Sunday, November 27, 2011

Saturday Night – Mick’s cooking for six – Part 1

This past Saturday night Mick and Amy were hosting and Chris and Jan joined as for dinner.  Mick had a couple new wines on tap and Chris and Jan brought a bottle to go with the main course so we will be looking at three new wines today.

The first course was Spanish Toasts and Mick paired these with a 1995 Don Jacobo Rioja.


The nose on the wine was big with aromas of strawberry, black licorice, cedar and fresh vine tomatoes.  Tasting the wine, you’ll find dried cherry and mint flavours.  The structure to the wine was slightly off balanced, as it was more acidic than tannic which gave the wine a narrow mouth-feel.  I liked this wine but felt with the almost non-existent tannin and the dried fruit flavour that it was just past its prime and if you have any of this wine, drink it now.  It did make a good pairing with the Spanish Toasts but the Auka Malbec we had a few weeks ago when Mick first did this recipe was a better pairing.

Here is the group rating for the wine -Mick –87, Mark - 87, Kathy – 87, Amy – 86, Overall – 86.75.

Here is the LCBO information for this wine -

DON JACOBO GRAN RESERVA 1995

VINTAGES 923748
750 mL bottle
Price: $ 27.95
Wine, Red Wine
12.5% Alcohol/Vol.
Sugar Content : XD
Made in: Region Not Specified, Spain
By: Bodegas Corral
Release Date: Apr 30, 2011

Description - The extra cellar time means this wine is almost perfect upon release. It will, though, still reward further time in a cellar, but why bother when it's this good?

Tasting Note -Ethereal nose with bright fig, spice and strawberry aromas, the palate is elegant with mature fruits balancing fine tannin. To be savoured. Score - Gold Medal. (Decanter World Wine Awards, 2010) 

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