2002 Tinto Pesquera

Last September, I wrote about the 2001 vintage of this same wine. If you want to read more background on it, please click the link and read that post first, as this is a fairly straight forward review post.

After a long day, pizza was the dinner call of choice. Log on, pick the toppings, hit submit and then pick it up. No muss, no fuss. I decided it was time to drink this wine because, well, it was just sitting there in the cooler with nothing else better to do. Yes, we tend to save the “good” stuff for nicer occasions, be it an event / anniversary / reason for celebration / sharing with friends. This isn’t one of those wines I really consider in that range, having had it for quite a while and just sort of wanting to drink it.

I was expecting a lot less from this wine, as I remembered that 2002 was not a good vintage for Spain. In retrospect, it was a good vintage, just squeezed in amongst a lot of stellar vintages for the region. I had originally intended to open both vintages side by side, but that obviously didn’t happen.

This is a wine that goes against what I’d say is my typical taste preference for red wines, as the fruit is really quite secondary. On the nose, you get a lot of smokey leather that has been heavily spiced. Underneath all that, I did pick up the slightest hint of sour cherry, but that showed more on the palate. My biggest note of difference was the length and intensity, as I felt this was a bit short in both departments compared to the 2001 offering. Don’t get me wrong, my wife and I both really enjoyed the wine and I think it showed very well for a wine that most folks would probably have said would never make it this long. Granted, wines of this flavor profile are not for everyone and like I already said, even I was surprised at my enjoyment.

If you are having anything smoked, I definitely think you should look into pairing it with a well aged Ribera del Duero. I also think you’ll find more tradition in these wines, versus Rioja where you can find modern fruit forward oak monsters alongside the traditional expressions of terroir and grape typicity. Neither style is wrong, just different. I will definitely have to look for more wines from the Ribera del Duero.

This wine went especially well with the bacon topped pizza. I can see it going really well with some chorizo as well.

Haiku
Long past the prime fruit
Smoky leather cherry spice
Crave smoky piggy

Cheers and happy Wednesday to you!

The first wine book I bought was the seminal work The Wine Bible. One of the things I did with the book was to try and find some of the recommended wines in it for personal sampling, all in the name of furthering my wine education.

In the Spanish section, I saw this wine and found it to be in my price range. I bought both the 2001 and 2002 vintages of Tinto Pesquera and put them away to try later. Upon a recent visit to deposit some wines into the storage facility, I pulled this, figuring it was a good time to consume the fruits of my patience. My wife had enjoyed a 2004 wine from a different producer, but from the same region, the Ribera del Duero. What is the relevance of that? One, she has an excellent palate. Two, this was one of those wines that I’d been waiting to try and knowing she enjoyed something similar made me eager to open this up.

Ribera del Duero is a rugged region that I’ve always found to be a bit more rustic and appealing to the better known wines of Rioja. Tempranillo is the grape they both share in common, though it is known as tinto fino or tinta del pais in Ribera. This clone of tempranillo is thicker skinned and yields more tannins, an evolutionary measure to cope with the 100 degree plus summer days and sub-zero nights of winter. As with Rioja, the wines see extensive aging in oak barrels, with most producers favoring used American barrels. This allows slower and more subtle flavoring versus the use of new oak, not to mention it saves money.

The most famous of all Ribera del Duero’s bodegas is Vega-Sicilia, which makes one of the most sought after Spanish wines in the world, Unico. I sampled this unique wine at a trade tasting in 2007. It was the 1994 vintage and I remember thinking it was extremely young tasting for a wine that was 13 years old. The aromatics were more intoxicating than the palate and I think it hadn’t been opened long enough. Of course, I don’t know if I’d ever pay that much money for a bottle of wine, but it was fun to sample it. I think it goes for around $350 – 400.

Okay, back to the wine I did try. I don’t remember for sure, but I think I paid somewhere in the $25 or so range when I bought this at Pearson’s or Minks, I’m not sure which. I guess it doesn’t really matter since you won’t find this vintage in stores.

Aromas: It smelled like fresh tobacco leaf that had been soaked in vanilla and then smoked over some cherry wood. It was definitely old world in style and you could smell this earthy quality that I always tend to find in wines from this region, almost as if you can detect a sense of struggle and the resulting muscle the vines develop to survive their fierce environment. You just have to try one for yourself, just make sure it is from a good vintage (e.g. 2004, 2005) and has time to develop.

Taste: Take the tobacco leaf, sprinkle it with some dirt that you’ve charred with a blow torch, then wrap it around some cherries, black berries and black licorice. Coat the entire thing with a thin layer of red licorice and there you go.

Pairing suggestion: Lamb chops or grilled meats, especially beef.

Final word: This was an above average bottle and while it wasn’t inexpensive, I’m glad I’d sat on it for a while. 2001 was a really good year for Spanish wine, so while I’m hopeful the 2002 will be as good, it wouldn’t surprise me if it turns out to be a bit leaner. This wine had a long finish of caressing tannins and acid, indicating to me it still had time to continue drinking well, though I doubt it will improve much more. I wish I had more, but oh well, that is the good thing about wine. There is always another good bottle in your future, so drink up!

Haiku
Rugged earth struggles
Vine gives earthy core flavor
Licorice surrounds