| Recent Posts | About the Author | Navigation |
|---|---|---|
|
|
David is an occasional blogger, software engineer, Nintendo fanboy, liberal, news magazine addict, voracious TiVo user, and bibliophile. He was born in St. Louis, grew up in southern Indiana, and returned to St. Louis to attend Washington University. He hasn't managed to escape yet. He's a fan of free wine tastings, too many tv shows to name, and eating out. David makes his living developing web applications used internally by his employer. He doesn't blog about work because he's heard too many stories about that causing workplace troubles. There's more on the about page. |
|
| Recent Comments | ||
|
|
||
| Recent Photos | ||
|
|
||
7 April 2006 - 10:32 am
Spanish wines are all the rage these days. The aficionados believe that bargains can be found in Spain and much is being made of the Rioja wines. However, if you had asked me a week ago for my take on the Spanish wines, I wouldn't have been able to recommend them. True, I've had a stellar, inexpensive sparkling Spanish wine (NV Segura Viudas Cava Brut Reserva, $10) that was made in the traditional French Champagne style and compares favorably with the French Champagnes, which are normally > $30. But the table reds had been rather disappointing. I've had the '01 Torre Muga that everyone loves (the NY Times gave it 3.5 stars and their top rating in a Rioja evaluation and Robert Parker gave it 95 points) and a well respected '02 Juan Gil Jumilla (91 points from Parker), but hadn't liked either. I found the Torre Muga to be super, overly tannic and the Juan Gil was way out of balance and reeked and tasted like straight alcohol. So two rather dramatic failures, given the reputations of the wines.
However, something about this seemed fishy to me. I could live with the Torre Muga being overly tannic -- that may just be a taste preference -- and at $60 - $80 per bottle I'm not expecting I'll have the chance to taste it again. But the Juan Gil is only about $15 and is available at World Market, so it was fairly easy to arrange a retasting. Last night I put that plan into action and Jeremy and I split a bottle of the '02 Juan Gill Jumilla. The Juan Gil is 100% Monastrell grape grown on 40-year old vines and aged in French oak. On second tasting Jeremy and I were both impressed with the wine. It had a rich, deep, dark, fruit taste and an intriguing aroma. There was no sign of the out of balance, burning taste of alcohol that we had experienced with our first bottle. So with that success I'm back on the Spanish wine bandwagon. But watch out for the Torre Muga. I think it's been over-hyped.
Posted by on 7 April 2006 at 10:31 AM
Comments