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| The winning wine |
Following the success of our Chinon and Chablis evenings I
thought it would be a good idea to have another event where we tasted some
older aged wines, and what better region to choose for aged wines than
Rioja? I lined up eight wines from eight
different years with the youngest being a 2006 and the oldest being from
1984. Included in this was a true
mini-vertical of three wines of the same cuvee from three different years.
So how did our tasting group find the aged Riojas we served
up to them and would they all still be in perfect condition: For once we did not taste blind as I wanted everyone
to appreciate exactly what they were tasting.
All scores quoted are out of 20 and are in the order of John E, Steve S,
Ian, Chris, Andy, Kathryn, Steve W, Yvonne, Clive, Sarah, Sheila, John S and
Jill. How would some of tasters who
tend to drink New World wines find these old traditional Riojas? Woould the more expensive wines fare
better? Read on to find our favourite in
descending order of preference.
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| Our Mini-Vertical of Conde de Valdemar |
1. Conde de Valdemar, Gran Reserva Rioja 1984, Spanish Red 13%,
Majestic £12.50.
Not an expensive wine as it came as part of a £75 case of
six, the Rioja Vintage Explorer case – well done Majestic! This proved popular as it had a big
strawberry hit but had more acidity than the other wines in our mini-vertical. Four of us (Chris, Andy, Steve W and Jill)
voted it their favourite wine of the evening and another six had it in their
top three. However, Yvonne liked this
wine the least of all. We served it with
some mature Cheddar cheese - a nice and classic match. Scores were 16.25, 13.5, 14, 17.5, 14, 17, 12, 10, 17, 19+, 11.75, 15 and 16.5. Amazing scores for a wine at this price.
Just scraping into runner’s up slot was this lovely wine
that reminded Ian that he had been in Rioja whilst this was being harvested in
1994 and he had bought some older vintages of the very same wine. Whilst only two of our team (Steve S and John
S) voted it their top wine, five of us had it in second place. You could tell this was an old wine but it
was a beautiful Strawberry and Vanilla Rioja. it was perhaps slightly over-powered by Jane's wonderful Mushroom and Chestnut soup. Scores were 16.5, 17.75, 18, 13, 10.5, 16, 13, 12, 19, 14, 12, 16 and 15. Scores that indicate your £22 would be well spent on buying this to accompany your Sunday roast lamb.
3. La Rioja Alta 904, Gran Reserva Rioja 2001, Spanish Red 12.5%,
Wines Direct £29.
I had billed this as the wine to beat as Robert Parker had
given it a score of 96/100. It received three votes for the top wine of the
evening (from John E, Ian, and Clive) and another three as second best
wine. It had a smell of oak and
strawberries and then a big fruity taste and vanilla after-burn. Beautifully smooth it had high acidity that
made it a great food wine. We served it
with cumin and mint encrusted rack of lamb – yum! Jane had slow cooked the racks and then cut
them and grilled them to a pink perfection on the same grill as the chorizo –
well-done Jane! Scores were 17.25, 17.5, 18.5, 14.5, 11.5, 17, 10, 13, 20, 16, 10, 13 and 16. Note that Clive scored this a perfect 20 out of 20. Another weekend wine worth investing in.
4. Conde de Valdemar, Gran Reserva Rioja 1989, Spanish Red 13%,
Majestic £12.50.
This was the second wine in our mini vertical and it had an
oaky strawberry aroma and then a huge strawberry kick when you tasted it. Mt complaint would be the lack of complexity,
it was all strawberries and vanilla.
However, it proved quite popular and it received two votes for best wine
of the evening (from Kathryn and Sarah) but also one vote for the worst. We served this with two lovely Spanish cheeses from Tesco –an
Albacete Manchego and a Queso de Romero (rosemary encrusted). Scores were 15, 13, 13, 15.5, 13, 17, 11, 10, 15, 19+, 11.5, 13 and 13.5. A lovely old wine.
This was the first of the mini-vertical that we tasted and
it had a nice strawberry smell but a big oaky taste. For six of us it was our third favourite wine
of the evening and thus up there with all the rest. We served this with a chicken and pork
Paella. Scores were 15.25, 12.25, 12.5, 15, 12, 17, 9, 11, 18, 19, 10.5, 13 and 15.5. Not a bad wine at all.
I had ordered a Crianza from Wines Direct but a Reserva
turned up. Who was I to complain? It was Sheila’s favourite wine of the
evening but it also appeared as someone’s least favourite wine. It was very smooth and made for easy drinking
with a cherry vanilla taste. We served this with some grilled Chorizo that was
absolutely delicious along side Tongham Bakery’s Sun-Dried Tomato and Parmesan
bread. Scores were 14+, 15, 13.5, 10, 13.5, 15, 10, 10, 16, 15, 14, 12 and 14. Good value crowd pleaser. i have had a bottle since whilst on holiday in the Sancerrois and the Veauguians liked it as well.
7. CVNE Real de Asua, Rioja 2004, Spanish Red 13.5%, Wines Direct
£47.
I thought I was buying a CVNE Imperial Reserva because the
picture and description on the Wines Direct website was very confusing! This is less of a traditional Rioja than the
others. It is an unusual and special cuvee
from CVNE named after the brothers who founded the company and it is more in a
modern style and it is not a crianza, reserva or gran reserva despite the high
price. It is made from top grapes that
are given an extended carbonic maceration process of five months in oak. It has a total of 15 months in non-traditional
French oak and then 24 months in the bottle.
The result of this process split the team. Yvonne and Jane thought it was their
favourite wine of the evening but six of us, including myself, voted it our
least favourite wine of the evening.
The accompaniment was some incredible Serrano ham. Scores were 13.5, 12, 10, 8.5, 11, 12, 13, 16, 16, 10, 6, 8 and 10. Not worth the price frankly!
8. Lopez de Heredia Vina Bosconia, Reserva Rioja 2003, Spanish Red 13.5%, Spanish Red 13.5%,
Wines Direct £22.50.
How does a wine this good came in eighth place? It demonstrates the crowd-pleasing quality
of the other wines I served. Don’t let
its position put you off this wine; it is still a good buy. Steve S and Yvonne had it as their third
favourite. Perhaps, it was too acidic for some but this also makes it an
excellent food wine. We actually served
it with a tapas dish of green beans and garlic.
The wine has spent five years in oak and had the acidity to balance
it. It had the classic strawberry and
vanilla taste of aged tempranilla. Scores were 14.5+, 16, 14, 10.5, 10, 9, 8, 12, 15, 9, 11, 12 and 13. I scored this a very high 14.5+ which means I would definitely buy more even though it came last.
There were no dud wines in this tasting, all were in good
condition and all
were beautiful and most of us found it really difficult to
score them apart and put them into some sort of order. All the wines were from good producers and
price didn’t seem to matter. It
certainly seemed that the older the wines were, the more we appreciated them. Interestingly, the slightly higher alcohol content wines finished in the bottom three. Do look out for some of the older Riojas at
your local Majestic Wine warehouse or elsewhere and give them a try. I think this was a night that turned some
more into traditional Rioja lovers – Ian, Jane and myself were certainly there
already.
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| The corks - some of which gave us some worry but all wines were OK |
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| We are lucky t have a good local bakers ship |
A huge thank you to Jane who slaved away in the kitchen to
bring us a real feast to match our great Riojas. From the opening lemon-scented Gazpacho we
had as an aperitif to the lamb racks she really hit the top notes! Then, she topped it all with a chocolate
chorizo as a dessert to go with our coffee!!!
Thanks to Clive's excellent photos of the evening that appear below:
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| Jane serves her Lemon scented Gazpacho |
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| Jane and John discuss the gazpacho |
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| We raise a glass to our new life |
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| We open the gifts from Tongham Tasters |
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| Two Johns ready for the tasting |
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| Jill shows us how to pour exactly 50ml each |
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| Sheila shows ff a different style |
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| ...and John enjoys pouring another |
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| Jane shows of her paella |
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| Jane unwraps the chocolate chorizo |
Very special heart felt thanks to the whole tasting team who
presented Jane and myself with a going away present of two 2014 homemade
calendars with memories of Tongham Tasters printed all over them. Very much appreciated. We will miss you all.
Good news is that the group is continuing and that they are
giving each other bigger budgets for future. Next up are Clive and Sarah who will be hosting in Tongham on Saturday September 7. The following month the event will be in
Farnborough at John and Jill’s place on Saturday October 12th. Also in Farnborough will be the November 9th
event to be organised by Ian and Kathryn.
We will bow out of 2013 with a 25% off bubbly extravaganza at Sheila's place in December. |
| The lovely eight Riojas that we tasted |
Here are some Rioja wine facts that I presented to the group
at the start of the evening.
TRADITIONAL RIOJA RED WINE FACTS
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1
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Rioja comes from a DOC region in
Northern Spain
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2
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Rioja tends to represent the best
value for aged wines in the world
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3
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Oak is a big part of the traditional
Rioja taste imparting the vanilla overtones
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4
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Traditionally Rioja producers use
American oak rather than French oak and this gives them a different character
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with perhaps more vanilla, more
sweetness, less fruitiness and less harsh tannins.
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5
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Tempranillo tends to be normally over
50% of the grapes in a Rioja blend and sometimes 100%.
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5
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Other grapes used include Garnacha
Tinto, Graciano, Mazuelo and sometimes Cabernet Sauvignon
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7
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A Rioja Crianza is a wine aged for at
least 2 years of which at least one has been in an oak barrel
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8
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A Rioja Reserva is a wine aged for at
least 3 years of which at least one has been in an oak barrel
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9
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A Rioja Gran Reserva is a wine aged
for at least 5 years of which at least two has been in an oak barrel
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10
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Once released a very old aged Rioja
should normally be drunk quite quickly
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11
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Today Rioja is split in two between
the traditional Rioja producers and the modern Rioja producers who produce
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a fruitier new world style wine perhaps
using less oak and more French oak.
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12
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Amongst the best of the traditional
Rioja producers are Lopez de Heredia, CVNE, Muga, La Rioja Alta,
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Marques de Murrieta, Valdemar and
Marques de Riscal.
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13
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A good traditional Rioja is not a big
powerful wine but it will be smooth and complex. The flavours should be
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dancing across your palate.
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14
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There are three regions Rioja Alta,
Rioja Baja and Rioja Alavesa. Rioja
Alta produces perhaps the best of the
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old style traditional wines. Many wines are blends of all three regions.
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15
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The main fruit characteristics of
Rioja tend to be strawberry or cherry but cedar, leather, coffee and spice
tend to also be
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readily detectable.
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16
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Good Riojas have high levels of
acidity that make them good food wines to match with lamb etc.
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17
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Poor traditional Riojas are flat,
dusty and oxidised
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| We tried a wine with 96 Robert Parker points |
