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Texts
& visuals ©Hannu Lehmusvuori
Art's & Betsy's CORNUCOPIA of WINE & GARDENING & ARTS |
Sometimes some elementary notes are in place about Spanish wines. Especially today (Nov. 1, 2000) after reading all the misinterpretations about wines in our Helsingin Sanomat. - 'Vino Tinto/Vino de Mesa', 'Crianza', 'Reserva', 'Gran Reserva', and all the intermediate and topping 'Especials' - they have nothing to do with either the origin of the wine, let alone any characteristics of the soil, nor anything with the quality of a particular wine as such. (Though all respectable and honest wine makers in Spain follow the rule that their 'reserva' should be better - in some respects - than their 'crianza', and doing this all the way through the scale from 'vino tinto' to 'gran reserva'. - Some very respectable estates simply don't release a 'reserva' or 'gran reserva' if the vintage is poor, and not susceptiple to ageing.) - All those attributes imply only a set of rules about the time a particular vintage has to mature first in oak barrels and afterwards in the bottle before marketing. The higher you go on the scale the older the wine is when you can first put your hand on it in your shop. - (And following the market economy rule: even a "poor-vintage" 'reserva' will be more expensive the following year from release, and even dearer the year after that, and even....)
To complicate the matter a bit : If you think about the reality of stepping up to a 'reserva' or a gran-such from a 'crianza' by a particular estate, and within a particular vintage, then you would most likely find a better wine of the same year by the same estate. Why? - Because the finer grapes from the vinyard were selected for the wines to be later released as 'reservas', and "better".
To complicate more.
This week's wine - an aquaintance from a 1978 bottling reviewed earlier - is from the 1985 vintage, and would be eligible for the epiteth 'gran reserva especial' by far. But it's a 'Vino de Mesa'. By one of the esteemed estates, Palacio de Arganza. - Why don't they follow the rules? Vino de Mesa(?) labelled in a wine rising high above the ordinary 'reservas'. - I would be speculating if I'd say more, so just simply jump into this wine, and enjoy! It's always a matter of how the wine reacts with you.
Front mouth softness.
- I must admit something that I've learned while sipping wines. Though I miss, and yearn for, those wines that knock my feet off the ground, and dive deep into my gutter, I've also started to love the sophistication in the front-of-the mouth wines. But only if they're not of the courting type. The kind with a simplified, not mature, down-the-hatch feel.
Arganza's
Vino de Mesa has that uncourting, permit me, luxurious, front-of-the-mouth experience to be experienced.- That's the short and long of it. And enjoyable with an adult, mature taste. - The truth of a wine should just be experienced.
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