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.
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?
La Bocana is a great waterfront bar just at the entrance to the harbour so you can watch all the idiots powerboating in and out, in what Jeffo calls their “penis extensions”.
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