5 champers, a white Burg, 9 Spanish reds from 55`, 59`, 64` and up, 2 desserts

Our dinner group enjoyed another fine outing, this time at a new restaurant for us, Loquita, reputed to be and now confirmed to be, a good authentic Spanish restaurant.

Appropriately, our wine theme beyond the usual request for champagne and white Burgundy was for “older” Spanish reds. Ten of us complied righteously as we had many “older” wines, 9 in all.

It was quite the learning experience in that many of the wines seemed to be corked or at least have that cardboard/ wet cement aroma. In some instances, it held on and did not dissipate, but in a few others it was no longer apparent after about 30 minutes and if still present, it had lessened to the extent that my parts per million perception did not detect it.

So, some questions I have include: what compounds beyond 2,4,6- trichloroanisole {TCA} am I picking up such as the musty, dusty, papery aromas from 2,4,6- trybromoanisole {TBA}, did they get there from sources other than from the winery or cork and if so, what, if anything, can I do to prevent, guard against or deal with it?

My notes on some of the reds are “tainted” by this appearance and disappearance of the funky aromas that I perceived on a night when my olfactory senses seemed to be heightened beyond the norm.

But first, champagne:

NV BOLLINGER BRUT ROSE- 62% Pinot Noir, 24% Chardonnay and 14% Pinot Meunier, 85% of which is sourced from Grand and Premier Cru vineyards; 5% of the red wine comes from Verzenay and Aÿ; this is my 5th bottle of this fine rose that was first released in 2008 and all have been consistent; toasted oak accented re fruit is dominant in the nose and then on the palate comes fresh and ripe raspberry, strawberry and red cherry plus that streak of toasty oak that ran all the way through to the back end; it was full bodied and highly energetic while holding a steady course throughout; love this rose.

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2012 BOLLINGER GRAND ANEE BRUT ROSE- dosage 8 gpl; 67% Pinot Noir, 33% Chardonnay taken from 21 villages including Aÿ and Verzenay Pinot Noir and Le Mesnil-sur-Oger and Oiry Chardonnay; 5% of red wine has been added by assemblage from the La Cote Aux Enfants vineyard in Aÿ; this is serious stuff from the nose through the tail, aka a wowzer; its fully loaded with a bounty of fresh red fruit of strawberry, red raspberry and red cherry plus some blood orange and accents of ginger and oak.

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2012 LOUIS ROEDERER BRUT- 70% Pinot Noir, 30% Chardonnay; over a year ago, a friend brought this to a dinner and I just had to get some after having already fallen in love with the 12 Rose; as with previous bottles, now this bottle comes from one who liked it so much, he bought some and here it is again; as before, its very generous, giving nice spicy and toasty, mineral infused apple and citrus fruit, especially lemon zest; its round and seamless and has bright acidity, it`s in perfect balance and exudes class and elegance as it glides across the palate all the way to the back end.

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2002 POL ROGER EXTRA CUVEE de RESERVE BRUT- 60% Pinot Noir, 40% Chardonnay; the fruit comes from 20 Grand and Premier Cru vineyards in the Montagne de Reims and Côte des Blancs; as with previous bottles, this had aromas of stone fruit and honey dew melon which continued on to be joined by honeysuckle, apple, yellow peach, apricot and an interesting note of white pepper that came in late and was the last thing on the palate; this was creamy rich and really drinking well; I’ve had many of the really good 02` BdB and they are extremely different wines with this being a bit more serious and complex and the BdB being super elegant with loads of finesse and charm.

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1996 DOM PERIGNON- I was elated to see this come out until I got a whiff of the nose= corked and a taste= oxidized; otherwise, it was great! Well, not really. The underlying taste profile did have some remnants of some nice citrus fruit and a bit of ginger, but that’s about it; having 3 bottles left in the cellar, I was not really happy at the showing of this bottle.

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2014 PIERRE-YVES COLIN-MOREY LA PUCELLE SAINT-AUBIN- flint and minerals join lemon and orange to form the aromatics and taste notes for this creamy, delicious, highly acidic beauty.

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We now move into the 9 Spanish reds, poured from the oldest to the youngest. Again, my notes reflect many being corked or at least possessing a cardboard, wet cement element that in some cases dissipated:

1955 CVNE IMPERIAL GRAN RESERVA RIOJA- this bottle was well advanced with oxidative, tertiary fruit notes as in dried cranberry/ cherry along with sherry like nuttiness, caramel and honey; it improved only a touch after 30 minutes in the glass.

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1959 MONTECILLO SELCCION ESPECIAL GRAN RESERVA RIOJA- I`d been waiting for just the right occasion to open this bottle which appeared to be reconditioned as the bottle and label was in pristine condition; there was no doubt the cork was the original one once it was pulled by a Durand with at least 1/3 barely intact; I decanted it for about 20 minutes; the initial nose suggested TCA presence; it had a nice texture, body and length, but the wet cardboard was not appreciated; I almost tossed it, but held it for a later visit and when that happened, there was not even a hint of TCA and now it has wonderful spice and pepper, mindful of a N. Rhone, blueberry and is really good; and for being age 62, it’s committed to surviving.

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1964 CAMPO VIEJO RIOJA- this was why WOTN; no way do I get this as a 64` as the color was an unadulterated dark purple, the nose had serious and inviting ripe dark fruit with blackberry jam most evident and the taste was redolent of ripe and spicy black cherry/ berry; it had a lush, smooth mouthfeel, lots of depth and length and overall, just shined ever so brightly.

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1973 MARTINEZ LACUESTA RESERVA ESPECIAL RIOJA- we got the corky nose once again only this time, it was so blatant, it was an immediate toss and required a stemware cleaning.

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1970 BERBERANA CARTA de ORO RIOJA- I liked this one too for its amazing, youthful tasty fruit profile which consisted mainly of sweetened and tar accented plum, blackberry and black currant with a streak of wood spice running all the way through; hints of lavender and violets provided a nice background and the soft and smooth texture sealed the deal; great showing.

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1985 PALACIO GLORIOSO RESERVA RIOJA- this was young and spry and super fruity with tons of wild cranberry/ cherry fruit all the way through; it was such a taste treat albeit being extremely fruit forward; I anticipate it will balance out in a few years and reach a beautiful place.

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1980 R. LOPEZ de HEREDIA VINA TONDONIA GRAN RESERVA RIOJA- loved this wine for it’s already achieved state of balance; it had a taste profile that included slightly tart, wild and fresh red cherry, cranberry and raspberry that was intriguing and satisfying; that wild note persisted throughout and the wine kept changing with accents of leather and wood spice darting in and out.

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1995 MUGA RESERVA RIOJA- here comes some more wild fruit notes with cranberry and red cherry most evident as well as accents of cedar, vanilla and oak; it was medium to full bodied and had layered depth and lots of complexity; this has some more evolving to do and as good as it is now, it’s got some more pleasure levels to attain.

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1996 MUGA TORRE MUGA RIOJA- highly energetic, this wine had a lot going on with leather and toasty oak laden red cherry, red currant and wild berry notes being delivered to the back end in a weighty textured medium that provided loads of mouthfeel; this just kept changing in the glass and since it came at the end of the evening, it did not have enough time to showcase all of its treasures; I suspect it’s got a lot more good stuff to give.

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We finished up with 2 dessert wines:

2006 THE OJAI VINEYARD ROLL RANCH VINEYARD VIOGNIER {DESSERT}- 375 ml; made using ice wine methods, this reaches 10% abv. and is a very nice sticky dessert wine featuring honeyed pineapple, apricot and white peach notes while being delivered in an oily textured medium.

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A.R. VALDISPINO TONELES MOSCATEL SHERRY JEREZ- 375 ml; this is a thick, inky dark, syrupy juice carrying molasses infused blackberry jam to the back end and then just hangs on and coats the palate until my handy tongue depressor came out of the wine bag to scrape off the residue 10 minutes later.

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Tasting through 9 older Spanish reds was quite the learning experience in that there seemed to be many different chemical compounds expressed that I’m unfamiliar with and each wine seemed to change and evolve, often resulting in the off-putting aromas and/or tastes dissipating and be replaced with or exposing something much more acceptable.

It is easy to conclude more air time is valuable; so, the 20 minutes decant I did on the 59` was not long enough. Also, using large bowl stemware is pertinent to allowing for more air exposure. I used Riedel Vinum Bordeaux stems which I have to think are better suited for this.

When doing other like and kind tastings, I need to observe if it is true that many of these wines do not reach their apogee until about age 40-50 or so.

Cheers,
Blake