Tasting Notes - Some Dunn, lots of Spanish

Here we go, another batch of tasting notes for your reading pleasure.

THE SPANISH

2009 Montebuena Rioja

Fresh, unoaked tempranillo, to me, is rarely an interesting wine. Neither is this, but it is certainly easy to drink and tastes of its place. It's $10, you know? A wine that if you are on my employer's email list you will likely hear about today....

2008 Volver Tempranillo La Mancha

Purely a commercial prospect, this is wine I would not personally enjoy drinking. However, given the sweet-ish, Taransaud laced ripe La Mancha flavor profile, there is a place for this wine amongst my customers, so yeah - I bought it. Sometimes there are buying decisions that I make with the end customer and our bottom line in mind more than my inclination to drink a wine. Most buyers work that way, and though it is not coming from an aesthetically pure place, such is life in the great big online wine retailer game. Don't worry, we still have rueda dorado, traditional rioja, sans soufre macabeu and Canary Island wine for your drinking pleasure (and mine).

2008 Do Ferreiro Albariño Rias Baixas

I do not want to rush to judgement for what is typically amongst my 2 or 3 favorite albariños each year, but this tastes uncharacteristically ripe and lacking in minerality this year. Simple golden stone fruit. In its current state, a huge disappointment. Let's see where it's at in 4-6 months.

2007 Benito Santos Viñedo de Xoan Rias Baixas Albariño

Terrific wine. Todd Blomberg, a San Francisco native, is a partner in this winery, which takes its name from the original owner and one of the early pioneers in the Rias Baixas D.O., Benito Santos. This vineyard, a mere .5 hectares, is farmed organically. Vines here are old, about 80 years I believe, and they grow in granite soils which are so typical here. There is a density, and flavor intensity that reminds me of dry chenin blanc. Plump and generous but mineral, full of fruit yet bolstered by good acid structure. No fru-fru, simple, flabby albariño here.

2006 Benito Santos Viñedo de Bemil Rias Baixas Albariño

Another fantastic example from a separate 80 year old vineyard, this one containing limestone. The structure here is a bit more tense. The acid bites more, in a good way though. I love the minerality, deeply intense flavors and length of this wine. Could age and improve longer for sure.

2008 Ferreira Soalheiro Alvarinho "Primeiras Vinhas" Vinho Verde

The formerly cool, edgy, tense, tangy green fruit profile has opened up considerably since I last tasted a few months ago. It is slightly tropical, in a totally acceptable, structured way. The fruit is intense and persisent. Very interesting alvarinho.

2007 Pedralonga "Barrica" Albariño Rias Baixas

I have never found an oaked albariño I liked. Until now. Somehow, the elevage here does not take away from the amazing acid and mineral structure. If anything, it contributes some subtle nuance of flavor and sweetness, adding a component which blends quite well with the intense, steely acids and minerals. I like to think of some white wines (often times my favorites) as having big, mouthfilling acidity. Savagnin, menu pineau, Chenin, sauvignon grown in Mont Damnes...stuff like that, you know? This wine has got a similar acidity and somehow the oak does not mess it up.

2007 Mengoba Godello y Doña Blanca "Sobre Lias" Bierzo

I am still not a full fledged godello believer. I've seen some interesting wines such as this, but they just get a bit too creamy and soft after some bottle age for my taste. 6-7 months with weekly battonage can have that effect. The acidity is here, but not as present or dominant as I prefer. I have heard the comparison that some people make to Muscadet for these wines, and I think that perhaps for the cooler climate godellos there is something to that comparison. I'm just not sure if the best wines have as much drive and ability to transform in bottle as their Atlantic climate French counterparts in the pays nantais.

THE DUNN

I have a lot of respect for what the Dunn family, with Randy's son Mike now at the helm, have accomplished and continue to achieve with their wines up on Howell Mountain. Their wines have been known to age extremely well, given their tense, tannin driven structures in their youth (structures which, for cabernet based wine, also are not shy in acid). Dunn is old school Napa, anti cult cab, critical of the critics, and proud to be that way. These are folks with whom I would be inclined to roll, so to speak.

2006 Dunn Napa Cabernet Sauvignon

I liked this a lot. Very promising black fruited nose, with the sort of tensely knitted balance which these young wines are known for. I have not much experience with older Dunn wines, and would be curious as to how the Napa bottlings age compared with those from Howell Mountain.

2006 Dunn Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain

Like the wine above, but with more intensity to the darker fruits, more richness. The wine has a denser core to it. I could see drinking the first wine with a steak, whereas I would definitely hold off on drinking this wine for at least 5 years, but ideally for much, much longer. Maybe Dunn wines have a shutdown period, as well? That should be taken into account for cellaring and drinking purposes.

2004 Dunn Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain

For some reason, this wine showed a rather soft, precocious quality which seems at odds with the winery's reputation for producing hard, tannic wines which need a long time to become drinkable. Black cherry fruits dominate here, and though the wine is still primary it shows well enough to enjoy now if you like a youthful, fruit dominated wine.

2002 Dunn Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain

Here is where the questions arise and some doubts began to surface in my mind. There is a weird, band-aidy flavor in the wine, and a certain volatile quality aromatically. I would be curious to see if this is a widespread issue with this vintage.

1998 Dunn Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain

Just as I was taking in the rather large stamp which Brettanomyces has imprinted on this wine, Mike was mentioning how the wine has transformed and become a wine that people really enjoy, regardless of the panning of the 1998 vintage amongst wine critics. I have had good wines from this vintage and enjoy that the wines are typically more elegant and balanced than usual. Montelena, for example, made a very good estate Cab in 1998. With this wine, or at least this bottle, however, there is just too much Brett for even my taste. More barnyard like and fecal Brett than savory and meaty Brett. My understanding of Brett in wine is that, over time, it will not go away with extended bottle aging.

So, I guess you can say that the Dunn tasting raised more questions than it provided answers. For a variety of reasons (chief amongst them time constraint and no prior contact with Mike Dunn), I did not get into any of these questions. By the way, I have no problem with a winery producing some wines that (at least for my palate) miss every now and then. But I would love to hear from anyone who has more experience with Dunn than I do. Maybe I had some bad luck with individual bottles, or maybe I just need someone to school me and tell me to shut my pie hole.

Next up, my preferred variety of notes, drinking notes.

Galician (and one oaky Bierzo) Tasting with The Group

Last night it was my turn to host our PM Dub tasting group and it will probably not come as a surprise that I chose to feature Spanish wines. As with many other tasting groups, we usually taste double blind, i.e. brown bagging each bottle, so that we do not know the region(s) or producers.

I chose to feature wines from Albariño and Mencia grapes, mainly because I do not believe that the group has had such a tasting, at least not during my tenure. The idea was to remind the group, with its typically Francophilian and occasionally italophilian wine geek tendencies, that Spanish wines are not all about fruity values to entice new world palates, or overoaked, over-priced wines from Ribera del Duero, Rioja and Priorat. And that there is more Spanish wine of interest to the well–informed, long tested wine palate than Lopez de Heredia, sherry and the occasional txakoli. That being said, there are more obscure wines from folks like Can Rafols (Penedes) I could have included, but the great northwest seemed to be calling, so Rias Baixas and Ribera Sacra it would be.

The Whites (in reverse order of group preference):

2006 Quinta do Couselo Turonia Albariño

Unusual for the O Rosal subzone, this is a 100% Albariño (usually Treixadura and Loureiro are in the mix). The wine was corked.

2005 Bodegas Pablo Padin Granbazar 'Ambar' Albariño

This relatively large producer (40,000 cases) located in the largest production zone of of Rias Baixas, Val do Salnes, generally makes good stuff. Their 'ambar' bottling is the nicest one they produce. People at first were put off by the funky aromas, but then warmed up a little to this wine. It echoes my experience with this wine a few months ago - at first I found it to be an over the hill, partially maderized bottle of albariño, going a little bit sweet and without any vibrancy. Over a period of several days in the fridge the wine opened up to show bright yellow stone fruit flavors with a streak of mineral. Same thing last night as the wine improved markedly in the glass.

2005 Lusco do Miño Pazo Pineiro Albariño
At first I really enjoyed this wine. The intensity and dripping ripe character were speaking to me. Almost like apricot preserves and tinned mandarins, but fully dry and with good balancing acidity. You can tell that this is from well situated, very old vines. While tasty, it was definitely a show wine, more front to mid-palate flavors, not much mineral, and a bit over the top for casual drinking. And at over $40, there is a whole lot in Rias Baixas that I think would show more typicity and work much better with a meal.

2006 Do Ferreiro Albariño
From the same subzone (Condado do Tea) as Lusco, this was the group favorite and mine as well. I'm not surprised. Small production, organic farming, indigenous yeasts. Not that they are the only ones in Rias Baixas doing this, but somehow they consistently produce some of the best albariño out there, year after year. It is always the albariño that, with its floral/herbal aromatic streak, smoky minerality and overall sense of poise, most brings to mind certain characteristics of German Riesling.

Overall, people thought these wines ok but were not particularly enthused. One taster commented on a green vegetal component he caught in three of the four wines. A few others thought that we were tasting a flight of sauvignon blanc. Clearly, however, only one wine seemed to truly pass muster with this discriminating group of palates.

Better luck, perhaps, with the reds (least favored to most favored):

2004 Dominio de Tares 'Exaltos' Bierzo
Oak juice, courtesy of aging in Missouri, Allier and Nevers oak. I went back to this wine the day after the tasting, and it still showed meaty, but muddled. There was a not entirely unappealing bloody, iron, meat like quality here that definitely brought to mind the arid Castilla y Leon countryside (as well as the region's meat and potatoes inspired cookery).

2006 D. Ventura 'Pena do Lobo' Ribeira Sacra
Red fruited and fairly one-dimensional. This could have just as easily been a Cotes du Rhone Village. Similarly put together, with a disappointing lack of acidity.

2006 D. Ventura 'Viña Caneiro' Ribeira Sacra
More dark fruit and spice on this offering, from higher elevated vineyards composed largely of 'pizzarra' or slate. While it shows more complexity, there is still a liveliness that is just lacking in this as well as the other Ventura wine.

2005 Algueira Ribeira Sacra
Ahh, now this is what I'm talking about. This must be why so many experts are hyping Ribeira Sacra as the next big thing in spanish wine producing regions. Very pretty blue fruits on the nose, with a tense interplay between fruit and acidity, subtle oak spice and slate minerality, on the palate. More finessed, higher toned, and classier wine. A unanimous (I think) wine of the flight.

Mostly everyone enjoyed the red flight more than the whites. Someone mentioned an appealing bloody quality (yes, 'bloody,' can be appealing in the realm of wine descriptors) that showed in all of them. Another taster mentioned a granite inflected mineral stamp - keen tasting on her part as all of these wines came from either granite or slate.

So did these wines truly impress? Will Albariño and Mencia make occasional appearances alongside cru beaujolais, Bourgueil, Menetou Salon Rouge and Langhe Nebbiolo on the tables of my fellow group members? Perhaps. The fact remains, however, that even I have far fewer Spanish wines in my cellar relative to Muscadet, Chinon, German Riesling, and others. My most recent splurge was for two bottles of '05 Edmund Vatan Sancerre, not '05 Pazo Pineiro albariño. So I need to be convinced as well. Four years ago, Spanish wines used to be the bee's knees for my younger palate. Now, not so much. The good news, however, is that Spain is diverse, dynamic and still learning. Given some time, I'm confident that there will still be plenty of wine for the masses, as well as more intriguing stuff for the geeks who demand a bit more authenticity and challenging, regionally specific flavors.

Spain Pt. IV - Leon and Pilgrimmagers, Mencia and Ribeira Sacra; Lost in Galicia

Pilgrimmagers. Say it, it's fun. It is one of the few instances where I prefer an english word to its Spanish counterpart, peregrinos. Leon is a major hub along the most popular route of the Camino de Santiago, or the pilgrimmage which tens of thousands make (mainly by foot) every year from the French side of the Pyrenees through Spain's northern interior and all the way to Santiago de Compostela. A lot of walking, to be sure. Most of the people I saw trudging along above the national road leading out of Leon, young and old, often times of Germanic descent, usually with a large pack and a walking stick, seemed to hold a steady, deliberate pace. They were getting there, but their gait and expressions spoke of significantly more work ahead.

I hope that these pilgrimmagers spent at least a day, and ideally a couple of days, to rest up, refuel and take in the beautiful city of Leon. There is the famous cathedral, whose walls are adorned by so many beautiful windows of stained glass that it's easy to forget the other beautiful facets of this gothic cathedral. I'm not an architecture buff, and extensive gothic cathedral visits in Spain have left me slightly jaded, but this one is a stunner. There is the Casa Botines, an early Gaudi apartment building. The old city, its plazas, narrow stone roads (far more enjoyably explored by foot, not by car) and bars are where the action lies. There were delicious potatoes. One night cubed, fried, and served with a creamy, garlicky aioli (free when ordering a drink!). The next morning, sliced thinly (slightly thicker than thick cut potato chips) and fried to perfection, served with a caña of beer (or even more typical, with a 'corta,' a short 6oz pour - don't knock it America, sometimes you're better off with a smaller amount of beer). The pimientos de padron here, my first experience with the famous eponymously named Galician peppers from the village of Padron, were the best I would have the entire trip. They lived up to the great Calvin Trillin's billing of providing serious heat, but only 1-2% of the time. My hot one, though, was plenty hot. It gave me hiccoughs; to combat them I drank some beer and nibbled on more tortilla as well as some jamon iberico. The photo of me wagging a finger is immediately after consuming a blazing hot pimiento.

I give the pilgrimmagers lots of respect, because getting an 8am start on Saturday morning was not easy, and I had the benefit of a car, fresh, dry clothes, clean shoes, a smart, pretty lady friend navigator, and a destination just a few hours away: the beautiful Ribera Sacra.

We passed through the incredibly green, slatey, steep countryside of Bierzo, through Valdeorras (land of Godello) to the even more incredibly green, steeper countryside of Ribeira Sacra. Here we stopped at Adegas Algueira for a quick tasting. They were nice to squeeze in this meeting, as they were preparing for an on-site wedding that night (they also run a restaurant next to the winery). All the wines, white and red, oaked and unoaked, are fermented with indigenous yeasts and made from fruit on their own 8 hectares of vineyards. The '06 Algueira Blanco is a crisp, delicious blend of Godello, albariño and treixadura. Nothing to cerebral, just a dry white wine with good fruit intensity nice mineral accents and a clean finish. Their '06 Blanco Roble, produced from the same blend of grapes, is fermented and aged in new french oak. While proprietor Fernando Gonzalez Riveiro says it needs a few years in bottle, I say once it's this oaky it will never be al estilo mio. Now to the main event here, the reds from Mencia. The '07 Ribeira Sacra was vibrant bitter cherry Mencia fruit, tasty. The '06 Algueira Roble is a gorgeous wine. Aged for 12 months in new French oak, but with a suppleness of body, liveliness of acidity and fruit intensity that were all in terrific balance. Spanish red wines grown in slate and aged in new oak don't always have to be 14.5%, oaky, new wave gold plated trophy wines. This was 12.5% and a real steal, part of the building body of evidence that Ribeira Sacra has a lot ahead for lovers of lively mid weight reds; even the staunchest of francophile wine geeks who try these wines would have to agree.

We thanked Ana and Fernando and headed west towards Rias Baixas. Unfortunately, an afternoon visit with Do Ferreiro was not meant to be. We ended up in Vigo, a beautiful city with San Francisco style hills, a gorgeous harbor, and what appeared to be lots of cool stuff going on, but alas it was very far away from where we needed to be. Do Ferreiro's hometown of Meaño was nowhere to be seen on the map, and attempts to get more specific directions over the phone yielded no results. I felt terrible to have missed the appointment, which coupled with the poor cell phone reception made me reluctant to call and explain that we were unable to make it. Oh well, when on the wine route these things sometimes happen; hopefully I will one day get to Do Ferreiro and when I do it will be with a good bottle of California wine in hand as a make good for my prior no-show.

As we headed back east towards Leon, I noticed that the sunset was coming to a lazy close at 10:15pm. It was a long day, with the usual frustrations of road trips in a foreign country. But we had also seen and accomplished much: we saw one of Spain's most beautiful vine growing areas, tasted terrific Ribeira Sacra, ate caldo gallego and tasty round Galican bread, observed the typical gardens with their large, collard like greens, potatoes and vines trellised high above the ground. We even witnessed a huge bike rally in Moaña. All on a surprisingly sunny, warm Galician day, the only full day of sunshine for the twelve days we would be in Spain.