"Polite" Wine Notes
By Marisa D'Vari | June 2nd, 2007 | Category: News | No Comments »Are you polite with tasting notes? I try to be, even though the producer usually isn't around to read my private notes. In the past, I've never really come out and slammed a wine. Yet tonight, sharing a bottle of Casa de Las Especias (Fote, 2004) with a friend, I was tempted to do so.
Usually I love wines from Yecla. Lots of intense tannins and sun baked black fruit. However, something about this wine really threw a curve. Didn't like the nose and could barely drink the wine. Rather than give you my "polite" notes, let me share some tasting notes I found on the web that exactly echoed everything I experienced ...
"Just when I thought things couldn't possibly get any worse, along comes a Casa de las Especias Yecla 'Forte del Valle' 2004. Scorched sour milk and toasty blackberry jam, yes that's what it smells like. In the piehole it's only marginally better, low acid, purple and reduced-tasting, like wine sauce, then a swarm of tongue-scraping tannins. At first sippage I think 'Well, it's a dumb jam-on-toast kind of wine, but it's okay,' but I quickly come to dislike it with a rather unhealthy passion--the tannins just won't stop trying to commit genocide on my epithelial cells, and the damn thing has a jarringly bitter-n-boozy aftertaste once the blackberry sauce flavor falls away. Blech. If it continues downhill from here I'm spitting the bit and switching to soda. "The soils of ancient seabeds rich in minerals are responsible for these unique wines" says the label, so at least we know who to blame. Where the hell's the TCA when you need it? Awful Despicable."
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Well, I disagree completely.
The bottle I just had was one of the most satisfying wines I've had in weeks, and I look forward to trying it again, soon. I did let it breathe in the bottle for probably an hour or so before getting around to sampling it. Maybe that made a difference, or maybe it's just one of those love-it-or-hate-it wines — my experience was 180 degrees different from yours.
RESPONSE FROM MARISA – Yes, decanting is often the key. Circumstances wouldn't allow an hour wait. People often have different reactions to different wines. By contrast, I'm loving the Arzuaga Crianza 2004 from Ribera del Duero.