Congratulations Walt!!!

... I’ve just read that you have been granted the honour of a Verema Prize!!! ... you certainly deserve it several times ... the ";quiet side"; would be way quieter without you!

cheers,

MaJesus

Many thanks, MaJesus.

I have been very busy and traveling. I had to postpone my trip to Barcelona, and also have been able to post less frequestly.

We need to recruit some more folks over here, and I will try to do so.

I just participated in an interesting double-blind horizontal tasting of 11 2001 Riojas (and one ";ringer";) in New York. Collectively the group of tasters rated Roda I best overall, with El Puntido second, and Guzman Aldazabal ";Exaltacion"; third. I personally had the Exaltacion first. Other than one wine that was corked, the Benjamin Romeo La Cueva Del Contador finished last.

Walt, finally are you going to visit Spain? We’ve got a present for you.... ;-))

Very interesting tasting indeed, and 2001 was a very good year in Rioja ; I love Roda I very much, but I drink many more Roda II (which I also love ... certainly I also love Cirsion, but this one I only had once: it is an extremly expensive wine). I have never tasted El Puntido nor Exaltacion, I’ll have to try to find those when I arrive to Spain (unles they are from the super-duper expensive categories) ... curious that La Cueva del Contador finished last ;)) ... this can only happen in bouble blind tastings. This one I never had, but I have never been even curious: it was my impression that it was expensive for the shake of being expensive ... now I am even less curious!

Susie

The bottle of La Cueva del Contador was not corked, baked or otherwise flawed. I personally ranked it 7th, better than most of the other tasters, but clearly this was a disappointing performance given the price of the wine.

It appears that www.lavinoteca.org still sells the 2001 Guzman Aldazabal";Exaltacion"; -- but for 45eur. The price of the 2001 Roda I at Vila Viniteca is 29eur.

Hmmmmm ... unless I get overly curious, I think I’ll stick to Roda I ;)). Thanks Walt!

MaJesus