Wine of the Week

Oh, my vinous heart has been pierced!  I found a new love.

The phases of wine buying are quirky.  I started out way back buying bottles with labels that appealed to me.  That method yielded 25% gold, 75% plonk.

The second phase was based on personal tasting.  Get a mental database going of grape types, regions, producers, vintage years.  One can hazard educated guesses on what might please.  This method yields about 85% gold, 15% plonk.

Embarrassingly, the next phase of wine buying wraps phase #2 and the internet together.  Your favorite wine shop sends out emails offering wine buys.  The temptations are awful:  scarcity is always either implied or stated.  That warps resolve to stand firm.  Descriptions are cribbed from wine review publications  (Parker, Tanzer, Wine Spectator).  

Mr. E likes Rioja.  The 2006 Horizonte de Exopto is from that region in Spain.  The signature grape of Rioja, Tempranillo, is mixed with several others in this blend.  This persuasion arrived in my email last month like so:

"The 2006 Horizonte de Exopto is 80% Tempranillo, 10% Garnacha, and 10% Graciano aged for 10 months in new, mostly French oak. Inky purple-colored, the aromatics are a bit muted and the wine is tightly wound but loaded. Notes of cedar, smoke, licorice, and blackberry are followed by a dense, powerful wine with excellent flavors and substantial ripe tannin. Give it another 6-8 years of cellaring and then drink it through 2030."

It is a BIG, sweet, lush wine.  Think the smoldering glance of Antonio Banderas, on steroids, in Zorro.  We committed infanticide by drinking it.  At $30/bottle,  it is value.

Comments

[Mel]

Thanks for the tip. We shall have to see if the NH liquor store carries it.

[margene]

Sigh...sounds heavenly!

[Ruth]

Yum.

[PumpkinMama]

You missed a calling in wine marketing methinks. Also, my new wine buying technique=read Etherknitter. Buy what she says.

[Manise]

Oh,lovely! I'm sure the wine gods will forgive you. Knowing you, I'm sure you bought a bunch to savor later on.

[Cheryl S.]

We've been trying some Spanish and Italian "value" wines lately.

We just tried some Panarroz Jumilla 2006 for $9. I wasn't too excited about it with pasta with a marinara sauce, but it was great with beef-stuffed green peppers - it definitely needs meat. But it was certainly a great value for the price.

http://winelibrary.com/reviewwine.asp?item=36375

[Caroline M]

I have a problem saving wine for Christmas never mind for another 6 to 8 years. I like the expression of "tightly wound but loaded" - that is me doing the big Christmas food shop.

[Caroline M]

I have a problem saving wine until Christmas, never mind for 6 to 8 years. I like the phrase "tightly wound but loaded", that's me doing the big Christmas food shop.

[June]

Plonk, ha ha. Plonk. Plonk.

You must have heard - http://articles.latimes.com/2008/aug/22/business/fi-winehoax22

[Melissa G]

What is between gold and plonk--it's drinkable but you've had better? The current quest is for wine to go with teriaki ahi, currently drinking our "house" zin however the recommended Razon was good too.

[kmkat]

I am a reverse wine snob, alternating between box wine and Three Buck Chuck, so my opinion is totally worthless. But a wine that is "tightly wound"? Good grief, what the heck is that supposed to mean? (/tasteless rant)

[Anne]

Did you like red wine before you were 30? or 40? My aunt assures me that the odd fuzzy taste red wines cause my teeth to have will go away after a certain point. I have a hard time drinking it because of that, but your description is making me wonder if it's time to try it again.

[Kathy]

Don't you mean vinfanticide?

[Carole]

If that wine is going to bring Antonio Banderas into my living room then bring it on!!!

[Woolybuns]

Makes me wish I liked wine more. I'd reeeaaalllly like to understand the phrasings, especially tightly wound but loaded. I may just have to go see if the local wine shop has some. Wait, wait ... that sounds an awful lot like the result of enabling.

[Marcia]

Terry says that he doesn't expect to be around in 2030, so he suggests Justin 1997, Paso Robles, Isosceles (63% Cab Sauv, 19% Cab Franc, 18% Merlot). Not big enough to stand up to beef, but perfect for the Harrington Ham we're having for our dinner party on Saturday. Even I like it!

[Kim]

Sigh....I wanna be you

[claudia]

I'm a label buyer and indeed that is the appropriate win/loss record. Sigh.

[LaurieG]

When I lived it Spain I'd pop over to the little shop across the street and pick up a bottle of Rioja to have with dinner (it cost about $3 a bottle).

[Teyani]

Antonio Banderas.... that good?? Hmmmm... would they call that an "o" in a bottle?
divine. must try it.

[gayle]

I've always been puzzled by the wine thing... The $50 bottle and the $5 bottle taste the same to me, or near enough the same as to make no difference.
I'll happily toast you with a beer, though...

[juno]

Murderer! Rioja. Yum.

[Lorette]

I'm a big fan of Spanish reds. They were made to drink with meat.

Now I won't be able to drink a Rioja without thinking of Antonio...