Bottles of Ring-Bo-Ree: 15 Price, unknown - this was one of the monthly selections in the Wine Of The Month club from Liquor Barn. Alc, 14% Label coming as soon as I get it off and scanned in. If it doesn't soak off easily, I'll just take a picture.
The main reason that I started this blog is that I've forgotten how to talk about wine. I used to drink at least a bottle of wine every week, and I knew how to taste it, how to smell it, and how to talk about it. Now I find myself being unable to figure out the aromas, and unable to describe it. This is very, very disappointing to me.
The reasons that I have forgotten how to talk about wine are more complex, but they come down to two relatively simple causes.
First, for the last 3 years, I've lived in a teensy apartment, roughly the size of my nose. Consequently, it was very difficult for me to have people over for dinner. Consequently, I seldom had an opportunity to serve fine wines. Sure, I could open a bottle for myself, but drinking a whole bottle by myself is not only depressing, but is likely to lead me to be a permanent drunk. And, whatever products I buy to keep the wine fresher for longer, that doesn't fix the essential problem that drinking wine alone just isn't as fun as drinking it with someone else.
The second reason is a little more complicated, and far too silly to go into. Besides which, a) you wouldn't believe it, and b) you'd post all sorts of silly comments that I've heard a bzillion times before and would have to delete. So what's the point of going into it?
So, in light of these things, I approach this, the first wine of the 40 Bottles site, with some trepidation. This is increased by the fact that reading Spanish labels has always posed a considerable challenge for me.
Crianza is a spanish term meaning "aged in oak." So far so good. Villarroya de la Sierra is something of the mountain. I presume that this is the name of the wine, or perhaps the name of the vineyard. And, likewise, I assume that Ia is the name of the producer. Finally, Calatayud is a wine producing region.
Of course, you could have determined all of that in a few minutes on Google, just like I did.
As for the wine itself, we had it with grilled barbequeued chicken, cooked on my own back porch. It stood up well to that bold taste, and enhanced it, with aromas and tastes of black cherry and strawberry. As it opened, there were, strangely, aromas of menthol and pine, which seemed odd, but I'm going to write what I smell, and not attempt to second-guess. At least, much.