Notes from our June 8 Wine Club Meeting, featuring contributions from Spain and Portugal:
1+1+3 Cava: This was recommended to me by someone at the liquor store around the corner from my place, but I don’t think there was much thought put into it. I said cava and they just happened to have this one, in my price range, on the shelf. It was a dry sparkling wine, and I can’t say much else about it. Not very interesting to any of us. Might have been better with shelfish, but we didn’t have any seafood at this tasting.
2006 Nessa Albarino, Ria Baixes: Lots of soft fruit scents of peaches and pears, this had nicely balanced softness and acidity. Slightly fizzy, everyone liked this, even the avowed “no whites” members.
2003 Dom Martinho Vinho Regional Alentejano: We barely had time to remark on the pretty deep, clear red coloring before noticing the bold fruit jumping out of the glass. Blueberries and chocolate on the nose, with cranberries and hazelnut appearing later. Really nice, soft tannins and spice to taste. We all agreed that this was the wine of the night.
2005 Quintal Ribera del Duero: I’ve really come to be a fan of wines from this region, and this was no exception. Nice garnet color, we got whiffs of cherries, dust, and animal. Someone mentioned rose, and another mentioned rubberband. This latter descriptor is a scent I’ve noticed in other wines but now that I’m sitting here at work stretching a rubberband out and sniffing it, I think that maybe this scent might normally be referred to as tar when dealing with wine. The only palate description we ended up with was tangy, so I’m guessing there was a decent amount of acidity.
2004 Divus Jumilla: Soap, cinnamon and spice on the nose, with a sharp acidity and very few tannins. Someone had actually opened this before the Dom Martinho and I had smelled but not tasted it, and I thought I was going to like it better than I did. But after the Alentejano, I found that everything else tended to pale by comparison.
2003 Marques de Caceres Crianza Rioja: This just reminded me of a very drinkable italian table wine. Not bad at all, but one of those generic, give me some antipasti with this red wines.
Bodegas Osborne Fino Jerez Pale Dry: I think this was probably most of the members first introduction to Fino, and I was surprised at the overall positive reception this got. Admittedly, we served it way out of order (should have probably been the first thing served, but it needed to chill drastically so we moved on without it). A few members noted pineapple, honeydew & kiwi. I’ve got to be honest, I smelled and tasted no such things, in fact couldn’t quite discerne what it was that I smelled, but overall it was a pleasing enough sipper, especially with the spiced almonds and the olives. Strange weakness midpalate though, and not much of a finish.
Warres White Port: I don’t have any further description of this, and when I try to look it up online I find nothing. This was my, as well as everyone else’s, first white port. I’m glad to have had a chance to try it since I’ve never even considered a white port before. The only description that we ended up with, and I think it’s apt, is Ethiopian honey wine.