I’ve been doing a course with a great group…looking more in depth at Spanish red wines.  Our first week was Rioja and we made some interesting discoveries.  It was a great opportunity to further explore the fascinating topic of classic and modern Rioja styles.

The most unique and fascinating wine was probably the 1955 Paternina Reserva…a wine that had no information on the label at all.  I had done some research and found some recent tasting notes on the 1955 from a vertical Paternina tasting.  The most fascinating piece of information I could discover was that in the early 50’s the Paternina wines had a metallic taste to them that was caused by the use of copper pipes in the winery.  These were changed out in 1956!

I gave an interesting tasting on Saturday contrasting crianza and reserva wines. It ended up being a tasting less about the primary theme and more about Spanish wine palates today. The 16 clients were overwhelmingly Spanish, though there was one British girl.

Spanish wine rules 101: Crianza wines must be aged 24 months before they are released, six of which must be in oak. Reserva wines must be held 36 months, 12 of which must be in oak. These are minimums…often the oak portion is much more significant…some Denominations require more.