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Spanish wine tasting @ Wine Authorities
leandra wrote this on August 9, 2008
There’s nothing like a beautiful day and some Spanish wine to bring people out to a wine tasting!
We started with the Canals Canals Brut Nature Gran Reserva Cava (NV) from the Penedes region of Spain. I found it very light at first but after a few sips, it opened with some clean citrus notes. Great value for $14, so we picked up a bottle.
Next up was a white rioja, Bodegas Perica Mi Villa Blanco (2006). Andoni Uroz, the distributor, told us to look for white peach, white melon and green apple which I thought was pretty accurate. Eric mentioned that this would go very well with the paella I made last week. This wine is definitely made to pair with food.
At this point, we grabbed a seat on the sofa to discuss the reds because it was getting mighty crowded at the bar. Both reds came from the same winery with the same combination of grape varietals (88% tempranillo, 8% garnacha, 4% mazuelo), so it was interesting to compare the two. One was a crianza (aged one year in oak) and one was a reserva (aged 24 months in oak), in both cases American oak barrels.
The Bodegas Perica Viña Olagosa Crianza (2004) was very nice, light with a hint of fruit but more minerally flavor, an easy drinking, good with red meat wine. The Bodegas Perica Viña Olagosa Reserva (2001) was a little more earthy than I typically like. It had a heavier mineral flavor and more complexity, but we both enjoyed the younger red much better.
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