Decanter Spain and Portugal Tasting

Spain and Portugal
Landmark Hotel
22 Feb 2014

This was one of the most enjoyable Decanter tastings I've been to for quite a while. Often these tastings are far too crowded from lunchtime onwards. Difficult to get to the wines, impossible to get to the spitoon. However, this felt much more appropriately busy. Perhaps the general wine drinking public in the UK is less excited by Spain and Portugal than the usual Decanter fare. The wines were excellent too. Some expected, many unexpectedly great.

Far, far too many wines to be able to make serious tasting notes of them. Most of my notes are quite incoherent. However, some wines really stood out. Great wines I'd never come across before (in no particular order):

Tenoira Gayoso, Mencia en Barrica 2009
No UK agent
Very high acid, but in balance. Very serious nose.

Grupo Dominio de Tares, Cepas Viejas, Bierzo 2009
Meaty notes on top of red fruit. Silky on initial attack, grippy tannins on end. Great finish.

Jose Pariente Verdejo 2013, Rueda
Bright and fresh. Nose a bit like a Sauvignon Blanc, but with softer acid.

Numanthia, Termanthia 2009
120 y.o. ungrafted, pre-phylloxera vines.
This was excellent. Serious power, great length. Spicy nose with floral notes. Great balance and complexity... each sip something new comes through. Expensive though - £120 a bottle.

Recaredo
Some really interesting and complex Cavas here. I'd never had such interesting Cava before. The 2003 Reserva Particular and the 2001 Turo d'en Mota de Recaredo were both superb.

Viniberia Almacenista Selection Sherries
This stand was next to Equipo Navazos so had some stiff competition. Some really great stuff here though. The "Cayetano del Pino", Palo Cortado Viejisimo was sublime. Must look out for more sherries from these guys.

Bodegas Tobia, Rioja
These guys were very hardcore. I'd never come across them before but they were very good. High graciano content in many of their wines. Really liked their "Seleccion" and the "Alma Tobia". The 100% Graciano wine was seriously savoury and powerful but with less of the meaty note I would usually expect.

Jose Maria da Fonseca
The moscatels were excellent.

Aged tawny ports
The (very old) aged white tawny ports were a revelation. They had all the usually nutty complexity of a very old aged tawny, but with more acidity. This was really refreshing.

The Colheita ports going back to 1941(!) was an unexpected treat. It was a little surprising that there was no real extra increase in complexity from 1966 to 1941 (but obviously there was a very significant increase in price!). The 1966 was probably my favourite but realistically all of them were great.

Wines I'd had before but was happy to have again:
Bodegas Faustino
The "Faustino I" never fails to surprise me in how good it is. The 1994 was particularly good.

Torres
The "Mas la Plana", "Perpetual", and "Grans Muralles" were all excellent. The Grans Muralles was my favourite of the three.

Barrel-fermented Chardonnay, Chivite, Coleccion 125
Excellent as always. An old favourite.

Roda, Rioja
Both the "Roda Reserva" and "Roda I" were excellent. The reserva was more red fruit in character, the Roda I was more black fruit.

Equipo Navazos
Some really interesting stuff here. For example, one of their wines ("La Bota 45, Fino (Amontillado), Montilla") was a 20-year aged fino (and thus bone dry), made from Pedro Ximenez grapes. None of which makes sense, but the wine was excellent.

My favourite was the "La Bota 47, Palo Cortado Viejisimo". Like a nut cluster-bomb going off in your mouth.

So, in summary, lots of great stuff. There were other great wines I tried too but they had even more indecipherable notes than the ones above!