huevos con vino

My nom de plume on this blog is “huevos con vino.”  Therefore, it seems only fitting that Wine Blogging Wednesday #35 should cover Spanish wines and that I should, therefore, review a Spanish wine.  I rarely get to review Spanish wines because, well, I live in the Seattle area and I am awash in delicious local wines that offer a good bargain.  But it’s time to stretch my palate a bit and try something new!

That something new is the 2004 Group Galiciano Dehesa de Rubiales “Alaia.”  That’s a mouthful, so I’ll simply call this wine Alaia for the duration.  The Alaia comes from Toro, the Spanish region east of the town of Zamora.  Here’s a long article on Toro and why this little “denominación de origen” (or DO) is an increasingly popular place for wineries to put down roots, so to speak.  Here’s a helpful map of the different wine-growing regions in Spain.  Depending on where I look online, I see different information regarding specific DO names, DOCa names, and so forth.  So I’ll just say that Alaia comes from the Toro DO.  That’s good enough.

I chose the Alaia on the strength of a recommendation from the wonderful wine expert at The Spanish Table (TST) in Seattle.  She spent a good 20 minutes with me answering all of my rather silly questions, making good suggestions, and generally being patient as I stared at all of the wines.  Rather foolishly, I forgot to ask her name, but I think she was Catherine Reynolds since that’s the name of their Wine Manager.  She also writes their Wine Newsletters.

In terms of selection, TST is incredibly diverse.  Their selection of Spanish and Portugese red wines is amazing, particularly if you are looking for a good bargain (under $10).  Of course, if you want to spend $50, you can do that too.  But the range of value was exceptional, and they taste most (if not all) of the wines they stock.

So, Catherine recommended the Alaia to me in part for its uniqueness.  This wine is a blend of 50% Prieto Picudo, 45% Tempranillo, and 5% Merlot.  Yes, you read that right: Prieto Picudo.  What is this varietal, you might wonder?  I had the same question.  Prieto Picudo is a varietal unique to the León region of Spain, apparently.  As a wine grape, it is known to produce intensely smoky, fruity wines.  Catherine told me that this particular wine, with 50% Prieto Picudo in the mix, is as smoky as it gets for a wine. 

Now that sounds cool to me.  I like smoky Spanish and Mexican flavors in general (chipotle, mescal, tobacco, etc.).  Catherine also told me that whenever she gets this wine in stock, it sells out quickly as people rush back to buy more with their friends.  Nice.

Alaia is imported by Boutique Wine Collection of Philadelphia, PA.  Their info page on this wine is available here.  Apparently the 2004 Alaia spent 4 months in new French oak barrels, a quick hibernation for sure.  The alcohol content is rated as 12.5% on the Web site and 13.5% on the bottle, so I’ll assume it falls somewhere in between.

It is worth noting that Wine Advocate gave this wine a rating of 89, which is quite a good rating for a $7-$10 wine.  You can find Alaia for under $7/bottle at winelibrary.com; I picked up my bottle at TST in Seattle for $9.99.  Plus tax, of course.  Still, that’s a heck of a good deal for such a highly regarded wine.

Ahh, finally…the meat of the blog entry.  How does this wine taste?  And smell?  Good questions.  Read on:

• Aroma: Hmm…somewhat vegetal, like freshly cut blackberry vines, with an herbal spice on top. 
• Flavor: An expressive combination of blackberries, black figs, and nettles.  That herbal quality comes through in the finish, where the spicy nettle flavor shines through the fruit.  Somewhat tannic and acidic at first, but these elements fade after the wine has been exposed to the air for a while.
• General impression: A strange wine, not quite my taste as it is too vegetal and brackish.  Some smoky qualities but not as much as I was made to expect.

Overall, I can see how some people would like this wine, but the bramble and nettle flavors combined to make a really bizarre taste profile that just isn’t something I care for.  I fail to see how this wine could score an 89 anywhere, but that’s the beauty of aesthetic pleasures: They are all subjective.  Ultimately, however, this wine is a good value because, for $7, you can do far worse than the Alaia.  Perhaps it would taste better when paired with, say, smoked pork ribs or chipotle mayonnaise and French fries, both of which sound quite good right now.

In conclusion, I did appreciate this chance to stretch my palate and go somewhere new for a change.  Oregon is a terrific wine region but it’s good to branch out a little, and I look forward to trying other Prieto Picudo wines from Toro in the future!

This entry was posted on Monday, July 9th, 2007 at 6:32 pm and is filed under Wine Blogging Wednesday, wine review. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.