This group is me and a bunch of retailer/distributors so in addition to whatever's on for the night's theme, there are usually a few open sample bottles floating around. This time there was a four bottle line-up from a Washington winery called Stone Cap--riesling, chardonnay, cabernet sauvignon and syrah. All were, frankly, terrible: the syrah was the better wine because it had some varietal character where the other three did not, but that's not saying much. Two of the retailers defending the riesling especially at the $5.99 MSRP, which floored me because I could only detect two flavors: sugar and alcohol. One of them then especially floored me by saying, "Well, it beats Chateau Ste. Michelle". I think CSM's reisling is one of the best wines they make! Then Jesse arrived and whipped out a cold bottle of 08 Dr. L Riesling, and put the Stone Cap in perspective for them. THIS was riesling. Great tangy little wine at $8.
Then, the Riojas, random order, blind:
1) Smokey, red plum, sour cherry, coconut, light toast, barely medium body in looks but not deficient on taste, lithe, very good with a lot of maturing Rioja typicity so a good calibrater right out of the gate. Good development, I expected it to be older but it was only a 2004, from a winery I've never heard of, Bodegas Franco, a Reserva. Everyone in this group is good about taking tiny pours, then going back and revisiting each wine later. At the end of the night, this was one of everybody's favorites.
2) Darker, cola, cocoa on the finish, carnuba wax, cassia bark, more oak than #1, firm tannins, seems younger than #1. On the retaste, this was the brighest wine of the bunch, and the oak retreated. My #2, the 2001 Monticillo Grand Reserva.
3) Funky, sweaty (in a mourvedre kind of way, no brett), toffee, five-spice powder, orange peel, sweet finish, tannins develop in the glass, full in the mouth. It's a ringer I brought, but no one suspected it at all. 2000 Quinta Carolina, a pre-Phylloxera Portugese field blend made by a former California winemaker, Jerry Luper. Showed very well, most guessed it to be an 04 or 05.
4A) A 2000 Lopez de Heredia Bosconia was sadly corked--obviously there was an extremely good wine in here we'd have loved to drink.
4B) Our host ran and grabbed a replacement, which was really sweet because this was a precious bottle brought to him from Spain by his wife, as he and it share the same name. Different from the get go: raw fennel, spice, cherry coke, substantial body, big tannins, leaves a cooling menthol-like sensation in the mouth, seems like the youngest wine yet. Is it Rioja? No, it's a Ribera del Duoro: 2001 Gabriel. Very good, needs time.
5) Major sulfur-brettiness in the nose. I really hate sulfur. Something I find wierd about tasting with others is the extent to which what is clearly and obviously sulfur to me is 'funk' to others. Wine #3--THAT was funk. Good. This one? Sulfur. BAD. So this one got some love from the funkadelics while I had to wait for it to blow off. Which it did. Modern, indistinct fruit on the palate, all the usual lines blurred by internationalness, grippy tannins. My least favorite of the night, oh, and I brought it. (It was a gift, I actually knew nothing about the wine.) 2001 Valsacro Dioro.
6) Light color. Light body. Unbalanced toward acid. Pine resin, and ketchup on the nose, sour cherry on the palate. Lean. None of this sounds good, but I still liked it better than the Valsacro. It's a 2001 Lopez de Heredia Bosconia. No match in the fruit department for the corked 2000 two wines ago, but it should calm down somewhat down the road. If you own it, HOLD.
7) Oh, this is different. Mushrooms and cracked black pepper are all over the nose, and it's broad shouldered/almost masculine yet sultry-- like K.D. Lang's singing. 2004 Conde Valdemar Reserva.
8 ) Light, mildly cloudy, very old looking. Jesse brought this and decanted it immediately upon arrival. I use that fact to suggest that it couldn't be as old as it looks, might be a '91 or a lesser '94. And I was so wrong. It was a 1976 Lopez de Heredia Bosconia: a bit of raw jalapeno bite on the nose, dried rose petals, dried cranberries and an earthy sweet vegetable component like parsnips, tomato skin, light fungus. Old but lively; excellent. Everybody's WOTN.
