[Pigging by Wilfrid: November 3, 2008]
I have always been extremely lazy when it comes to taking wine notes. For many years, even before the internets, I would scribble notes to memorialize restaurant meals - but wine? Even though I can't rely on my memory, I never seem to get around to it. So this piece has been kicking around the virtual in-tray since late summer.
Which means starting off, truthfully, with some warm weather wines I was enjoying in September and the early part of October. There's still a place for them, though, especially the Martin Codax Albariño 2006, a Galician white which balances thirst-quenching crispness with enough rounded mouthfill to stand up to heartier fish and seafood dishes. Codax is a large producer, also making reds in Bierzo and Rioja which I haven't tried. At around $10 to $12, the white is an unembarrassing bargain.
If this doesn't seem to be the season to splurge on champagne, the moderately good news is that cava from interesting small producers is increasingly available in the city. Time to branch out from Freixenet and Cordonieu. This is only moderately good news, because it means of course that prices are starting slowly to rise. Still, the rosado from Llopart, is a rich but dignified pink which is a steal even at around twenty bucks. I enjoyed the non-rosé Llopart in its home town, Barcelona, this summer, but that doesn't seem to be as readily available in New York.
An unusual and good value rosé, without the bubbles this time, the Prado Rey is from the mainly-red wine region of the Ribera del Duero, and is a Merlot-Tempranillo blend. It's quite robust, as you'd expect, with buckets of strawberries but controlled sweetness. Around $12 to $14.
More suited to Fall, a couple of Italian reds. Of the Langhe Nebbiolo 2005 from De Forville, I wrote: "I've drunk earlier vintages with more immediate reward. Very restrained." Much the same verdict on the 2006, unfortunately, and it's probably off the list. Whether age would help, I don't know, but it's priced - and I buy it - as an everyday drinking wine.
For a fancier, and correspondingly more expensive (over $40) expression of nebbiolo, I am enjoying the Luigi Baudana Barolo 2001, which I first tried at the Monday Room. Young Barolo is reputed to be unapproachable. For whatever reason, this 2001 is entirely ready: dark but not heavy fruit, sweet perfumes, almost some chocolate, enough tannins, multiple layers of interest as it opens in the glass. I am hanging onto some, as it will only get better.
Speaking of the Ribera del Duero, I attended a blind tasting of twelve reds recently, not all of which are readily availablke here. As with many blind tastings, it had the interesting result that I rated some wines with which I was unfamiliar ahead of wines I'd happily bought and drunk at home. In the latter category, vintages of Condado de Haza and Pesquera from Alejandro Fernandes, and the 2004 Muga - yes, a Rioja was concealed among the Riberas to make a didactic point about the properties of tempranillo in different terroirs.
Among those new to me, accessible in the States, was Emilio Moro's dark, juicy 2005 Malleolus with its long, spicy finish, the retail price of which ranges wildly from the upper fifties to the mid-seventies. Just to complicate matters, Moro also produces Malleolus de Valderramiro and Malleolus de Sancho Martin from single vineyards, wines which can fetch triple figures.
I also liked the comparative bargain 2004 Spiga ($29 or so), easy-drinking with soft tannins, perhaps a little oaky for some tastes, and - inevitably - the priciest wine of the tasting ($80), the 2004 Alion from the makers of Vega Sicilia. It's another big, layered Ribera monster, chased by collectors, and I should think a wise investment. It already drinks well, too. Hard to believe it's made from the same grape as, say, a Lopez de Heredia Rioja.
And finally, the heartbreaker of the season. I haven't found it on sale anywhere (although out-of-state retailers have a more recent vintage). I found this on Paul Grieco's list at Hearth, a really charming Châteauneuf-du-Pape from a small producer, Jean Marchand: Clos des Pontifes, 1999. It's not just another mid-priced, alcoholic drinking red: it's surprisingly light, with heady floral aromas and blackberry fruit arriving ahead of moderate tannins.
I guess you'd better go to Hearth to drink it - if they've any left.
