TN: Spanish wines dinner (Rioja)

This weekend, we had friends over to try three decently priced Spanish wines. Lots of fun! I figured I would share. All wines were opened 2 hours earlier.

La Rioja Alta Vina Ardanza Reserva 2005 (Rioja): Top wine of the night for three out of six of us. The nose was expressive with wild red berries, tobacco and some light rose pedals (holds true for the palate). The tannins are well balanced and the acidity made our mouths water (a little overwhelming without the steak). Certainly has a bite. There only thing holding it back was that it has a shortish finish. Age does show in this wine. We also noted some bottle variation, though they were all really good. Fyi- this wine died three days after being opened.

Marques de Riscal Reserva 2009 (Rioja): the second favorite wine of the night. Great value here at $17. Easy drinking due to a really nice balance between the fruit, tannins and acidity. The nose is not as nice as the Ardanza, though some nice sour cherries come through. Palate has a good balance of red fruit, slight plums, with a wonderful slight chocolate finish, which improved on day three. It held up pretty well against the steak and cheese.

Muga Seleccion Especial 2010 (Rioja): Everyoneā€™s least favorite of the night. It had a very nice nose due to the large amount of oak they must use with this wine. However, the astringent acidity and sour finish made this barely drinkable. It has nice red berries behind all of the oak and acidity, but I could not stand this wine. The NY Strip could not mellow out this wine either. Maybe Iā€™ll try another vintage.

I think the Riscal ultimately delivers the most value and is a top notch daily drinker, but Iā€™ll add some more Ardanza for when we have people over.

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uh oh. I put down some of that 2010 Muga, without tasting that vintage, having liked previous years like 2001.

Had an offering on the 1947 Lopez H Grand Reserva Tino and Blanco and also the 1942 Tinto recently with good storage history. Couldnā€™t find much tasting notes online, i heard 47 is a good vintage, I had some of the old Lopez Blanco before (which ages beautifully), but not aged tintos, any notes on these?

Arv - itā€™s going to be fine. I had a 76 last night and it was beautiful. Havenā€™t done it in a while but I was pleased to find out that I can still distinguish Ribera del Duero from Rioja in a blind tasting and can identify Muga, Rioja Alta and LdH specifically. Mugaā€™s classic wines are never great IMO when young, but they evolve really nicely and you have a great vintage. The 2009 vintage is more approachable than the 2010 but I would bet on both. If you like the 2001 as it is now, youā€™ll be happy with the 2010 in a few years. As far as daily drinking quality - Riscal has been delivering for 90 years. Maybe longer but I havenā€™t had them older than that. Hard to think of another wine that is as ageable for the price.

The reason the Muga showed more oak is that it was the youngest and itā€™s spent over 2 years in barrel and a year in the bottle. Itā€™s really a reserva that they sell as Especial in the US. So itā€™s way younger than the other wines, which were actually all fairly young. In addition, the 2010 is more muted than the other two vintages - itā€™s more like the 2004 whereas the 2009 is more like the 2005. All really good vintages, just different. You did good by laying aside some 2010. Youā€™ll be happy in the long run (which means much longer than three years!) Cheers!

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I tried the 2010 Muga Especial back in late February, and while it was in fact incredibly young, it showed a ton of promise.

Thats the spirit. Rioja ages so gracefully and glacierlikeā€¦ [cheers.gif]

Your WOTN has been my WOTN on a couple of occasions. Thanks for the nice notes and good write up.

David, honest question. If I donā€™t like the wine now, is there really a chance Iā€™ll like it in 5-6 years? I tend to lay things down that I like now that just have overwhelming tannins.

Since you have had it. We all tasted this astringent acidity (something super green pepperish) towards the finish that put everyone off (the tannin levels were as expected). Do you remember something of the sort? It might have just been a bad bottle.

Thanks Blake! Trying to add some value to forum since Iā€™m on it so much.

This month Iā€™ll be holding a blind Cali Cab or BDX taste off of wines between $18-40 with the same crew. Trying to build some offline with relatively new wine drinkers in DC. Iā€™ll let you all know how it goes.

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I do not recall astringent acidity in the Muga. What I often get in that particular wine is extreme oak bitterness. It does fade over time, but can be quite offputting.

David, maybe that is what it was! Iā€™ve drank a lot of wines with that were heavily oaked, but I never experienced anything like that. You are the man!

Thanks for that color.

Sounds like a really fun dinner. Those Alta Rioja wines are beautifully made alright. I am not sure which other Riojas you get over there but Finca La Emperatriz and Baigorri make some cracking good wines - as does Luis CaƱas. There is real value out there!

I pulled the first of a half case of the 2010 Muga Reserva ā€˜Unfilteredā€™ [Rioja] last night to go with beef & chipotle carrot tacos. Note that this is NOT the Especiale referred to by OP (which is an oaky/modern take on Rioja) rather the Reserva is the Bodegas oaky/traditional version. Iā€™m happy to note that as GregT soothed upthread (albeit on a different bottling), that the wine is developing very well. It leads off with a balsalmic, pine, vanilla nose still showing some oak and then rounds out with a rich mouthfeel, and complex olive and red berry notes. I would consider it a fine archetype of the region to include in a comparison panel to show tasters the difference between the earthy aspects of Bordeaux vs. the creamy/balsalm/olive notes in some Rioja. The color is garnet, with no real lightening at the edges yet. Iā€™d consider this to still have 20 years of life ahead of it. As it unfolds I pick up some tobacco flavors as well. For its stated 14% abv, its medium bodied and balanced. This leans traditional in style and gets an A- in my ledger.
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Great timing - I was just thinking about those very wines and thinking we should open a Rioja tonight!

Hi Le - At first I thought you might be joking with this post since itā€™s a little like asking if '61 Latour is a good vintage for that wine. :wink:

The '47 Tondonia Tinto is one of the greatest red wines made anywhere, ever, according to a number of people. Well stored bottles are exquisite. Iā€™ve been lucky to have it 4 or 5 times, when it ranged from excellent to sublime.

I donā€™t know the '42 specifically, but the bodega takes great pains to be consistent, even saying explicitly ā€œthere are no vintages, there is ONLY TONDONIA!ā€ (And then admitting that the '47 is the best). So I think youā€™d be safe.