Mostly red

originally posted by VS:
(BTW, if this was the El Sequ and not the second wine, Laderas de El Sequ, young vines, I think that $20 was a terrific price.)
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The Laderas was even less at the store I was shopping in.
Also, these monastrell/mourvdre wines are known for gaining complexity and smoothness in bottle, so it might not be a bad idea to cellar a few and come back to them in a few years.
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Good to know.
I believe you and I have discussed past vintages of this wine (when I was not so pleased with it) and your encouragement to try later vintages is why I bought this bottle.
Thank you.
Best, Jim
 
originally posted by VS:

Artadi has also been much accused of overoaking, which IMHO has not at all been the case for quite a few years now.
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By chance I happened to encounter the Artadi Pagos Viejos 2001 on sucessive evenings late last year. The first bottle had been open a day and was quite pleasant. The second I tasted right after opening, and the oak was highly noticeable and off-putting.

Would you say 2001 was still in the period of high oak use?
 
I wonder, Levi, if cru class Bordeaux in its first decade of life is ever tasted by anyone, because I don't hear similar complaints here about it - yet the similarities are many. The fact that one bottle of Pagos Viejos had been under the influence of oxygen for one day (= artificial, accelerated aging) and was just fine, yet the just-opened bottle showed oakiness should give you a few clues about what I'm talking about. These are wines built for the long haul. No top-notch Ribera del Duero or Rioja from the outstanding 2001 vintage is at its peak yet. Heck, yesterday I was tasting 1991 Via Tondonia Gran Reserva with Mara Jos Lpez de Heredia at our 'wines of the year' award-giving party and I remember telling her that it was great, but still a little too young
 
originally posted by VS:
I wonder, Levi, if cru class Bordeaux in its first decade of life is ever tasted by anyone, because I don't hear similar complaints here about it - yet the similarities are many. The fact that one bottle of Pagos Viejos had been under the influence of oxygen for one day (= artificial, accelerated aging) and was just fine, yet the just-opened bottle showed oakiness should give you a few clues about what I'm talking about. These are wines built for the long haul. No top-notch Ribera del Duero or Rioja from the outstanding 2001 vintage is at its peak yet. Heck, yesterday I was tasting 1991 Via Tondonia Gran Reserva with Mara Jos Lpez de Heredia at our 'wines of the year' award-giving party and I remember telling her that it was great, but still a little too young
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Victor, now don't take me wrong, but while reading the above I was immediately put in mind of my favorite Woody Allen short story, one called "A Twenties Memory". (http://bit.ly/8F61em) It begins with:

"I first came to Chicago in the twenties, and that was to see a fight. Ernest Hemingway was with me and we both stayed at Jack Dempsey's training camp. Hemingway had just finished two short stories about prize fighting, and while Gertrude Stein and I both thought they were decent, we agreed they still needed much work. I kidded Hemingway about his forthcoming novel and we laughed a lot and had fun and then we put on some boxing gloves and he broke my nose."

-Eden (I just think it's cool that you get to hang out and drink wine with people such as the Lopez de Heredias)

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originally posted by Florida Jim:
originally posted by Eden Mylunsch:
(but Jim, if the world slows down when you drink Luneau-Papin, does that mean that it takes longer to get older?
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We can only hope.
Best, Jim
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Aside from the severe haiku-esque curve of the original statement, it also may be a good case for research on the lesser known, more subtle health benefits of drinking white.
 
Jim, I think I recall you posting a much more favorable note on the 99 Leroy a couple of years ago on therapy - am I correct? If so, wonder what accounts for the difference.
 
just found your note - almost five years ago (and who said my memory is shot? and who said my memory is shot?) - from a february 2005 posting:

1999 Leroy, Volnay Santenots:
Brilliant. Powerful without being overdone, structured but in balance, focused yet deep; of its place and years to go to peak but lacking nothing, save complexity, in the interim. Volnay may not be the ultimate expression of Burgundy, but this wine will keep me thinking about what is the ultimate expression. A terrific future.

Not trying to put you on the spot, Jim - I believe your recent note to be an accurate depiction of the wine you experienced. I just find the difference striking and therefore wonder if this most recent bottle might just be a flawed bottle, rather than a flawed wine.
 
originally posted by VS:
I wonder, Levi, if cru class Bordeaux in its first decade of life is ever tasted by anyone, because I don't hear similar complaints here about it - yet the similarities are many. The fact that one bottle of Pagos Viejos had been under the influence of oxygen for one day (= artificial, accelerated aging) and was just fine, yet the just-opened bottle showed oakiness should give you a few clues about what I'm talking about. These are wines built for the long haul. No top-notch Ribera del Duero or Rioja from the outstanding 2001 vintage is at its peak yet. Heck, yesterday I was tasting 1991 Via Tondonia Gran Reserva with Mara Jos Lpez de Heredia at our 'wines of the year' award-giving party and I remember telling her that it was great, but still a little too young
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Victor, do you happen to know if Artadi uses American oak barrels? Do you think it is possible that American oak treatment might stand out more starkly in adolescent Ribera than the cedar and graphite French oak notes you might come across when opening a 2000 (let's use vintages of analogous quality) Bordeaux?

And please remember that I am sharing my encounters with the wine and asking you questions because I would like to better understand, and not because I am trying to give Spanish reds a dig.

It is perhaps not apparent to you, but I do really admire and respect your knowledge of the category.
 
Thanks for the (undeserved) praise, Levi. Artadi ages its wines in French oak only. Also: remember, the estate is in Rioja Alavesa, not Ribera. The terroir and climate in Laguardia are rather more similar to Bordeaux (at least, to the right bank) than Ribera's would be.

My remark had to do with the fact I was just opening, the other day, a not-so-grand, but usually good, Fronsac, the 2000 Ch. Canon de Brem, and my first impression was the same as you described. I flash-decanted it into a large vessel and drank it three hours later. It had changed a lot - for the better.
 
originally posted by maureen:

Not trying to put you on the spot, Jim - I believe your recent note to be an accurate depiction of the wine you experienced. I just find the difference striking and therefore wonder if this most recent bottle might just be a flawed bottle, rather than a flawed wine.
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It may, indeed. Or my original predicition was wrong.
So it goes with theories . . .
Best, Jim
 
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