An Eventful Evening with Pagos de Tahola

Initially Pris and I were looking forward to a long quiet Thanksgiving weekend.  However, on Friday Pris got a call from a friend asking if the facility was free since he and some friends were in a bind on an engagement party they were throwing.  The place was free and Pris went ahead and booked the rental.  Since she was doing them a favor they made sure we were well provisioned with food for the evening.  It was a Spanish menu, and we decided to crack open a Spanish red to go with our tapas and entree.

Pris had actually pulled out a bottle of Pagos de Tahola 2009 Rioja to open earlier in the week and we just never got around to it.  The wine was another from the Wall Street Journal Wine club that I get from time to time.  This deep purple Tempranillo went well with the manchego cheese, Spanish chorizo, serano jamon, and smoked salmon the hosts served. 

The dark coloration of the Pagos de Tahola was a sign of what was to come with the full bodied and rich wine.  On the nose this rioja was deep dark berry and a touch of mineral and tobacco.  This is definitely a wine that needs to breathe for a while to reach its full potential.  Initially the Pagos offered dark fruit loaded with a rough earthiness and strong mineral mid-palate.  As the wine oxidized, the roughness wore off and the wine mellowed considerably.  Smooth juicy berry came to the forefront and the mineral bite subsided, but still maintained a pleasant presence on the mid-palate.  Big tannins provided a strong full finish that did not diminish with time, but rather became more refined and enjoyable.

We enjoyed the wine with the tapas and an entree of pork tenderloin smothered with a roasted red pepper sauce, asparagus, and roasted potatoes prepared by Nena Siller.  The food was excellent, and the wine paired really well with the pork and sauce.  The complex fruit of the rioja complimented the smoky, savory sweetness of the peppers and pork.

The Pagos de Tahola 2009 Rioja came from the Wall Street Journal Wine Club, and it costs $14 a bottle.  You can find out more about Pagos de Tahola at: http://www.wsjwine.com/jsp/product/productDetails.jsp?productId=prod50126

Another Lazy Afternoon with Marques De Caza

There are some awesome wines out there that are so rich and flavorful that they're almost beyond description.  Then there are good wines that you can drink almost anytime and they won't break the bank.  Marques de Caza's 2007 Tempranillo is one of these latter wines. 

When we bought this wine at Jones Liquor, Mike Jones told us it was an okay Tempranillo.  Not bad, but nothing particularly special.  After opening it up today I found he was once again right.  That's not to say the Marques is a bad wine, it just doesn't pack any wow factor.  However, at $11 a bottle its easily an everyday wine if you're a fan of Tempranillo's.

The Marques has an exceedingly fruity nose with loads of raspberry and currant.  As the wine breathed and opened the nose developed a bit more bite and the fruit notes became a touch muted.  The oxidation process didn't do much to dampen the lively fruit this wine packs on the palate though.  Ripe red berries dominate the palate, and there is just a spice towards the back of the palate.  The Marques has a mineral and spice finish that hits quickly, but then lingers for a bit.  All in all its a solid Tempranillo.

We opened this bottle up to go with so left over Rudy's BBQ brisket that we heated up for lunch.  The fruit and spice in the wine went really well with the smoke and spice rub on the brisket.  This wine was made for roasted red meats, and though its smoked, the brisket fit that bill well.  The fruit and spice also played well with the rich and spicy bbq sauce.

This is a good everyday drinking wine that is easily drinkable.  We picked it up at Jones liquor here in Brownsville and it runs about $11 a bottle.