TN: 4 good wines (Loire, Nahe, CdN, Rioja)

Aug 10, 2010 2 Replies

It's not just the veggies that make me love the farmer's market, I also like the excellent Montauk fishmonger, the duckmonger, the smokehouse, the creamery, etc. So Saturday picked up fish for that night, and sausage for the next, and assorted goodies for the week.



With LI flounder, grilled squash and eggplant, and tomato salad, the



2009 Clos Roche Blanche Sauvignon Blanc #2 (Touraine), Bigger styled than usual, grapefruit with a hint of pit fruit, full, but good acidity. There's a nice herbal note, this could stand toe to toe with
99% of single vineyard Sancerres. A-/B+

With smoked lamb and rosemary sausage (from Mountain Smokehouse in Lagrangeville), the 1995 Muga "Prado Enea" Rioja Gran Reserva. Red berries, dill, vanilla. I've heard the Prado Enea compared to CdP (apparently lots of Grenache as well as Tempranillo), and I can see that here. But fairly old school CdP- big but not overripe, good acidity, citrus peel notes. So I guess Rioja that resembles old school CdP is mid-modern Rioja? :) Medium bodied, I quite liked, but on day 2 it totally fell apart. But for 1-3 hours after opening, B+



As a snack with some Ouray (a cheese from Sprout Creek Farm), the 2008 Schafer-Frohlich "Medium Dry" Riesling (Nahe). It actually says medium dry, not halbtrocken. Just a faint hint of sugar, this is functionally dry. Light to medium body, nice length, refreshing. Peaches and lime, very nice, and a good value at about $17. Holds well overnight. B/B+



With leftover beef, wheatberry salad, and green salad, the 1997  Jadot Nuits-St-Georges. This was a "whattheheck" buy recently at $15. Round, ripe, plenty of red cherry/kirsch fruit, light tannins. It could use a bit more acid and sense of place, but it's a perfectly tasty bottle of Pinot Noir, and I'd say an achievement for a village wine to do this well in a vintage I'm not so fond of. B



Grade disclaimer: I'm a very easy grader, basically A is an excellent wine, B a good wine, C mediocre. Anything below C means I wouldn't drink at a party where it was only choice. Furthermore, I offer no promises of objectivity, accuracy, and certainly not of consistency.  



I've had plenty of Prado Enea over the years (most recently a 1985 that was DOA) and find your experience to be similar but I never thought of it in terms of CdP...make sense. I always found it to be a bit lean considering the grenache. Nice call on the Jadot for $15. I have been enjoying the '97's in general from Burgundy.

"Bi!!" wrote in news:97af4d1a-c825-402f-8794- snipped-for-privacy@f6g2000yqa.googlegroups.com:

My experience with Prado Enea (and Muga in general) is that they are not built for the very long age.

A few years ago I purchased a pristine bottle of one of their first vintages (early 70's) coming from the winery to one chain of high end food shops. And it was barely correct.

Lately, I received a few bottles of Prado Enea from the 80's. They came from a private cellar from someone that was advised not to drink anymore so he sold his cellar full of mature Rioja and I was one of the parts in the purchase.

Both bottles that I have opened were almost dead, unfortunately.

However, Prado Enea is usually very good when released and I like it that way.

s

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