Short reviews of three wines from Baggot St Wines

Portillo Malbec €11.19
Fantastic, big, chewy and a little bit fruity. Great value as priced.

Gran Cerdo €13.99
A little thin, we reckoned, got a bit better after being open for a while but not ones the Willies cared for very much. And check out their website - a testament to shocking web design.

Matsu El Picaro €13.99 reduced from €16.99
Oh yes, this is how to do modern (relatively) inexpensive Spanish red. Wonderfully complex with a great finish.

The Fourth Protocolo - It's not you, it's me*

I've fallen out of love. It happened a couple of years ago although it took me until last night to realise it. When Protocolo first came out, in, I think 2008, (the 2006 vintage), I loved it. I picked up a bottle in O'Briens as part of one of my regular trawls of their reds on special offer, and I loved it.

I loved it so much I recommended it to all my friends, some of whom also loved it and used it for parties. I believe it was John Wilson from the Irish Times (but I can't find the link) who raved about it, and suggested it had the potential to age and would be worth cellaring. Also, it was not your typical Spanish red, it was fruitier, and, I suspect, made to appeal to a younger, New World influenced wine drinker.

So I took a bottle of the 2006 and duly "cellared" it, for future consumption. Over the next four  years, I bought the 2009 & 2010. I don't know what happened to the 2007 & 2008; I know I missed one of them and I suspect the other never made it to the shop floor but I couldn't be sure. Either way, I picked up the 2011 yesterday for tasting purposes.

I need to confess that I last time I bought the Protocolo was in summer of 2012 (the 2010 vintage), for old time's sake, and I didn't enjoy it. I don't know if the wine has changed or I have, but one of us has moved on.

Anyhoo, I have been looking for an opportunity to do a vertical tasting of the various vintages for some time and last night presented the perfect occasion. It was forecast to be a lovely sunny evening, we had our new chiminea to burn our old patio table in,  a butterflied leg of lamb to bbq, and we had our neighbours Tricki'n'Baz from one side in, and MJ from the other, along with Aunty June, whom we hadn't seen for a while.

The ladies had been on the white wine for a while and me on the Grolsch, so I figured I'd start with the oldest first before we all got too squiffy to taste anything.

2006 - First off, everyone else liked it, but I didn't really care for it. It had a big alcoholic wash and had lost pretty much all its fruit. Not unpleasant, but not what I was expecting. Which was? Dunno, not this. They say most wines are made to be drunk with a short number of years so perhaps I shouldn't be surprised.

2009 - Really didn't like this. There was a slight sharpness to this wine that I didn't care for. Our guests didn't comment as such but that could be just politeness. I pride myself on serving nice wine to anyone who comes to my house for dinner but I feel I let myself down here; at the very least I need to like what I'm serving.

2010/2011 - Not much in the difference here, as I mentioned above, this wine just doesn't do it for me anymore, I'm sorry to say.

So there you have it, a failed love story for my part, but do try it yourself (it generally retails for about €8.99), even if you don't like it you won't be out of pocket by too much...

* Probably

Dunnes Wine Sale

I have to take Dunnes to task. I have been in three separate Dunnes over the last couple of weeks, looking for some of the wines that are part of their "Wine Sale". In each store they had maybe 5 or 6 wines (that I could find) and virtually no promotional material. Just some small placards attached to the shelves. Maybe I caught the end of the sale and stocks were low... They should take a lesson from Richard Moriarty in Superquinn. That's how to do a wine sale.

Anyway, I bought a few reds, some are from the sale, not sure which; it's late and I'm tired with a dicky tummy and a dodgy back so reviews are limited to six words apiece.

Marques de Almonacid Carinena 2009 - €9.00 (reduced from €12-50)
Fruity, light and pleasant. Not bad.

Poco a Poco Tempranillo 2012 - €7-50 (reduced from €11)
Cheap cheerful, but not for me.

Chateau Millegrand Minervois 2011 - €11-50 (reduced from €16)
Awful, down the sink with it.

Laurent Miquel Nord Sud Syrah  - €10-50
Cheap cheerful, needs lots of air.

Next Up - More Beer, probably.

Back to Lidl for me (and some interesting Spanish wines)

After the unfortunate events of last Friday* I was in need of some cheering up so Herself bought me a couple of bottles of red from Baggot Street wines, which they have been promoting.

They are three reds branded "Matsu" (Japanese for "Wait") which a quick Googling revealed as coming from Rodinia Wines. I got the youngest "El Picaro" (2011) and the middle wine "El Recio" (2010).

All the wines come from the Toro region and all are made from Tinta de Toro which some more Googling appears to be another name for Tempranillo, the staple grape of Rioja and Ribera.

I even found a video for the three wines here.

The difference expressions come from different vines and are matured differently. The Recio is is described thusly:

"El Recio translates as 'the tough guy', and is a more serious, mature wine, made from the product of some of Toro's oldest vines, which are cultivated using advanced biodynamic techniques. 14 months in new French oak provide opulence and polish"

After decanting the Recio (€25-99) for a couple of hours we dived in, into a big fruity vat of wine. My initial thoughts went as follows: this was a good Rioja crossed with a good Aussie Shiraz with a not unpleasant alcoholic wash (14.5% abv). If that sounds odd, it was wasn't. It was quite delicious, but this is definitely a modern, fruit-forward kind of wine, not for those who prefer more austere old-world wines.

The Picaro (€16-99) is as follows:

"Picaro means 'rogue' or 'rascal', and this rapscallion of a wine is a youthful interpretation of the Toro region's style. The grapes come from mature vines of over 50 years of age, but the wine spends only three months in oak, preserving their natural fruit profile"

Well, this was completely different to its elder relative. If tasted blind I would have said this was a good Southern French Syrah, maybe an expensive one from Laurent Miquel. Loved it, even though it tasted like no Tempranillo I ever tasted. Silky smooth, slightly tannic and very classy.

*The thread holding the sword snapped...

I first posted this without a title...

I've been seeing a wine in Tesco my last few visits there and finally took the plunge today. Its a Finest Tempranillo 2009 from the Extemadura region of Spain. I've king of been spoiled on Spanish wine by the Alta Rio and rarely buy Spanish anymore. BTW has anyone else noticed a distinct lack of non-Rioja reds, particularly in Supermarkets? Give me a Toro or a Ribera for a change. Anyway, this was priced at a modest €9-99, so I gave it a go.

I also picked up a Tesco Nero D'Avola 2008 €8-69, I couldn't resist after having a lovely Nero D'Avola on the weekend. The last time I had this wine, it was the 2007 vintage and I wasn't impressed, but every dog gets one bite so I'm offering up my other cheek, so to speak.

What I hadn't noticed when I was shopping was that certain wines were part of a "2 for €12" promotion and lo and behold at the check-out I was pleasantly surprised by the saving (€6-68 to be precise). I didn't notice what wines are covered by this but if you are going down Tesco way it might be worth a look.