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THE GOOD OLD DAYS

The winning wine

Our August Tongham Tasters evening was special in many respects. As Jane and I are leaving Tongham as soon as we sell our house it was a bit of a farewell party. Also Sheila was returning to the group after a period of convalescence.  For the first time ever we had fourteen of the regular tasters around the table.  We also blew the budget, and spent the remaining kitty on this event and had more expensive wines and a full ten course tasting menu, courtesy of Jane and her Thermomix, to accompany it.

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.

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.

2. Marques de Murrieta Ygay, Reserva Rioja1994, Spanish Red 12.5%, Majestic £22.

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.

5. Conde de Valdemar, Gran Reserva Rioja 1993, Spanish Red 13%, Majestic £12.50.

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.

6. La Rioja Alta Vina Alberdi, Reserva Rioja 2006, Spanish Red 13.5%, Wines Direct £13.50.

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

The corks - some of which gave us some worry but all wines were OK

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.

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:

Jane serves her Lemon scented Gazpacho

Jane and John discuss the gazpacho

We raise a glass to our new life

We open the gifts from Tongham Tasters

Two Johns ready for the tasting

Jill shows us how to pour exactly 50ml each

Sheila shows ff a different style

...and John enjoys pouring another

Jane shows of her paella

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 12^th.   Also in Farnborough will be the November 9^th 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
1	Rioja comes from a DOC region in Northern Spain
2	Rioja tends to represent the best value for aged wines in the world
3	Oak is a big part of the traditional Rioja taste imparting the vanilla overtones
4	Traditionally Rioja producers use American oak rather than French oak and this gives them a different character
	with perhaps more vanilla, more sweetness, less fruitiness and less harsh tannins.
5	Tempranillo tends to be normally over 50% of the grapes in a Rioja blend and sometimes 100%.
5	Other grapes used include Garnacha Tinto, Graciano, Mazuelo and sometimes Cabernet Sauvignon
7	A Rioja Crianza is a wine aged for at least 2 years of which at least one has been in an oak barrel
8	A Rioja Reserva is a wine aged for at least 3 years of which at least one has been in an oak barrel
9	A Rioja Gran Reserva is a wine aged for at least 5 years of which at least two has been in an oak barrel
10	Once released a very old aged Rioja should normally be drunk quite quickly
11	Today Rioja is split in two between the traditional Rioja producers and the modern Rioja producers who produce
	a fruitier new world style wine perhaps using less oak and more French oak.
12	Amongst the best of the traditional Rioja producers are Lopez de Heredia, CVNE, Muga, La Rioja Alta,
	Marques de Murrieta, Valdemar and Marques de Riscal.
13	A good traditional Rioja is not a big powerful wine but it will be smooth and complex. The flavours should be
	dancing across your palate.
14	There are three regions Rioja Alta, Rioja Baja and Rioja Alavesa.  Rioja Alta produces perhaps the best of the
	old style traditional wines.  Many wines are blends of all three regions.
15	The main fruit characteristics of Rioja tend to be strawberry or cherry but cedar, leather, coffee and spice tend to also be
	readily detectable.
16	Good Riojas have high levels of acidity that make them good food wines to match with lamb etc.
17	Poor traditional Riojas are flat, dusty and oxidised

We tried a wine with 96 Robert Parker points

CRACKING THE LANGUEDOC

One of the very dark Languedoc reds

As Steve has a small house in the Languedoc and visits there regularly, I pretty much insist that he presents us wines from the Languedoc when it comes around to his turn to do the tasting.  In any case the wines of the Langeudoc are always popular and represent good value, even if the prices of some are creeping up.   In his previous tastings Steve had felt that he hadn’t quite done the Languedoc justice; would he manage it for our July tasting and really crack the Languedoc?

Steve opens the wine whilst Jane smiles and I concentrate

The were nine of us gathered around his dining room table one Friday night in early July to judge Steve and his wines.  As usual we blind tasted the wines and had to guess which of the six wines presented did not contain a local varietal.  The wines we tasted are presented in descending order of preference and all scores are out of twenty using the original Tongham Taster scoring system that rates the wines on look, small, feel, taste, length and wow factor.   Scores are presented in the order Clive, Ian, Kathryn, Andy, Chris, Steve S and Yvonne.  I managed to lose my and Jane’s score sheets so they are not presented.

Plenty of Tongham Bakery bread to soak up all that strong wine

1. Mas Gabriel, Cuvee Trois Terraces, 2011, 100% Carignan Noir Vielles Vignes, French Red 14.5%, direct from the producer €10.00

Four of our team had this as their favourite wine and everyone had it in their top three.   Clive smelt this wine and immediately identified that is wasn’t a beer!   I thought it was a Syrah but as usual got it wrong.  Some felt it had the aroma of brambles with some caramel.  It was quite dry and astringent.  Scores were 15, 12.5, 12, 12.5,14, 15.75 and 16.  A very nice wine from a grape that is rarely used as a single varietal.

2. Domaine de l’Arjolle, Cuvee Zinfandel 2010, French Red 14.5%, direct from the producer, €12.00

A close second was the non-Languedoc varietal – Zinfandel.  It also had four who voted it top but another four had it in their bottom half.   Thi s wine had a lot of vanilla oakiness but reasonable acidity to balance this.  The taste was of stewed plums with just a hint of sweetness from the fruit.   Scores were 17, 13.5, 11, 10, 10.5, 15.5 and13.  A very pleasant wine and an unusual varietal for the area.

3. Chateau de la Liquiere, Vielles Vignes, AOC Faugeres 2011, French Red, direct from the producer,
€8.90

Making it a clean sweep for the red wines our third favourite wine was this nice Faugeres.  It was a gloomy Goth coloured wine that was astringent with lots of tannin.  It was complex and balanced.  Five of us had in our top three wines.   Some thought it was spicy but it could have been the chorizo that some of us were eating.  Score were 16, 12.5, 8, 10.5, 9, 13.75 and 12.5.  This wine is 45% Carignan, 35% Grenache, 10% Syrah and 10% Mouvedre.

4. Mas Gabriel, Cuvee Clos des Papillons 2012, French White 13.5%, direct from the producer, €13.50

Mas Gabriel not only produced our favourite red, they also produced our favourite white.  It was an unusual grape varietal – Carignan Blanc, something that most of us hadn’t tasted before.  For some of us it was similar to Picpoul de Pinet and had a good dose of acidity and then a lingering dryness.  There appeared to be a slight natural fizz rather like in an Albarino. Scores were 13, 10.5, 12.5, 10.5, 11, 11.75 and 12.  Mas Gabriel is obviously a property worth visiting – Languedoc here we come!

5. Chateau de la Liquiere, Cuvee Les Armandieres 2012, French White, direct from the producer, €6.40

This cheeky little wine with a mineral taste and floral smell had some lemon sherbet grip in the after taste.  It turned out to be 30% Roussane, 25% Grenache, 20% Terret, 10% Viognier, 10% Bourboulenc and 5% Marsanne.   Scores were 14, 11.5, 12, 10, 13.5, 14 and 11.

6. Chateau Roquette sur Mer, La Clape, Cuvee Arpege 2011, French White 13.5%, direct from the producer, €8.15

Unfortunately eight of us voted this our least favourite wine of the evening.  Steve said it tasted much better in the Languedoc.   I found it a bit flat not quite but almost pear drops and some thought it resinous or bitter.   It had a very dry aftertaste with some citrus.  It turned out to be a Bourboulenc and Roussane blend.  Scores were 10, 6, 11, 9.5, 8.5, 9.5 and 9.   Kathryn, our white wine lover didn’t vote it last and it reminded her of Dandelions so there is some hope for this wine.

Yvonne's excellent cheese straws

A very interesting selection of wines and some interesting grape varieties; Steve you definitely cracked the Languedoc!   As usual we had a good selection of Tongham bakery bread, crackers, meats and cheese.  Yvonne had made some delicious cheese straws that matched the wines extremely well.  We also tried some dried figs that went quite well with the Zinfandel.

Dried figs from the Languedoc

Clive at the other end of the lens

Next month we meet on Friday August 9^th for a “regulars only” event where we will spend the kitty we have built up over the last year on some mature Reserva and Gran Reserva Riojas dating from 2004 back to 1984.  A "must" for lovers of old red wines.

Team we need someone to take over from me after August and someone to host  the September, October, November and December tastings.  Volunteers please!

If you are interested in visiting Mas Gabriel, it is a small organic wine domain located in Caux.   It is run by an English couple, Peter and Deborah Core so you won’t have any language problems here.  They have a website www.mas-gabriel.co.uk that is worth a visit if you can’t get to their domaine.   Many thanks to Steve and Yvonne for introducing their wines to us and for hosting another really enjoyable evening.

As usual - thanks to Clive for the additional and superior photos attached to this post.

Yvonne pours the wine for Chris

Steve prepares the table