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A Spanish Wine Tastingby Dr. Bob Ouellette |
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On Saturday night, we tasted 8 Spanish wines from the Rioja and Ribera areas.
The purpose of this tasting was to compare the wines from these two noted areas
and see which appeal most to the 17 tasters. Knowing that Rioja now made wines
that were more easily accessible than in prior years, we did include an older
vintage simply to refresh ourselves as to the change in this area. Ribera being
a relatively new growing area that produces wines with the identical grapes, several
of us felt that they would stand out and leave the Riojas in their wake. For
this tasting we pitted five wines from each area and compared the scores to find
out which Tempranillo wines would come out victor. The results:
It's fairly obvious that the tasters preferred the Ribera wines. That did not come as a surprise mainly due to the fact that this area has been in the limelight these past few years with its delicious easy and ready to drink wines. There was much more color, fruit, and complexity in the four specimens that we tasted. The only Rioja wine to match these was the Sierra Cantabria that pleased everyone. All in all, Spanish wines made with this noble grape deserve a place in the wine cellar especially in the light of the stratospheric prices that are commanded for California and French standards. |
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