Participants 3 Noland brothers Tom, Bob and James plus Ruth (Bob's wife)
3 wines:
Wine 1
Dark ruby with a tart fruit nose, mostly tart cherry and cranberry. Quite acidic on the midpalate with lemony and sour acid. Astringency grabs the palate and tends to shut down the fruit on the medium to long finish of bitter fruit.
Bob: finish is long but not pleasing. Young wine. Needs time – we all thought this.
James: elderberry finish (bitter fruit).
Wine 2
Dark ruby with an oaky boysenberry nose with ripe fruit notes and a hint of a veggie (maybe turnip). The midpalate reflects the nose with oaky complex fruit notes, blackberry and dark fruit. Nicely balanced smooth wine, a seamless wine with fruit, tannic structure and acidity all balancing each other for a great tasting experience.
Ruth: Boozy finish
Bob: Classic rioja wine
Wine 3
Dark ruby with a touch of fog (probably unfiltered). Nose shy at first but the aroma developed well in the glass and showed ripe fruit with blackberryish dark fruit notes. James noticed fennel and spicy notes. Midpalate impressions had Bob detecting mulberry and slightly unripe blackberry. I detected purple plum and blackberry notes. Nice long drying finish of dark fruit. This wine developed and changed the most in the glass and got better with time, especially the nose. Another nicely balanced wine, that Bob thought needed to age.
Scores:
Bob 2>3>1
James 2>3>1
Ruth 3>2>1
Tom 3>2>1
Result 2=3>1
In fact, I had difficulty deciding which I liked better 2 or 3. So, I almost tied them myself.
Now, these 3 wines with food:
Food: Spanish meatballs (pork spiced with smoked paprika, cumin, garlic and coriander.
Spanish cheeses: Iberico and manchego
Spanish iberico ham
Chorizo with a cider reduction
Wine #1 was best with chorizo but in general simple with food.
Wine #2 was best with cheeses
Wine #3 was best with ham and the cider reduction, which generated an explosion of fruit in the midpalate with this wine.
All 3 wines were good with the Spanish meatballs particularly 2 and 3.
Overall best wine with food: Wine #2
Wine #4 Bonus wine opened later
Dark ruby with clean fruity nose. Great fruit on the midpalate with a medium length finish that cut off rather abruptly. - not rated with other wines, but generally agreed as the best sipper!
Wines revealed
Wine #1, Bob's wine 2012 Rioja reserva Marques de Caceres 14% abv and it was better tasting the next day. Needs aging time in the bottle.
Wine #2, James' wine 2009 Rioja reserva Luis Canas 14.5% abv probably best overall if its food friendliness is included.
Wine #3, My wine 2010 Rioja gran reserva Marquis de Riscal, 150 year anniversary wine 15% abv. Probably opened a couple of years too soon. Who knew? Bob says he generally ages his riojas longer than bordeauxs.
Wine #4, 2014 Toro by Cachito Mio 14.5% abv best sipper