All Roads Lead to Rioja

Being lucky enough to give a wine tasting in a delicious tapas bar in Naas recently (@lasrada) I decided to go with Spanish wines. Seems kind of a no brainer or dare I say it predictable. The day that the writing and/or logic as to how and what we write on this blog becomes predictable I will personally send the Empty Glass to the proverbial farm. 

Cruz de Piedra Selección Especial

The most wonderful thing about being a non-wine producing country is the variety our merchants can put forward for us. Hypothetically anyway, in reality lots of us could find our favourite wine on a shelf blindfolded. Variety hasn't been a by-word for the Irish wine trade, save now it seems certain people are all ready to shake things up.

Pulp Fiction

The man above for those of you unfamiliar is one Alvaro Palacios, and if you're hip and stuff with the wine geeks you'll be all to familiar with his antics in sprucing up the Spanish wine scene. Having been privy to a dinner hosted by the man and having first hand seen the charm with which he presents his wines, I have to say were Quentin Tarantino to script a winemaker, it'd be right along the lines of this chap. Better still the Quentin Tarantino metaphor sticks for the wines he's behind too, they are a bunch of dynamic and individual wines that open in full throttle. 

Artificial Decantation

I managed to follow this wine over three consecutive nights by accident. My busy schedule and a missing vacuum seal had left me relying on my trusty robot bottle stopper. So what were the consequences of this? Well the wine itself was left exposed to the elements, the main one being Oxygen.

Decanting allows a wine to be exposed to a large surface area of Oxygen. This is done to help the wine show its true potential, by mellowing the wine and allowing it to express hidden aromas. A well made wine will always benefit from an hour decanting. A wine that was closed and not up to much when first opened should be jumping out the glass ... unless it needs more time in the decanter or is rubbish to begin with. This isn't much help is it? Ok rule of thumb, if a wine has enticing aromas, but is somewhat elusive, give it some time.

So why so serious, or why are you banging on about this decanting so much? Well if you have stuck with me this far I will tell you why. I opened up the bottle over to the left on Saturday night and had two glasses. The wine displayed nice tight aromas of red fruits and nutmeg. Still slightly closed i left it with trusty Mr. Roboto.