38 Months in Oak is About Right
38 Months in Oak is About Right
Ver mensaje de WaltZalenskiWe would not criticize a young Bordeaux for showing various signs of unbalance, so why do we sometimes criticize a modern Spanish wine for not being fully rounded and integrated in its youth? Don’t we have to modify our cellaring expectations to fit the particular wine? Thoughts about this issue occurred to me recently when, as frequently happens, a wine was presented to me blind and I was asked to identify it. I immediately recognized the wine as unmistakably from La Rioja, and I characterized it as perhaps 75% traditional in spirit and 25% modern. It turns out that the wine was 1998 Torre Muga, which surprised me. I had encountered the wine several times over the years. In its earlier youth, it boasted little more than its 22 months in American oak vats and 16 months in new French oak. It now has evolved significantly. It is still young, but dramatically more balanced. It is also clear that, in classic Rioja fashion, a firm acidic spine will carry it well into the future.
Re: 38 Months in Oak is About Right
Ver mensaje de WaltZalenskiAlthough I’m not happy this this phenomenon I do not criticize wines –nor winemakers- either modern or classic when I found some unbalances due to an early release to the market… however I miss that time when Spanish wines were released ready to drink.
Now the costs of storage fall on consumers but I suppose that competitivity constrains force winemakers to convert wine into money as fast as they can…. and this trend seems impossible to change.
Cheers!
Re: 38 Months in Oak is About Right
Ver mensaje de Paco HigónFrom a competitive perspection I certainly see no other producing country routinely aging wine on the producer’s time.
Even if the amount of Spanish wine with a long-delayed release date is falling as a percentage, Spanish wine drinkers can at least be content that the designations ";Reserve"; and ";Grand Reserve"; actually have some meaning. Elsewhere, it seems there are no rules on these categories. Producers can print the words on their wine labels, but the words can mean whatever the producer wants -- usually nothing. There are a good number of 2004 ";Reserve"; wines from Latin America already on the store shelves.
Re: I agree ..
Ver mensaje de WaltZalenskiI’ve seeing all these critiques about these denominations lately, but I see no danger: it is information (and information is always good) and I like it ... no one is forced to use it if they do not want to .. but it is good to have some names that means something
maJesus
Imbalances...
Ver mensaje de WaltZalenskiOh, there are unbalanced young Bordeaux, just as there are unbalanced young Riojas. The trick is identifying the nature of each imbalance and whether it is merely due to the wine’s youth (after all, tasting barrel samples of some of my favorite traditional Riojas has only shown me some tough cookies wanting nothing to do with a civilized table), or whether there’s something more sinister going on that will make the wine crap out sooner rather than later (which happens in Bordeaux as it does in Rioja, with alarming frequency in these overhyped, overblown, overeverythinged days...)
I must say that my view of Torre Muga was changed dramatically after a lunch in Guetaria last November. Isaac Muga, Jr. poured me a glass of a ";surprise wine";. It was quite nice stuff. A bit woody, but graceful of movement and with good amounts of the right things to warrant careful attention at present and certain expectations for the future. The wine, much to my surprise, was a 1995 Torre Muga.
Those who are familiar with my trajectory on the internet over the past ten years or so, have seen my negativity about Torre Muga. I often said that I couldn’t see the point of that wine, when Muga already had such a magnificent bottling in their Prado Enea Gran Reserva. Torre Muga just seemed to me aother redundant addition to the ";luxe"; wine sweepstakes. An aggressively oaky one, too.
But Isaacín managed to shake that notion of mine and now I’m open to the possibility of Torre Muga developing into something agreeable with time. Alas, Muga’s just one producer. I’m afraid fair reassessment can only happen on a case-by-case basis, given the current condition on the industry. And that goes for Rioja, as well as for any other region of Spain, or of France, or Italy, California, Austraia, South Africa, Argentina, Chile, and wherever else those megarripe, megaalcoholic, megaextracted, megawooded, low-acid drinks that characterize the post-post-postmodern school of wine technology, are being made.
M.
I almost agree .. ;-))
Ver mensaje de MaJesusErmmm, I almost agree but don’t you think that these names are a little bit confusing for not ‘conaisseurs’???
Lottery...
Ver mensaje de MCamblorBut Manuel, unfortunately it is really difficult for most human beings to distinguish the real nature of some imbalances… I never won the lottery so I prefer not to have to guess if bottle is going to polish defects or not ;-))
Re: Lottery...
Ver mensaje de Paco HigónI never won the lottery, either. But a little bit of research into the field will give you a pretty clear idea of what’s what. Taste a young barrel sample of Château Latour next to a Château Latour that has spent 40 years in bottle and you’ll know what the ";follies of youth are";.
M.