Thursday, February 16, 2006

My First Vertical - Castel Del Remei (Spain)

As of right now, I'd say the number of people I know who love to drink literally numbers in the hundreds. The number of people I know who love to drink wine... lets say 10 to 15. The number of people who can get as nerdy as I can about it... two that I can think of and one of them isn't my wife. Lisa and Brian are coming over today to help me empty out some space in my wine fridge which is currently sitting in my closet. Lisa is one of of my two friends who can get as nerdy about wine as I can and because of that, I've chosen today as the day for my first vertical tasting. Its not a big one so I won't be popping the corks of '59 - '61 - '70 - '88 etc Lafite Rothschild. However, I will be opening '99 - '00 - '01 - '02 Castell del Remei from Costers Del Segre in Spain. It's a blend of Tempranillo, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon. I think it's wonderful and a great value at approximately $10-$13 a bottle all depending on where you find it.

You'll typically only find the current vintages in stores and Garnet Wines on 68th and Lexington in New York is currently selling the 2002 for $10.99 a bottle. I had picked up a case of the 2001 last year and today's tasting will be my last bottle of that. The 2000 was bought in Syracuse and the 1999 was purchased in Amsterdam where they do keep older vintages of this around. It's blended differently in Europe but I'm not sure how. I've also had the 1997 which was so different from what is imported here. Not better. Just different. I'll have to find my notes but my memory tells my it was BIG and dense with very dark fruit and a very aromatic nose of underbrush (or something like that.)

I'm looking forward to tonight and I'll try and post our notes tomorrow.

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