Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Lunch Wines

Today we were lucky enough to have the owner of Bodegas Montalvo Wilmont, Javier, in to taste some wine with us!  I first met Javier during the Ernest So piano concert at Red Square Gallery where he mentioned to me that he owned a vineyard in Spain.  Sweet.  We arranged to meet and he showed us some of his family's wines.

In 2000 The Montalvo Wilmot family purchased the Penarroya Castle where they grow and produce wines from Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Syrah.  These grapes grow superbly with the limestone soil , extreme temperatures, and the long sunshine hours present in this region of Spain.


What's really special about this winery is that it's family owned, cared for, and run.   Father and two sons run the whole show.  Montalvo Wilmont is trying it disassociate itself from the classically mass-production region of La Mancha, and as such labels their wines from their specific area; Finca Los Cerillos.  

During our meeting we popped opened a bottle of MW Syrah Roble 2010.  Here's my wine note:

Appearance: clear, medium purple, legs
Nose: clean, medium + flavor intensity, youthful, strawberry, cooked berries, vanilla.  Luscious and smooth.
Palate: dry, medium- tannin, medium + acid, medium alc (13.5%), medium - finish, berry, oaky, vanilla, cooked red fruits, floral.  
Conclusion: Drink now, potential for aging

He also left us some samples to try on our own over the next couple weeks.  I am really looking forward to the Verdejo (I'm on a white kick) and the reserva Cabernet....13 months oak.  Woot. 


After the meeting our friend Bill popped in.  Greg gave Bill a challenge.  And by challenge, I mean challenge to get it down!  We pulled out a few bottles that somehow got pushed to the back of the shelf over the years, and went, perhaps, a little teensy past their prime.  Times a million. 

English cheese and oxidised wine.  A match made in heaven :)

Challenge #1: Chianti DOCG 2004 1/2 bottle 

As you may have guessed by the above description, this half sized bottle of 8 year old chianti didn't age so well.  Lush chocolatey brown in color, and when held to the nose (after the gag) there were aromas of grandma's attic, moldy wet cardboard, and general nastiness.  We didn't have to taste to assess OXIDISED.


Challenge #2: Chateau des Romans 2005 Bordeaux AC. 

Again, no surprise here.  A 2005 Bordeax AC was never meant to survive 2008, muchless 2012.  There were considerably more notes of actual wine in here, some sherry-esq aromas, but there was no love lost when this went down the drain.



Tonight we're holding a tasting at Bourbon for Morgan Stanley.  Highlights tomorrow!

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