Marqués de Riscal is getting older by the day. When I reviewed the 2003 eighteen months ago, the bottle pronounced that the Bodegas was founded in 1860. In this latest 2004 release, two new years have been discovered. It’s a bit like Joan Collins in reverse. Wine must be the only field in which the older you are, the more attractive you become.
In order to test my hypothesis that it is possible to contract Deep Vein Thrombosis whilst watching an opera, I went to see the 3.5 hour epic Don Carlos at Leeds Grand Theatre last week. But way back in 1867, Giuseppe Verdi must have foreseen that the seats in the balcony of this fine theatre would be designed for pigmies and children only. Although there was only one interval, he thoughtfully planned the opera in four acts with a total of six scene changes. My calves yelled with delight each time the curtain fell and I was able to stand for a few brief but exquisite seconds.
As an opera, Don Carlos has it all. Intrigue, deception, death, war, royalty and of course, adultery, all of which delivered by a huge cast. I know you southern types have Sadlers Wells and the Royal Opera House, but up here where it’s cold, wet and cheap… Well we have got Opera North and we are justifiably proud. This was one of the best productions I have seen with the pick of the cast being William Dazely as Rodrigo, veteran of equally excellent ON productions of Let ‘em Eat Cake and Of Thee I Sing where he was a great President – John P Wintergreen.
Anyway back to Spain where Don Carlos (son of Philip II King of Spain) had to suffer the ignominy and heartache of having his promised love, Elisabeth de Valois, marry his father in a political settlement, and as you can imagine, that makes for a promising start to any story.
I was at Sam’s Chop House in Manchester earlier this week. Pat and Martin were kind enough to chip in and buy me a decent bottle of wine in memory of my birthday. One from the year of my birth and reduced by an impressive £50 from the normal price.
Riojanas Monte Real Reserva 1964 had a dodgy cork, took an age to decant and was served too warm for me (about 23 degrees – I would serve at 18). But it is probably the oldest wine I have ever drunk, so I was intrigued.
US Election night and I am backing Barack. But not with enough conviction to stay up all night and watch the results. In fact, not even enough conviction to watch the preamble, since I have just returned from Opera North’s somewhat strange production of Puccini’s Tosca at the Lowry Theatre in Manchester, famed for having the most uncomfortable seats of any modern (or ancient) theatre I know.
I am not much of an opera buff but I do generally love Opera North and I am a sucker for anything live performance – music, theatre, busking, comedy, ballet. Well maybe ballet is beyond me, in the same way that algebra is beyond a two year old, or an ASBO.
I hardly dare review a Spanish wine after my admonishment at the hands of Lorenza, but I had already purchased this on my way home from Spain in July. There is not much to do at Malaga airport other than mooch around the “duty free” shop, and €16.30 doesn’t sound like a lot for a Gran Reserva.
The European Wine Bloggers’ Conference 2008 was a massive hit, it has to be said, much to the surprise of the organisers.
So much happened in one weekend of my life, I can barely pick out my favourite bits. Let’s start with the lowlights – landed in Bilbao, bag (including wine samples) landed in Palermo. Arrived back in UK, bag arrived one hour later, one bottle of wine smashed, clothes ruined and bag stunk of wine, had to drive home overnight with a blood stained handkerchief wrapped around my finger, nearly sliced off from glass shards.
OK, that’s only one lowlight really. The rest of the weekend was awesome – here are my top 11 highlights:
11. Teaching Ryan Opaz (US citizen and all round good guy) to say “arsehole” instead of “asshole” – what is the matter with Americans? I suppose we could agree to use “George W Bush” for the same meaning.
One weekend in La Rioja is not anywhere near long enough to enjoy the fruits (and tannins) offered up by this part of northern Spain. I was, therefore, extremely pleased to see a visit to Marqués de Riscal winery, one of my favourites, on the itinerary of the European Wine Bloggers’ Conference.
Riscal is a traditional old winery yet some experimentation is being dared, such as the inclusion of increasing quantities of Cabernet Sauvignon in this Tempranillo dominated region, and talking of innovation (a noun to which Riscal aspires) it is hard to ignore the stunning architecture of the Frank Gehry building. Although supposedly representative of the wines of Riscal, I suspect Gehry may have been influenced by something more hallucinatory than wine when he sat at his drawing board at the turn of the millennium. Very impressive though it is, I spat rather than swallowed, the argument that it “blends in” with the surrounding landscape. I think its very beauty is that it blends in like a spaceship placed next to the Houses of Parliament. Come to think of it, when is the London Eye scheduled for take off?
A mate, and former business client, used to take me to Rafa’s El Rincon in Manchester (I always paid).
When it came to whistle wetting tapas oil, Marqués de Riscal was our weapon of choice, partly because it was bloody good, partly because it was bloody and good, mostly because the bill payer knew it was bloody good value.
Taking good note of my cyber-mate, Rob’s evaluation of the 2003 Rioja vintage, I popped into Sainsbury’s in Manchester and after a bit of mooching, selected a 2003 Marqués de Riscal Reserva at only £9.99, apparently £3 off (but I remember Rafa selling this stuff for less than 20 quid – not much of a mark-up!)
I wonder if the reduction is because most of Sainsbury’s customers had read Rob’s comments about 2003 and have already moved on to looking for the reputationally better 2004 and 2005 vintages.
I was not put off. The wine, to me was top notch, tasting mostly of blackberry and apple crumble with cream and vanilla pods. I always look out for Riscal in Spanish restaurants in Manchester, Spain and other places.
I visited Spain for a weekend recently, and tried a few wines with various blends of Viura, Malvasia and Verdejo. Not many left an impression, to be honest. I have a friend who doesn’t drink Spanish wine unless from Rioja. I think that is a bit binary. For example there are some great Albariños from Galicia, and Ribero del Duero is hardly shy in getting their punters to part with large sums of wonga for their best wines… But I take his point that Rioja is perhaps more consistent, whereas other areas require discretionary selection.
This bottle, like Don Quixote, came from La Mancha, unless I’m a daydreamer. I found it in the “Spain and Portugal” section of my wine rack and it was part of a Sunday Times Wine Club (Laithwaites) “Crisp refreshing whites” case (about £60 the dozen).
I am not sure what to conclude. At the price, it is OK. As a party wine it would go down a treat if you chilled it to 3°C or below and served it to Sancho Panzas or ASBOs. As a serious wine compared to any other Sauvignon or so called “crisp dry white”, I found it a little too citric and perhaps best suited to the tartest of lemon dresed shellfish, rather than as an aperitif. However, if you are a donkey houghty type, wake up and smell the gooseberry. You never know, you might like it!
At the time of writing it is still available from Laithwaites at £5.67, and as you can probably tell, I have never read any Cervantes.
The European Wine Bloggers Conference is fast approaching and I am looking forward to meeting up with a wide range of nationalities with one common aim, to drink Rioja dry discuss maturely the status and future of wine blogging in Europe. But my travel plans are a nightmare and I’ve really messed up.
The conference is in Logroño, which is a bloody good reason to visit in its own right, being at the heart of La Rioja. But my flight is to Bilbao, home of the world famous Guggenheim Museum, and I booked the wrong flight back, leaving me zero time to visit. And you know how difficult/expensive it is to change a flight with QuEasyjet.
Furthermore, my flight out is from Stansted at 7:15am which means I have to leave home at 3am to get to the airport – at least the roads will be quiet!
I sense that the travel travails will be well worth the effort for what looks like a great event.
I was going to talk about this Romanian Pinot Grigio “from Transylvania”, but like a lot of PG it is rather ordinary. For the record it tasted a bit of grilled tomato with herbs. La Cittadella came from the Sunday Times Wine Club in a ”Crisp Refreshing Whites” mixed case for about £60. I suppose I shouldn’t have opened a bottle of Cloudy Bay next, which did kind of eclipse this poor Dracula juice.
Meanwhile a big fangs to Rob, Gabriella and Ryan for the hard work organising the conference and I look forward to seeing everyone there.
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