Originally published on July 16, 2009.
I spend a lot of time on this blog pulling back the magic curtain on the “dream” of owning a wine store. You may think owning a wine store is all about wine. But no – it’s really about hand trucks, electric bills, the perils of wooden wine boxes….
O.K…sometimes it is about wine. There are some very good wine perks. Like tonight, when I was the last stop on one of my sales rep’s daily road show. Being last is good – it means you get to take home the half-empty bottles. And tonight, they were some very nice half-empty bottles.
Tonight, I took home 2 different wine from Lopez de Heredia, the standard-bearing for old-school Rioja.
First up was the Cubillo Crianza 2003. It’s the first time I’ve had the Cubillo, which comes from the estate’s Cubillas vineyard, and it was quite yummy, even juicy. Now I’m never at a loss for words to decribe Lopez wines (elegant, haunting, exotic – pick your favorite semi-pretentious wine geek phrase) but “juicy” and “yummy” usually don’t spring to mind. It’s probably the combination of a very warm vintage (a.k.a. the heat wave of 2003) combined with the higher percentage of juicy, yummy Grenache in the Cubillo vineyard site. In any case, it was delicious and definitely a nice entry point to these very lovely wines.
Next up was the 2001 Bosconia Reserva from the El Bosque vineyard. I’ve had some older examples of Bosconia bottles, from the 1970’s and 1980’s and they evoke all the usual Lopez phrases (see above for elegant, haunting, exotic). But this is the first time I’ve had a chance to sit with an younger bottle and I liked it very much. Longer time spent aging in the big oak barrels, a better vintage, and a higher percentage of Tempranillo vs. Grenache all result in a wine with a darker tone (I apparently taste in colors) and firmer structure than the Cubillo. It was one of those wines I wanted to run out and buy a case in order to taste it as it evolves over many, many years. And at around $30-something on the shelf, it’s highly possible that I just might.
Ah, perks. Sometimes it’s pretty nice behind the magic curtain!