The Costa Blanca Wine Society was founded a few years ago and has rapidly reached 150 members plus a waiting list. The society meets once a month, where there is a guest speaker, followed by a blind tasting before the meal. Prizes are given out each year for the wine taster of the year, etc. The March event for the Society was held recently at the Aparthotel Pinosol, Cansalades, Xàbia. Approximately 80 members and their guests turned up for the event, which against the normal evening schedule was held at lunchtime as an experiment. Instead of the blind tasting followed by the meal, the idea was to taste five individual wines each accompanied by a tapa, which should compliment the wine. Five members of the committee had been given the task to search for a wine of their choice within a budget. Ex-president of the society Tim Ladd started the ball rolling by presenting the first wine, a white, and talked briefly about it, but without telling us what it actually was. This wine was then served accompanied by the first tapa, which was pescaditos fritos (small fried fish). The two were a good match; the fish were perfectly cooked, golden brown, and melted in the mouth. The wine, which was to be later revealed as Clos Montblanc Premium Chardonnay (fermentado en barrica) had good fruit content along with the customary touch of oak and was just crisp enough to cut through the oiliness of the fish. I gave this wine 82 points. It is available at Blasco, Teulada at 5.34 euros. The next presenter was Chuck Svoboda whose chosen wine was a rosado. Chuck talked about his chosen rosado, which for some mysterious reason are not everyone’s cup of tea, before it was served alongside a Russian salad. The wine and the food matched okay but the rosado was slightly ‘over the hill’. Most 2003 rosados are now getting a little tired and we should, along with the whites, be looking for the 2004. The chosen rosado turned out to be Clos Montblanc Rosat Premium 2003. I gave this wine 78 points. It is available at Blasco, Teulada at 4 euros. Menus and venues organiser Gaby Ferenczy was next with his choice, being a joven (young) tinto. Gaby talked fairly freely about his chosen wine, telling us its origin and also the blend of grape varieties involved. The wine was a good match with the selección de Ibéricos. The resulting wine turned out to be a particular favourite of mine, Viña Urbezo 2003 made by bodega Solar de Urbezo in DO Cariñena. The wine, which is a blend of Garnacha, Tempranillo and Syrah, is never less than smooth and fruity and at fewer than 5 euros a bottle it represents one of Spain’s best value wines. I gave it a fairly miserly 80 points for some reason. It is available at Bodega Casanova, Calpe at 4.95 euros. Society Secretary Sandra Bond came next, with her choice being a crianza tinto. Sandra told a little about the wine, including a string of medals that it had won just about everywhere. The wine, which is a blend of Tempranillo, Monastrell and Cabernet Sauvignon, went perfectly well with the lomo a la plancha. It had a lovely, concentrated fruity and creamy flavour with a fair amount of oak coming through and mixing well with the fruit. The wine turned out to be Casa de la Ermita 2001 from DO Jumilla. I gave this wine 82 points. It is available at Bodega Miguel, Xàbia town at 8.70 euros. The last presenter was Henri Versée who looks after the society’s finances. The wine chosen by Henri was a reserva tinto and we were told that it was a 1998 Rioja reserva. To accompany it we were served queso manchego semicurado. Now, cheese goes with just about everything, so to say that something goes particularly well with cheese is a bit of an understatement. Nevertheless, the wine was very acceptable, showing a certain amount of rich spicyness amongst the fruit and it was also well balanced. The wine was revealed as being Viña Albina Reserva 1998 from Bodegas Riojanas. I gave this wine a fairly generous 83 points. It is available at Bodega Galliana, Dénia at 9.95 euros. We are very fortunate to have, among our membership, an oenologist (winemaker). I wrote about Peter Arnold a few weeks ago in quite glowing terms, so I won’t repeat myself only to say that the guy has knowledge by the bucketload and a very nice personality to match. It was his duty as guest speaker to analyse the five wines and give us his scores for each and his reasons for such. This was another experiment and gave us all a good insight into the professional’s mind, and also a look at our own way of marking. Peter gave marks of 82 to the blanco, 67 to the rosado, 86 to the joven, 93 to the crianza and 80 to the reserva. Many thanks to Peter for passing on some of his knowledge and also to the rest of the team for staging an excellent Thursday afternoon. For details of organised wine tastings contact hal_harley@hotmail.com
