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. 

The Battle of Bordeaux

June 1938. European heads of state are doing their thing and getting ready to murder lots of Joe-subs, again. Times like these lend themselves to blowing off steam. Nobody needed to do this more at this point than Czechoslovakia having just had a chunk of their country "annexed" by the Third Reich. Roll on June, that's just what they did.

Chateau Beau Rivage 2006

Sometimes there is a wine that bucks the trend and in this case it is the trend of me being catastrophically disappointed with Bordeaux. This is not because I am a new world-o-phile, but merely because of poor quality wines for ridiculous prices at all levels. I abhor to start a review in the negative, but I feel this wine requires some context simply because it blew me away ... more than once.

Red Creek 2008 Merlot

New Zealand? Merlot? "That's not Pinot Noir!" I hear you scream. Well your powers of observation clearly do not fail you now at this pivotal moment. It is not a Pinot Noir and it is in fact from New Zealand. If I may dare to scare you further, New Zealand actually produces many different wines beyond Sauv Blanc and Pinot Noir. Now that said it's not always that good at producing the others. Merlot in my past experience from them has been "sinked" a whole lot more than a student budget can afford. Big question, did I sink this one? No, I tasted it in a shop- that'd be rude, but also no because it was nice. It may have needed another year in the bottle to kill the last of the tannins and open the fruit a little more, but it was below a tenner. €8.99. I complained not. You had a lovely mesh of wild berry and of chocolate on the palate. complemented quite well by the very same on the nose. Simple but rather effective. At a guess I would say that berry will be opening up a little more soon. Still all in all a rather nice treat if you want it. It is also a major improvement on other models of NZ Merlot, this one at it's price is great, be warned with NZ Merlot however, I have "sinked" bottles that just were not drinkable at over €10. So, be smart with this and realise that the Red Creek model is worth a shot, but other NZ Merlots, well, maybe they ought to just stay on the shelf and make the place look pretty.