Saturday Night Tasting: All About Rioja (and Cheese)

Heading out in a few minutes to lead a Rioja (and paired cheese) tasting at a private residence here in Brooklyn for the winner of a silent auction supporting the Association for Women in Communications. Wines were provided by the Rioja Wine Bank and the cheese I picked up this morning at Formaggio Essex on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. Below is a list of what I will be serving. A later post will reveal the results of how well the pairings fared.

But for now, here’s what’s lined up for tonight:

Tasting Wines

  1. Dinastía Vivanco Rioja Blanco 2008 - Stainless-steel fermented white Rioja made from Viura (80%) and Malvasia. Recommended with La Cabra del Berrocal (Cheese #1).
  2. Bodegas Palacios Remondo ‘Placet’ Valtemelloso Rioja Blanco 2007 - Oak-fermented white Rioja, 100% Viura. Recommended with La Cabra del Berrocal (Cheese #1).
  3. Marqués de Cáceres Rioja Rosado 2008 - Made from Tempranillo (80%) and Garnacha.  Recommended with Beringse Witte (Cheese #2).
  4. Bodegas Luberri ‘Seis de Luberri’ Rioja (Joven) 2007 - A ‘young’ Rioja made from 100% Tempranillo aged for six months in French and American oak.  Recommended with U’Pecerinu (Cheese #3).
  5. Bodegas Palacio ‘Glorioso’ Rioja Reserva 2003 - 100% Tempranillo from a warm vintage, aged for 22 months in French oak. Recommended with Mil Ovejas (Cheese #4).
  6. Bodegas Bretón ‘Loriñon’ Rioja Gran Reserva 2001 - 85% Tempranillo, 5% Graciano, 5% Mazuelo, and 5% Garnacha, aged for 28 months in American oak. Recommended with Abbaye de Belloqc (Cheese #5).

 

Tasting Cheese

  1. La Cabra del Berrocal (Pasteurized goat’s milk; Extremadura, Spain) - Citrusy, peppery, and unexpectedly rich.
  2. Beringse Witte (Raw sheep’s milk; Flanders, Belgium) - A creamy, soft-ripened farmhouse treasure with a milky and grassy flavor.
  3. U’Pecerinu (Raw sheep’s milk; Corsica) - From the rustic Mediterranean island literally carpeted with herbs. Dense, buttery-sweet, and pleasantly vegetal.
  4. Mil Ovejas (Pasteurized sheep’s milk; Extremadura, Spain) - A firm, Manchego-style gem from southwestern Spain; redolent of nuts, herbs, cured meats, and butter.
  5. Abbaye de Bellocq (Raw sheep’s milk; Pyrenees-Atlantiques, France) - Quintessentially Basque farmhouse cheese made by Benedictine monks at the Abbaye Notre Dame de Bellocq in southwestern France.  Caramelized sweetness atop buttery and almost ham-like flavor notes.

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