Blame it on Rioja

Cristina Forner of Marqués de Cáceres (left)
and Rafael Vivanco of Bodegas Dinastía Vivanco

Tuesday, September 11, 2007
12:00 pm
On the road to Cenicero

Our post-interview tasting with Miguel Angel de Gregorio of Finca Allende in Briones was all too truncated. “It’s a shame you can’t stay,” De Gregorio told us as we said our goodbyes in the tower after having only tasted the Allende Blanco, “Because the wines will only keep getting better.” I believe him.

(more…)

As mentioned in my last post, I taught a class at Murray’s Cheese Greenwich Village on Tuesday, September 24, called Viva Rioja. Below is our lineup of wine and cheese:

(more…)

Monday, September 10, 2007

A whirlwind. Our first day of real interviews. Our last two sommeliers, Conrad Reddick of Charlie Trotter’s in Chicago and Theresa Paopao from Oleana in Cambridge, Massachusetts arrived this morning, slightly delayed but at least they made the tasting at Muga. Having trouble with the Internet at Los Agustinos, and I couldn’t print out my questions, so I had to bring my laptop and just rely on my memory and go with the flow when the interviewing began.

Just back from a remarkable meal at Echuarren in Ezcaray, hands down the best traditional food I have had in Rioja, and the ending time of the meal, 1:00am, was also remarkable. Ricardo asked each of the sommeliers to choose a wine, and we enjoyed a varied lineup of wine that included a 1981 Viña Tondonia blanco from López de Heredia, a massive but surprisingly balanced Izadi Expresión from the 2004 vintage, and a very concentrated and aromatically hedonistic single varietal garnacha from Bretón cellars—the rare and unusual Pagos del Camino, a tiny plot of 100-year old vines adjacent to the Camino de Santiago, and, for some of us, the most intriguing wine of the night. The sommelier at Echuarren, Felix Paniego, worked with me to get all the wines in the correct order, and was very patient with our giant group.

We began the day at the foot of the Avenida de Vizacaya, down near the sculpture on the rotunda. I still have to drop by the tourist office across the street from the hotel to find out exactly what the sculpture is, or maybe call up Jorge Muga or María José López de Heredia and ask about them about it, but all in due time. The idea was to film a “tracking shot” up the avenue in order to recreate what it was like for me the first time I came up this hill and took in the rapid fire succession of bodegas: Muga, CVNE, La Rioja Alta, López de Heredia, and RODA, one after the other. We went up and down that hill three times, with the van’s side doors wide open. I wonder if Alfredo Ogueta, our driver and a good friend, thought we had lost our minds.

Then it was off to a Muga vineyard in Villalba with Jorge and the sommeliers to talk about viticulture in Rioja and eat chorizo cooked over sarminetos, or grape vines, and drink Muga Rosado (or more accurately clarete, as Jorge pointed out to me, since the wine also has white grapes in it) from a porrón (some of us more gracefully than others—let’s just say that my technique could use a little perfecting). Chris Fleming had told me that touring the vineyards with Jorge was like a master class in viticulture, and I have to agree. I just wish we had more time. We’re going to try to find some more time later in the week to talk.

After a quick tour at Muga, we crossed the street to RODA and spent the next two hours with the amazing Agustín Santolaya, the bodega’s Managing Director. Incredibly eloquent and supremely comfortable in his own skin, Santolaya exudes the kind of positive vibe that could only come from someone who is exactly where he wants to be, doing exactly was he has always dreamt of doing. Got some great footage in the field, and had lunch at the bodega, tasting his wines and the bodega’s terrific olive oil. I wish I had recorded his guided tasting comments instead of doing a simultaneous translation. Jon got restless at the end, as we were running about an hour late on the day’s schedule, but we got some great material in the barrel room before we left. This is going to be tough. All these amazing people to talk to, and only one week.

I have to sign out for now. It’s nearly 3:00 am local time, and we have another relentless day tomorrow. At some point I want to write about the other places we visited today, López de Heredia and Solagüen, but it will have to wait, I am afraid. All in due time.

Photos: (Top) At the base of Avenida de Vizcaya, Haro, Friday, September 7, 2007. (Bottom) Muga Vineyards, from left, Chad Wilmouth, John Barkley, Jon Stamell, Rebeca Gómez, ADM, Jorge Muga, Juan Gómez MS, Monday, September 10, 2007.

The lovely and eminently capable ladies over at Vibrant Rioja set up a Rosado tasting last night in the outdoor garden of Ono at the base of the Hotel Gansevoort, renting a little self-contained cabana and inviting a group of young journalists–one guy and six very attractive women–to taste through a selection of 2006 Rioja Rosados while tapeando un poco among platters of sushi, duck spring rolls, crispy risotto balls with porcini and white truffle oil, chicken satay with peanut sauce, and coconut shrimp.

I’ve always been a sucker for rosé, not the insipid sweet stuff that’s made gazillions for Beringer since the 1980s, but the pink juice with character: Bandol, Champagne rosé, Franciacorta rosato, and Rioja rosado. The best rosés have exuberant aromas of red berry fruit–think cherry and strawberry–but are not the least bit sweet. A clean, almost citrusy finish is what you want to quench your thirst on a hot day, maybe just a touch of what wine nerds like to call “grip”, which is to say, textural astringency that grounds the wine and makes it friendly with food, the result of minimal skin contact the grape juice–known as must–has with its red skins.

And then there’s the simple joy of merely looking at the wine in your glass–that beautiful color reminiscent of the first warm day of the year, when, blessedly, the women of New York city put away their overcoats and bust out those flowing dresses made of soft and colorful fabric, making summer in the East Village much more tolerable.

The wines we tasted last night are as follows (with approximate retail price):

Light and easy drinking - the summer sippin’ wine:

• Marqués de Cáceres 2006 Rosado ($9.99) This has the cleanest style - simple and thirst quenching, the aperitif Rioja Rosado

Fruity, fragrant and full - wines for an outdoor summer seduction:

• Faustino V 2005 Rosado ($8.99) - Bursting with gobs of cherry fruit, the favorite rosado of wine writer and Rioja expert John Radford.
• CVNE 2006 Rosado ($12.99) - Great color, mucho cherry as well, one of the crowd’s favorites.

Lean and herbaceous - wines that call out for food:

• Muga 2006 Rosado ($10.99) - The only wine with a white grape–Viura–in the blend. Most complex of the bunch. With a faded salmon color the Spanish call ojo de gallo (eye of the rooster).
• El Coto 2006 Rosado ($9.99) - Firm and “gastronomic”, as a Spaniard would say, another crowd favorite.

Foods to eat with Rosado: Paella, grilled salmon, cherry tomato salad with goat cheese, grilled razor clams with garlic and lemon, Peking duck, shrimp cocktail, pulled pork sandwich, fried clams.

A note on vintages: The 2006 bottlings for all of these wines will soon be on the market, if they are not already. Rioja Rosado–with the notable exception of the complex and delicious Lopez de Heredia Vina Tondonia Rosado, whose latest release is a 1995–is meant to be drunk young, so look for the ’06’s. The Faustino 2006 was not available for this tasting, and the ‘05 showed some signs of fading.