2012 Donelan Venus
This blend of 97% Roussanne and 3% Viognier has a medium+ body that is both full and smooth thanks to just enough acidity to balance its power. Stone fruit, honey and floral aromas accompany the mineral, caramel and slight citrus notes on the palate. Plush mouthfeel with quite a long finish.
Excellent
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Tempranillo grapes almost ready for harvest.
Spain’s Rioja region is almost exclusively Tempranillo country and is also the area most generally associated with quality Spanish wine. The Tempranillo grape is indigenous to the area and has been harvested there for thousands of years. The wines produced in Rioja are structured but elegant, generally more finessed than those from Ribera del Duero, and will easily stand the test of time in a cellar. Our first stop in Rioja on our trip to Northern Spain with Fine Vintage was Remelluri Winery and we couldn’t have enjoyed a more auspicious introduction to this storied region.
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Within the larger Columbia Valley American Viticultural Area (“AVA”), sitting at its southern end and straddling the Washington/Oregon border sits the Walla Walla AVA. Roughly 57% of its area is in Washington with the balance in Oregon. AVAs are delimited by homogenous soil and climatic characteristics and ignore political boundaries. But Walla Walla is the only AVA that crosses a state border.
The view at Aalto Winery
It was a beautiful sunny day in Spain’s Ribera del Duero when we pulled up to what has become one of Spain’s most highly regarded wineries: Aalto. The winery is a very modern looking building, its concrete and glass gleaming under the bright sun, making it look quite futuristic. But inside it is all business: this winery was built with the intention of producing wines that would be ranked among the best in the world. There is no tasting room (the winery does not receive guests; we were a special exception as a part of the Fine Vintages Spanish Wine Tour) and the winery was custom designed with meticulous attention to detail.
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2001 Woodward Canyon Old Vines Cabernet Sauvignon
Remarkably youthful for a wine that is 16 years past the vintage. Drinking wonderfully now, but there is still enough fruit and structure for another 5, maybe 10 years of good drinking. Dark fruits, cassis, blackberry and blueberry mix with subtle notes of cedar, tobacco, and herbal notes to make for a very complex Cabernet. The tannins are present but ripe and the overall texture of the wine is very smooth with just enough acidity/tannin to keep it from becoming too polished. There is a Bordeaux-like quality to the dry finish, not quite austere, but not the plushness that often comes with wines from the New World, which allows the complexity to really grab your attention. The finish goes on and on. Very sophisticated, very classy.
Excellent/Extraordinary
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