Triples

Tried three wines the other night and they were all fabulous and different.

The Muga Rioja 2005 Especial was awesome. A red wine that was slow to open up, but after and hour or two of air time, it was elegant and smooth and rich and fruity and smokey, but not as smokey as the last wine. As nice as it was, it needs more years in the bottle to develop more complexity of flavors. It was the best with the smoked pork ribs. Retail is about 50.

The Selvanova Aglianico from southern Italy was the steal of the night at $19.99 a bottle. This wine has a little cult following at the store, but I admit, I hadn't tasted it in a long time. Don't worry, I bought everything the wholesaler had left in Massachusetts. Worry, he only had 3 cases left and one of the gentlemen who tasted the wine with me the other night, took one of them. Aglianico is the best red grape in southern Italy. It yields a wine that has southern Italian fruit to compliment a red sauce dish, yet enough spice and structure to stand up to northern Italian cuisine. It was delicious with no breathing time at all, and held its flavors thru the night.
I repeat, a steal, but not much left.

Finally, Vacqueras is a town in the Rhone Valley of France the until a change in the wine laws could only be labeled as Cotes du Rhone Villages. This 2007 vintage Vacqueras at $29.99 is expensive for any red wine from this town, but this one is more than worth it. Unfortunately, this was a cradle robbing event. Although the wine was delicious, you know it is only gonna get better the longer you can wait and leave it alone in the cellar. How long? It was so good, I will re-evaluate it this holiday season, but I have lots. A couple of years should metamorphasize this wine from wonderful to SPECTACULAR! Wafts of dried red fruit without sweetness in combination with so much basalm notes I thought I was lumberjacking in Maine. This is the wine that answers the oft asked queston "Bob, I wanna buy a wine that is gonna taste like a hundred bucks in a few years but I dont want to spend that much, what do you have?" This is it! I just loved sipping this the entire evening, food was secondary. Wine is tooooo good.

Wine World Cup

It's Spain vs. Netherlands, but there is no wine from the Dutch, well I have never tasted one, but the Dutch did establish winemaking in South Africa, the home country for the World Cup so with all due respect to an ice-cold Heineken, I pick some wines.

If Spain wins, it's time to crack open a bottle of Artadi's top Rioja made from Tempranillo grape. It tastes like LaTache from France and it's only, gulp, $300 a bottle. No, not the most expensive wine from Spain, but I think it is the best. I will serve it with pan seared steak with sauteed wild mushrooms and a herb infused risotto. I only get one 6-pack of this wine and only in great years.

For a Netherlands victory, I will cross sports and serve Ernie Els top wine. Also not the most expensive wine from its country at $90 a bottle, this wine tastes like a cross-breed between top of the line Bordeaux and a California Meritage. The vegetables remain the same but I would serve grilled lamb chops, the meatier kidney ones not the rib chops. I have two six-packs of this wine.

Don't tell my brother about my plans, he would not be happy with me drinking all the profits.

Fuentespina

Moving a bunch of cases today to make room for more wine and lo and behold I found a case of the 2001 Fuentespina Reserva! Yikes!! $29.99 a bottle for perfectly mature Ribera del Duero from Spain. 100% Tempranillo grape from the awesome 2001 vintage in Spain, is a perfect match with any meat cooked on the grill. Pork and lamb are best, though.

I was in Spain in 2002 and the samples we tasted out of barrel were and still are the best barrel samples I have ever tried. Usually when you visit a winery, you spend a few minutes tasting wines still in barrel and most of the time tasting the fresh releases and a few older wines thrown in up in the tasting room In Spain in 2002, every winemaker kept me in the cellar as long as possible. And time has proven this early elation to be correct. The wines are wonderful.

Open the bottle about a half hour before serving, or pour into a decanter and slowly enjoy over the course of a nice evening of wining and dining.

PS. Will be AFK for a bit,will make it up to you later!

Eureka!

A little over 4 years ago, one of my wine savviest customers was commuting to NYC for business. He always went to the same restaurant, and ordered the same type of wine each time. On his last visit, he asked the sommelier for something my customer had never had before. The sommelier offered him The Chocolate Block and told him he would never find it anywhere as the restaurant had it exclusively in the city. The customer we shared told the sommelier, "No problem, my wine guy in Millis will get it for me."

8 months later I found it and got it for him. I am slow, but persistant.

He was very happy.

I tasted the wine and was overjoyed! At the time, I carried two wines from South Africa. Three with The Chocolate Block. and then another and another and another and now we carry almost 100 different wines from South Africa. I believe they offer the best bang for the buck wine values found anywhere in the world today. And it's not even close.

The 2008 Chocolate Block just arrived. It was promised to me back in November 2009. It is a delicious blend of red and white grapes. It has a sensation of chocolate in a rich dry red wine. I think the 2008 needs another 6 months in the bottle to show how good it is. It was yummy, but still too young with smoked ribs and slaw, and a flan of gorgonzola with andoullie sausage and toast. It overpowered a Coq au Vin Blanc. It retails for $39.99 a bottle in the store and this year my quota was 24 bottles. First come, first served.

Eureka is also a town in California as well as the yell for a gold strike. South Africa has more gold and better wine than California. E?UREKA! dude

A is for Alphabetical

Every Christmas my bride gifts me a wine book that I would never buy for myself. Like all gifts, some are winners and some, well, let's just say make great door stops. This past holiday, she gave me 1001 Wines You Must Taste Before You Die. Catchy title. Makes me want to drink my cellar ASAP. Well the first wine listed in the red wine section is Aalto PS 2001. WOW! Not only did I taste this in barrel in Spain back in 2002, I own 5 6-packs of it that I bought in 2005.

This is GONNA be a great wine! Well, it already is a great wine, but it needs years of aging to reach drinking perfection. It is made entirely from Tempranillo grape, all of the vines are over 40 years old, from the Ribera del Duero region. I tasted a bottle when it first arrived and made a note, not to try it again til 2010. Now that it is 2010 and I have tried it again the wine is showing more complexity, and it's big, but it still needs more time. I will try it again in 2014. The price for Spanish perfection is $100 a bottle. No, not cheap, but wicked good, if you have the patience. I am thinking a prime rib roast would be the perfect compliment.

Aalto may go with Aardvark, but I have never eaten Aardvark so I can't be sure. It just makes sense though.