2011 Muga Rioja Riserva

So I'm at Boston' Logan airport and the last words you ever want to hear when you arrive are, "your flight's wicked delayed!"  So here I am at Legal Seafoods for dinner (I have 4 hours to kill) so why not enjoy some wine?  Now keep in mind I'm doing this on my phone so please forgive the typos!  I just got a half bottle of 2011 Muga Rioja Riserva so let's see what this one has to offer!

The color is a nice deep ruby. The nose presents aromas of plum, currant, limestone and a bit of Bordeaux style funk. The taste is quite nice with a rush of black fruit up front followed by some smooth mineral notes of dusty likestone and basalt. The tannins are nicely structured lending to the long, smooth dry finish. 

Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 8, it's a nice Rioja from a producer I like. It would be great with a variety of Mediterranean dishes, but tonight I'm at Legal Seafoods enjoying this with some blackened tuna sashimi and a Bostob baked scrod for dinner. Cheers!

2010 Hacienda Lopez de Haro Rioja

It's Sunday, time for the best dinner of the week, since you have all afternoon to contemplate and prepare your meal.  Tonight I've decided on something that will warm me up since it's bitter cold out today, the temperature started this morning in the teens and now it's only 7!  So with the warmth of my Sunday dinner, I've decided to open a bottle of 2010 Hacienda Lopez de Haro Rioja, which I bought about a month ago at Costco.

The wine is a lighter ruby color in the glass with nice clarity.  The nose exhibits some lovely fruit and floral notes with some lovely white pepper spice.  The taste is quite nice, with some subdued fruit up front, ripe plum and cassis, that transitions nicely to some dried herb and spice notes midpalate.  The finish is pleasant though a bit short, with a reprise of jammy fruit amid the smooth dry finish.

Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 7.5, it's nothing spectacular, even though it was a phenomenal bargain at just $5!  I regret only buying a single bottle, I should have bough a case!  And to warm up this evening, I am pairing this with some ghost pepper curry with chicken and vegetables served over steamed basmati rice.  It's so hard to pair a red wine with ghost peppers, but this one does well, with some subdued earthy flavors that actually complement the spice.  Here's to warming up with hearty winter food!

2008 Audius Rioja

Happy St. Patrick's Day!  Yeah, I know I should be falling down drunk on green beer, but I really haven't been much of a beer drinker since college, though I can open a nice bottle of wine to celebrate!  Tonight it's the 2008 Audius Rioja, a lovely tempranillo from Spain that I think has a good chance of pairing well with a traditional Irish dinner.

The wine is lovely garnet color in the glass, with an inky purple near the center.  The nose is a fantastic smoky aroma of bright red fruit, cherry, raspberry and red plum over the faintest hints of leather and vanilla.  The taste is wonderfully fruit forward with flavors of cherry cola, blackberry and cassis, that easily transition to some spice notes of white pepper midpalate.  The tannins are softly structured but they still give nice backbone to the long, smooth and very dry finish.

Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 8, it's a very nice Rioja at a terrific price as I bought this one from Wines Till Sold Out for just $13.  Tonight I am enjoying this with, what else?  Corned beef and stinky cabbage, along with red potatoes and carrots that have been simmering in the slow cooker since this morning!  If you choose not to have beer, I can think of few better wines to go with this Irish fare than a lighter, dry and very fruit forward wine like this.  Erin go bragh!

2012 La Chosa Joven Rioja

Ahhh...hump day of a holiday-shortened week, what could be better?  How about a bottle of Rioja?  You know how I love the tempranillo, so tonight I've opened a bottle of 2012 La Chosa Joven Rioja, a wine I got a month or so ago from Wines Till Sold Out, so I figure what the heck, I'll give it a try.

The wine is a lighter ruby color in the glass, with nice clarity.  The nose is quite aromatic, with aromas of red fruit, cherry, strawberry and currant overlaid with some floral and spice notes, black pepper, hints of anise, as well as some earthy notes of grass and cedar.  The taste is very fruit forward, with a blast of cherry and strawberry that quickly transitions to some mineral notes of iron and graphite midpalate.  The finish is quite warm, with some spice notes intermingled with the subdued tannins providing a bit of structure for the moderately dry finish.

Overall I would rate this wine a solid 7, it was a nice example of the varietal at a terrific bargain price of just $10!  Tonight I am pairing this wine with some chicken, baked potato and some grilled vegetables, but it would also pair nicely with a variety of soft cheeses and olives for a pleasant appetizer, as the fruit and spice notes practically cry out for something smooth and creamy to pair with.  Cheers!

2008 Marques de Caceres Crianza Rioja

What a momentous day!  Well, it wasn't that impressive, but I did get a lot of work done in the yard and I managed to change out all 6 florescent lights in the garage so now I have a well lit work space rather than a dim flickering one!  So to celebrate little victories, I've decided to open up a bottle of Rioja, specifically a 2008 Marques de Caceres Crianza that I bought a couple weeks ago.

The wine is light in the glass with great clarity, almost reminiscent of a pinot noir, but not quite.  The nose is pure Rioja, with bright fruit notes blasting forth, cherry, plum and cassis overlaid with a but of tart apple.  The taste is somewhat different than I was expecting, it was fruit forward, but bursting with tart cherry rather than jammy berries.  The initial fruit transitions effortlessly to some herb notes and earthy notes of dusty limestone midpalate.  The tannins are still quite pronounced lending structure to the long, smooth dry finish.

Overall I would rate this wine a solid 8, as you know my penchant for Spanish reds, plus I found this one in the bargain bin (literally a shopping cart at my local market full of discontinued wines!) for only $12!  Tonight I am pairing this one with a classic summer cookout of grilled brats with sauteed onions and peppers on a pretzel roll along with some broccoli slaw and grilled corn on the cob.  The fruit of the wine is such a great pairing with the spice of the brats, so yummy!

2009 Vina Bujanda Rioja Crianza

Well, it's a rainy afternoon, and surprisingly I still didn't get much done today!  Very frustrating, and what cures frustrating rainy afternoons better than a glass of wine?  Today I am enjoying a nice bottle of 2009 Vina Bujanda Rioja Crianza that I sampled earlier today at my local wine merchant, G.B. Russo's.

The wine is a classic rioja red in the glass, beautiful ruby color with great clarity.  The nose is a lovely combination of ripe fruit, cherries, blackberries and cassis over a subtle background of cedar.  The taste is classic rioja, with a burst of red fruit at the outset, followed by some lovely floral notes.  Midpalate presents some nice minerality and wonderful dried herbs over a wonderful earthiness.  The finish is quite nice, as the tannins are well structured with mild acidity that combines for a wonderful, mid-length and very dry finish.

Overall I would rate this wine a solid 8, as it's a solid example of rioja, but it was also a nice value at $14.  Tonight I am enjoying this wine before dinner with a simple cheese course of Romano Locatelli sheep's milk cheese from Italy, which has a salty and nutty flavor that really accentuates the red fruit and minerality of the wine.  Cheers!

2006 Bodegas Olarra Anares Rioja Reserva

Tonight I am trying something new for dinner, so why not also try a new wine with my meal?  For this evening I've chosen a bottle of 2006 Bodegas Olarra Anares Rioja Reserva, and it's not the first time I've enjoyed a bottle from this producer, back in May I enjoyed another bottle from 2005: Cerro Anon Rioja Reserva that I thought was very nice. As for my new dinner choice, I've been seeing incessant commercials for Wal-Mart's "Choice Premium Steaks" I decided to go out over the weekend and buy one, just to try it and see if it lives up to all the marketing hype.  More on that later.

This wine certainly lived up to my expectations for a nice Rioja, as I've come to really appreciate Spanish wines over the last year or so.  The wine had a rich ruby color in the glass and the nose was a nice combination of black licorice, plum, leather and a hint of floral notes, perhaps a bit of lavender.  The taste had a nice shock of ripe plum combined with tart cherry at the outset which transitioned nicely to some earthy notes of dusty limestone midpalate. The tannins were very pronounced creating a very long, exceptionally dry finish that makes this wine ideal for spicy dishes or hearty grilled meats, like a Wal-Mart steak!

Overall I thought this was a very nice Rioja that is drinking very well right now, so I'd rate it a solid 8.5 particularly since it was a terrific value at just $12.99 from Wines Till Sold Out!  Back to the steak, surprisingly the Wal-Mart steak wasn't bad, it was not very thick, a little under an inch, but I still had no problem grilling it to a nice rare, cool red center.  I seasoned it just as I would my normal Angus ribeye and it was tender and quite flavorful, with good marbling.  So overall a successful experiment, though the everyday price of $9 a pound is a bit more than I can usually buy my Angus steaks when on sale, so I think Tom, my butcher can rest a little easier.  I had the wine and steak with a nice baked potato and some freshly steamed sugar snap peas I picked up at the farmers market last weekend.  Overall a very nice dinner!

2011 Muga Rioja Rose

So tonight is an exciting night, a first for the wine blog, a review of a wine that is not red!  It's been so hot lately, today it's 92 and it's supposed to be near 100 degrees this weekend, so it's a little warm to be enjoying a hearty red wine on the patio.  So I thought, there's been a recent surge in popularity of rose wines, so why not jump on the bandwagon and try some?  After all, they can't be any worse than the white zinfandel we used to drink in college!  So last weekend there were a few tastings at local wine merchants, in addition to a virtual tasting on snooth.com, so I picked up a few bottles, including the 2011 Muga Rioja Rose I am enjoying tonight.

This wine was part of the Snooth tasting, and having tried it at G.B. Russo's last weekend I picked up a bottle and chilled it expecting a resumption of the unbearably hot weather we've had so far this summer.  So tonight's the night!  I figure I like Rioja, so that at least gives this wine a head start right?

The wine has a nice blush color in the glass, almost an orange-pink hue.  The nose is quite pleasant with aromas of fresh strawberry and citrus, with just a mild hint of grass.  The wine tastes of bright fruit at the outset, with strawberry and fresh cut melon, quickly giving way to a mild flavor of ruby red grapefruit and fresh herbs with a sharp acidity.  The finish is clean and crisp, with very mild tannins resulting in a very dry, but short finish.

Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 7, but that's really just a wild guess since I'm so far out of my element on this one!  As for pairings, tonight I am enjoying this wine with some of the last of my wild Copper River Sockeye fillets, grilled on a cedar plank and served with a bit of wild rice and steamed sugar snap peas.  The bright fruit and acidity of this wine really does play nicely against the richness and fattiness of the salmon, making this a very delicious pairing!