I was lucky enough to be invited to join a tasting of the latest vintage of Vega Sicilia's Unico, the 2000, organized by Vega Sicilia importer JC de Terry. As the tasting was to start at 7 PM, I was also invited to have a drink with Jojo at his shop, just a few minutes down the same road as JC's restaurant, before heading over to the Vega tasting.
Chateau Cos d'Estournel 1988 - Jojo's bottle. Still quite dark and youthful looking. Popped and poured. Fragrant right out of the bottle. Pure, sweet fruit. Red berries. Tobacco, leather and a bit of mushroom. Beautiful bottle. Later on, bitter chocolate. More charm than complexity on the palate but that's not a problem for me. Extremely easy to drink. Dry, savory, slightly spirity and still firm finish. Close to perfection. Best red wine this year so far. Outstanding.
I was expecting just the bottle of Unico at Terry's but we all decided to get bottles of his list and Gerry brought a couple of bottles to share as well.
Bastianich Tocai Plus 2005 - Tocai Friuliano. Magnum. Medium yellow-green. Interesting nose. A bit of seaweed and smoke. Rather rich, late-harvest style. Silky. I thought it was good but a little tiring to drink more than a glass without any food.
Castillo de Villafranca Bierzo 2004 - Meaty, roasted nose. Rhone-like dried herbs. A bit of soy sauce. Medium-bodied. An easy drink. Good and slightly above quaffer level.
Vega Sicilia Unico 2000 - A sample from the winery as the the wine has not yet been released. Meaty, deep nose. Very complex. Violets, ripe berries. Slightly hot, though. Rich and concentrated. Needed close to two hours in the glass to open up. Rich, concentrated, lots of fruit on the palate. Milk chocolate and caramel. Firm, tannic finish. Excellent but very primary.
Vega Sicilia Valbuena 2001 - Similar nose to the Unico. Sweet and soft. Plummy. Ready to go. Very good in my opinion although I think I heard some of the others found it sour.
Chateau Talbot 1996 - Strange, rather powerful barnyard aroma. Sweet fruit underneath the stink but it was really hard to get past it. I think a flawed bottle.
Bodegas Olarra Cerro Anon Gran Reserva 2001 - From Rioja. Plenty of pepper and spice on the nose. Medium-bodied with rather high acidity on the very dry finish. Still a bit tight. Needs a couple more years to open up. Good with potential for improvement.
Chateau d'Arche 1997 - Sauternes. Very dark. I had some misgivings about this wine because of the color but the wine was fine. Nose of tobacco. Typical Sauternes marmalade and apricot. A light style. Finish was a little weak.
Masachs Cava Brut Nature NV - We decided to finish the evening with this bottle. Very clean, slightly yeasty finish. A good way to refresh the palate after all that red wine.
Many thanks again to Jojo, JC and Gerry for all the great wine.