvaro Palacios Priorat Les Terrasses. This wine reveals an interesting and appealing bouquet that presents both savory and sweet notes intermingling nicely. There are aromas of black currant and rich incense, but also cool leaves, white pepper and ballpark peanuts. In the mouth, it has a really nice mouthfeel and excellent drive. It is not overly dense or sweet. Yes, there is some sweetness here to be sure with bright red berry Grenache fruit, but there is also a fresh, vervy acid streak prominently displayed. On the finish, it gets just a bit sloppy, with a hint of cough syrup and a dab of heat. Overall, though, it is nicely done.
1998 Bodega Numanthia Termes Toro Numanthia. This is really beautiful on the nose, with all kinds of mixed berries, mocha, chocolate and deeper roasted fruits tightly accented by spicy cedar, sandalwood and fresh sawdust notes. In the mouth, it is seamless, layered and gorgeously layered. There are finely-honed tannins that seem very nicely integrated into the mix, too. The balance in the wine is fantastic, as it presents great intensity without being over-weight. The spiced cherry tart, fig and mineral flavors are quite appealing and the whole package is impressively good. My WOTN with ease.
1999 Bodega Numanthia Termes Toro Numanthia. The nose here is less overtly exotic, but it is still quite nice, featuring notes of fig paste, cherry compote, soy, incense and graphite. There are warm cherry and red currant fruits on the palate, along with other mixed berries and spices. It really hangs together nicely and the tannins are fine, though definitely present—more so on the finish, which has some chocolate notes to go with a fresh bite of cleansing acidity. Once the wine was revealed as the younger sibling of he 1998, my reaction was that this wine is a lot more restrained at this stage and probably ought to be held a few years to allow it to expand a bit more and really come into its own.
2002 Bodega Numanthia Termes Toro Termes. Rather modern on the nose, this is offering finely-defined aromas of milk chocolate, cherries, ferns and lovely sweet blueberry jam. It is big and serious in the mouth, with tannins that coat the teeth but are otherwise rounded in structure. It slathers the tongue with flavors of dark chocolate-covered cherries and sweet yet cool fruits that grow and grow from the mid-palate all the way through the finish. It stays away from becoming too blowsy and is actually fairly decently balanced. Still, it is hard to tell which direction this wine is likely to head down the road. I’ll hold my one remaining bottle to find out.
2004 Finca Villacreces Ribera del Duero. Deeply purple-colored and opaque, Wine #8 dishes out a soaring nose that features a deep well of dark fruit, camphor, graphite, leather, leafy blackberry and cedar planking aromas. In the mouth, however, it is rather remote and aloof, coming across as a bit impenetrable and lacking in charm. It opens up on the savory side and then brings in some monolithic, densely-packed fruit that just doesn’t seem to connect with the pleasure receptors. There is some crispness to the black fruits and white pepper and the whole package ends on a decidedly dry note. It does appear to improve with time and lots of aggressive aeration, as it fleshes out and becomes more approachable after 3-4 hours. This is definitely one to aggressively decant now or hold in the cellar for a good while.
2001 Artadi Rioja Pagos Viejos. There are pretty nice aromatics here, packaged up in a modern, serious way—featuring scents of leafy blue fruits, mixed currants, roasted cherries and some fine herbal overtones. It is large-styled in the mouth, with full body and solid intensity but no crazy extraction or even particularly heavy density. It pumps out the flavor in a warm-fruited package, but never really reaches way down for the bass notes this wine seems to need. It finishes fleshy and tangy, and the tannins grow and grow there until they begin to feel like they are clamping down after a while. I am hoping this will build up its bottom notes with some added time in the cellar, which it clearly needs anyway.
Looking at group voting, the ’98 Numanthia and the ’79 Torres tied for Wines of the Night. The ’04 Palacios Les Terraces was a distant third.
-Michael