this heaven gives me migraine

Spanish wine

This tasting happened February 18, 2005 at K&L. I was eager to go since I told someone I would find him a good, light (read: traditional) Tempranillo and every time I picked up a bottle, it ended up being a big, black-fruit, Parker-styled beast of a wine, and not at all what I wanted. I started thinking that I had been imagining lighter Tempranillo styles but finally came across an Izadi Rioja that I thought was exactly what I wanted, even though I figured I would check out this tasting as well. Funnily, the Izadi was included in the tasting and it was, of the 13 wines tasted, my favorite, still. So the tasting was maybe pointless but it was a fascinating tasting nonetheless, and I realized a few things:

1- I mentally categorize red wines into "black" or "red" based on general fruit profile and overall flavors (in this case I was looking for a red and not a black. Only two of the wines we tasted (well, three) counted as red to me, so it is good one of them worked out.
2- Tempranillo, at least what we tasted, is a lot darker than I remember (I am guessing my memory really sucks).
3- I don't like it when Cabernet Sauvignon gets into my Tempranillo. Well, sometimes.
4- 2001 was a better year for Spain than 2003.

It got crowded as it always does these days, and you have to juggle around and taste and write your notes on your clipboard (or on the counter, if you get there early like me and can stake out a good spot). Like Italian wines, Spanish wines really need food, so tasting them this way isn't ideal, because a cracker every now and then isn't really real food. Life is hard, sometimes, isn't it?

2004 Bodegas Y Vinedos Luna Beberide Mencia, Bierzo - 100% Mencia - ($13) From the area of Spain directly north of Portugal. The Mencia grape is possibly related to Cabernet Franc. Dark purple with a soapy, violet, blackberry jam nose, it is strong and tannic in the mouth. There is black fruit and some rocky minerality there but it wasn't very exciting and I wasn't thrilled by it, although I realize it had the misfortune of being the first wine tasted and that wine is always at a disadvantage. Also, it definitely needed food. 7.

2001 Viña Izadi Crianza, Rioja (Alavesa) - 90% Tempranillo, 5% Mazuelo, 5% Graciano - ($15) Light burgundy in the glass and with a goregous nose of cherries, it plies you with a lot of sour cherry in the mouth and finishes with a very slight cough drop/cardamom flavor. It has a rough, warm finish... not tannic, but nicely astringent, probably a result of the 14 months it spent in American oak. 9.

2001 Bodegas Y Vinedos Pujanza, Rioja (Alavesa) - 100% Tempranillo - ($25) Darker burgundy than the Izadi, I found it was hard to get much off the nose...some lead and tobacco with some cherry down underneath somewhere. There is black fruit but not much of it, and the finish is all leather and tannins. 7.5

2003 Artadi Viñas de Gaín, Rioja (Alavesa) - 100% Tempranillo - ($22) Blackish purple in the glass, really dark. A wacky almost floral nose that has a strange element of hazelnut in it (I am thinking, since to me it smelled like nuts and plastic, and I mean that in a nice way). It has a lot of fruit up front and an oaky softly tannic finish with lingering plum and cherry. It's a very feminine wine and very pretty. 8.

2004 El Quintanal, Ribera del Duero - 100% Tempranillo - ($11) First bottle had a must problem of some sort where it tasted and smelled musty. We got out a second one to check, and indeed, it was much cleaner. It's dark purple with a nose of thyme and herbs and is very black cherry-like and placid in the mouth, with a burst of herb, oak, and fruit at the finish. The nose is what I think of as shiny and hard... it's not rough and warm but has very precise smells in it. It's a savory-type wine, and for the price it is very nice. 8.

2001 Arzuaga Crianza, Ribera del Duero - 100% Tempranillo - ($26) Brownish-purple and with a nose full of tons of black fruit, along with leaf litter and tobacco. Loads of black plummy fruit in the mouth and some tobacco and oak on the finish. Very pleasant. 8.

2003 Finca Luzón Altos de Luzón, Jumilla - 50% Monastrell, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 25% Tempranillo - ($14) Burgundy-black, smells like a Cab to me... lots of mocha and blackberry and currant. Has a nice spicy peppery finish, but feels heavy and dull after the previous wines. 7.

2003 Pago Florentino, La Mancha - 100% Tempranillo - ($17) Made by the Arzaga people. All about black fruit. Dark in the glass, dark in the mouth. Has a nice astringency. I really liked the first taste, but the second proved to be cloying and I wasn't so sure. Had a little too much jam in it for me... kind of Australian in sensibility. 7.5.

2003 Celler de Cantonella Cervoles Tinto, Costers del Segre - 41% Tempranillo, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Grenache, 11% Merlot - ($25) This is the second of the "red" wines, and is medium burgundy in the glass. This one is all cough syrup all the time. It's pleasant enough, though, since the slightly-medicinal sour cherry thing works for me. It also has a slight bitterness on the finish that lingers. The Cabernet isn't as noticeable here. 8.

2003 Vetus, Toro - 100% Tempranillo, maybe - ($20) Made by the Izadi people, and sports a pretty spiffy minimal label. Dark, black, with a lot of rough tannins and could probably sit around for a while to good effect. In the same rough, warm style as the Izadi. 8.5

2004 Bodegas Quinta de la Quietud "Corral de Campanas", Toro - 100% Tinto de Toro, maybe - ($22) From the former owners of Château Cheval Blanc. Dark purple and with a lot of oaky tinderbox and hope chest smells in the nose along with some mocha and cherry. Lots of big, extracted fruit descending to a prickly acid finish. A huge wine. 8.

2001 Quinta de la Quietud Muestra, Toro - 100% Tinto de Toro, maybe - ($35) Reddish black, dark. Smells like an attic filled with old papers. Lots of very ripe brambly blackberry and raspberry in the mouth. Very pretty and elegant overall. 8.5.

1996 Arzuaga Gran Reserva, Ribera del Duero - 100% Tempranillo, maybe - ($125) This was a bonus bottle opened up because everyone in the store wanted to try it. Very brown/brick red and showing that it has some age on it. Not much fruit left at this point, mostly toasty wood, tobacco, and spice in the mouth. The finish is languid and super smooth, and I really liked the finish, since I am all about the finish when it comes to wine. 9.

Tasting quote of the day:

Kirk (hosting the tasting) to me, when I didn't appreciate the Cabernet in the Finca Luzón: "Cabernet in the glass is like having your mother-in-law in your house... you don't have to see her to know she's there."

I ended up going home with the Izadi Rioja and the Vetus, even though I will probably pick up the El Quintanal at some point and possibly a couple of the others.

2001 Celler de Capçanes "Cabrida"

Region: Montsant, Spain

Composition: 100% Grenache

Background: After a hard day of wine tasting at Hospice du Rhône last Saturday, we took a little break and then ended up at Villa Creek for dinner. It seemed like everyone else at the tasting also ended up at Villa Creek, so we ended up eating at the bar. Even though we were very Rhôned-out, we chanced a bottle of wine with our salads and butternut squash enchiladas (which were really good, and I imagine Villa Creek is one of if not the most interesting place to eat in Paso Robles). This bottle won because it wasn't Syrah (I was pretty tired of Syrah at that point, and hadn't actually tasted much Grenache during the day) and it was some fancypants bottle that was part of a lot auctioned off at Hospice earlier and we figured when in Rhône... (har). There were 20 cases made especially for Hospice, which I believe indicates that the wine for those cases was bottled in a special bottle with the HdR logo marked in the glass and then auctioned off, and Villa Creek won the auction. I think we got the last bottle, and they were out of most of their several auction-won wines (and possibly their other wine, considering the festivities had been going on for days at that point, and the HdR crowd loves Villa Creek).

As for the wine itself, the area around Capçanes (right next to Priorat) has been growing wine grapes for a while, since before the phylloxera louse wiped out most of the vines in the 19th century. Few of the vineyards were replanted after that (those that were replanted were mostly Grenache), and some of those vines are still around today, making wine like this.

In 1933, five families making wine in the area formed a co-operative, the Cooperativa de Capçanes, and they now make wine from over 600-plus acres, and bottle it under the Celler de Capçanes label. (And are probably too busy making good wine to make that website anything other than a splash page, but that's okay with me. Just warning you in case you go there looking for info.) They have made improvements to their facility in the last few years, renovating a lot of the rudimentary setup that has been in use since the early 1900s. Back in the 1990's they gained some fame for making a decent kosher wine for the Jewish community in Barcelona, and went on to earn DO Montsant in 2002. This wine is their top of the line Grenache, made from the post-phylloxera-planted 100 year old vines, and is actually a blend of Garnacha del Pais and Garnacha Peluda. The wine spent 16 months in new French oak, and 4,800 bottles were made.

Notes: It was kind of dim in the restaurant, but this is a dark, inky, blue-purple with a pink edge. The nose is all cookies and spices with some sugared leather and crushed granite, and when first opened, I thought the nose was a little soft and closed (this is probably a little young to drink right now, albeit still tasty). It's very refined and elegant, with bright but not overwhelming acids and velvety tannins, and there is a lot of soft spice (but not cloying) throughout... spice like cinnamon and nutmeg. The finsh goes on and on and is all about the rocks-- minerals and more gravel. Some air did it good, and even though we were only able to get through half the bottle that night, it started to expand a little in the hour or two we spent with it. We stuffed it in the car overnight (I didn't want to waste it, and it was cool enough that it was fine and better there than inside with us) and hauled it home in a cooler on ice the next day, since it was hot, and that night it was a little more open and just as delicious, if not more so.

Cost: $60 at the restaurant, which actually seems to be close to the going rate for the stuff (I am finding from about $50 to about $75 online).

Overall: A

2001 Finca Sobreno Tinto Crianza

Region: Toro, Spain

Composition: 100% Tinto de Toro (Tempranillo) - but it could be as little as 75%

Background: Toro is a small but busy region in the Duero Valley area of Spain, located slightly west of Rueda (which is, in turn, slightly west of Ribera del Duero). The Duero river flows through Ribera del Duero, Rueda, and finally Toro before it enters Portugal and pops out to the ocean in the city of Porto. The region has grown quite a bit in the last two decades... in 1998 there were eight bodegas in Toro and two years later there were over three times that many. The local version of the Tempranillo grape is called "Tinto de Toro", and it is the main red grape of the region (the wines produced in this DO must be 75 percent Tinto de Toro).

This wine is labelled "Crianza", which (generally) means it spent three years aging post-harvest and one of those years was in oak. This is the second rung up in the ladder of Spanish wines (you will see these terms often on bottles, so here is a little Spanish wine label primer):

Joven – not required to spend any time aging in casks before release. The wine can see oak, but often doesn't. You don't see many of these in the U.S. and they are not very highly regarded, since they are often made from not-great wine.

Crianza – Crianzas can't be sold until their third year, and must have spent a minimum of six months in oak barriques (in Rioja and Ribera del Duero, the wine must spend 12 months in oak). The wine used is of better quality than the Joven wines, and the result is a lot more pleasing and sophisticated.

Reserva – Riservas have to wait four years post-harvest to be released, and must spend three years aging, one of which must be in oak. Only made when there is a good vintage.

Gran Reserva – These are oldest, and have to wait six years before release. Two of those years must be spent in oak, and another three in a tank or bottle. These are only made when there is an excellent vintage.

All the above apply to red wines... the white wines usually have slightly less stringent oak/aging requirements. And as someone pointed out to me a while ago, these wines are usually pretty inexpensive when you think that you have basically had them aged for you, and haven't had to worry about storing them!

I don't know much about Finca Sobreno, but it looks like they have been around 16 years, which makes them an old-school producer for the region. They made 3,000 cases of this particular wine. Look for it, it has a bright yellow-orange label you can't miss.

Notes: Dark dark dark ruby black in the glass. It has a beautiful nose if you like tobacco leaves and leather mixed in with your black cherry. There's some slight hotness, but it isn't too bad. It's got black fruit and more leather on the palate, with a healthy dose of tannin and dust in the slightly spicy finish. It leaves a lingering tobacco leaf and oregano flavor on the palate. I have another bottle sitting around and I will give it another year to see how it fares. It's a pretty aggressive wine and I think it could easily handle another year or two of aging.

Cost: $12

Overall: B