Another dinner in the garden, this time to taste some wines from the
Ribera del Duero.
But first, after tapas and Manzanilla, we had an asparagus tortilla
and:
2005 Davila Albarino =96 clean stony lemony nose, crisp on palate and
very dry. Probably a better representation of Albarino than the next
wine.
2006 Terras Gauda Albarino =96 slightly more colour, and significantly
more nose, almost intense floral with good fruit, clean and with good
length
Then three tarts =96 tomato, a kidney and snails, with:
1996 Alion =96 slightly warm toasty nose, quite a bit of tannin, and
almost jammy fruit. This needs more time.
1996 Pascuas Vina Pedrosa =96 a more traditional presentation, with
mature toasty nose =96 lots of vanilla, some remaining tannin, but
smooth and long. We felt this drank better now but that the Alion
would probably surpass it with time.
With clams and ****k, and then meatballs with saffron, and finally with
cheese:
Pesquera:
1991 (magnum) =96 this was a reserve bottling and the story was that
they didn=92t bottle Janus in magnum but that they finished the Janus
singles and then from the same tanks did these mags. No idea if that
is true or not. All the other wines were the crianza. Dark with a
lifted nose with a hint of VA, but also dark fruit and vanilla, toasty
presentation, medium body, quite good length, mature. The owner was a
little disappointed but I thought it a very nice wine.
1994 =96 this was the favourite of several people. Similar lifted
slightly VA nose and lots of resolved tannin, good length. Nose became
oakier with air, but also showed more dark fruit.
1995 =96 big vanilla nose on this one, and it was drinking quite well,
without a lot of tannin and with good length. Probably more forward
than the 94.
1997 =96 bigger, sweeter vanilla in this nose, and a nice sweetness, but
I thought it a tad dilute on palate.
1998 =96 sadly a little corked, though that pretty much became
undetectable after the first while (definite wet cardboard though so
it wasn=92t just musty). Same signature vanilla nose, full bodied and it
would be worth giving this one another shot with a perfect bottle.
These courses were punctuated by games of Bocci/Petanque (whichever
you like depending on what country=92s wine you are drinking, I suppose.
The irony of drinking Spanish wine while playing a similar game to
that enjoyed by Francis Drake before putting paid to the Armada was
not lost on us) in the garden. The garden has a gentle slope
throughout and though we picked the flattest area, it was still a
pretty challenging situation, with much searching for errant balls
that had gone to ground under border plants. It was interesting to
observe that the level of confidence went up in inverse pro****tion to
the level of demonstrated skill as more wine was taken on board. Yours
truly and his partner were victorious in all three games, by a good
margin. We waxed them 9-1 the first game (we figured that playing to
13 might take us into the dark, so played a =91short=92 game), then 9-2,
then somehow they rallied and got 7 points in the third game before we
surged ahead to victory. We will no doubt take our boules in hand
again (that doesn=92t sound quite polite, does it?) and summarily
dispatch the scurvy dogs at the next meeting, no doubt over different
wines.
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