Blame it on Rioja

Half the fun in roaming the ever-expanding wine blogdom is encountering yet more clever names bloggers are coming up with.  One of my new favorites is BrixChicks, brix being the U.S. system for measuring sugar content (and therefore potential alcohol) in unfermented grape juice.

A recent post by Liza, one of three BrixChicks who contribute to the blog (hyperlinks to whom are mysteriously unresponsive at the bottom of the webpage–who are these masked women?), reported on a tasting of wines from Rioja’s Bodegas Montecillo [mone-tay-SEE-yo], hosted in San Francisco by winemaker María Martínez Sierra.

Lively and descriptive, “Blame it on Rioja - Review of Montecillo Wines” was more than good enough to excuse their wholesale appropriation of this writer’s nom-de-web.  Here’s a sample of Liza’s fine work:

‘81 Montecillo Gran Reserva, Rioja Spain: Wow! Aromas of cedar and hay. A color like the skins of red plums with coppery undertones. Flavors of tobacco, cherry, cedar…Silky mouthfeel with soft, tannins that seemed to undulate on my tongue. This wine had Bordeaux inspired elegance. The real stunner was the affordability. I thought this would be over $100 and hard to find. Well, BrixChick Liza, we’re not in Napa anymore. $45 online!

This entry was posted on Wednesday, March 11th, 2009 at 2:02 pm and is filed under Bodegas, Food blogs, Red Wine, Rioja on the Web, Tradition and Innovation, Value Watch, White Wine, Wine nomenclature, Winemakers. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.