jamie goode's wine blog: The new Spain: Toro

Sunday, March 02, 2008

The new Spain: Toro

It's been a nice weekend. On Saturday morning I took the boys out shopping to Kingston, with the purpose of buying some mother's day gifts. We spent some time browsing various stores (without actually buying anything, except for four CDs - AC/DC, Rush, Foo Fighters and Tracy Champan - and a couple of presents for Fiona), and had some lunch. But the real hit with elder son - who is highly motivated by food - was a coffee and donut in Krispy Kreme at Bentalls. I've never had a Krispy Kreme donut before, but because we were given some complimentary donuts I got to try one, and although I hate to admit it, these are seriously addictive.

Later in the afternoon I took younger son to Virginia Water with RTL, who has now finished her season. We had a fun time, and I think RTL enjoyed the chance to run free.

Today we celebrated mother's day by getting out all the old videos, dating back to 2001, which is a year after the boys came to live with us. We were all taken aback by just how far we've travelled together over the last seven years. It was quite moving.

So, to tonight's wine. Spain promises much, but so many Spanish winemakers are addicted to oak that this potential is infrequently realized. This is an unoaked red from Estancia Piedra, a winery in Toro founded by Scottish lawyer Grant Stein, in 1998. The great thing about establishing a winery here is that you get access to some fantastic old vines. And the climate here, at 2000 feet, gives you a large diurnal temperature variation. The result is a dense, fruit-forward red of great appeal.

Estancia Piedra 'Azul' 2006 Toro, Spain
Hand-picked old vine Tinta de Toro (Tempranillo) grapes. Vivid, bright, fresh, pure blackberry and raspberry fruit nose is quite sweet with a subtly jammy character. The palate is vivid and pure with nice freshness and grippy tannins. Deliciously vivid - this is a more-ish, ripe wine. 89/100 (£7.95 Berry Bros & Ruud, http://www.bbr.com/)

2 Comments:

At 6:24 PM, Blogger hugo said...

We operate wine tours in Chile and Argentina,whit 7 years of experience.
Check out our Blog and Website.

http://winetourchile.blogspot.com/
http://www.acrosschile.com/

Best Regards from Chile.

Across Chile Team.

 
At 11:30 PM, Blogger Jamie said...

Hugo, do you serve spam on those tours?

 

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