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At our local tapas restaurant in Washington, Jaleo, a group of six (including three current or former sommeliers from Spain) conducted a blind horizontal tasting of wines from D.O. Bierzo from the 2001 vintage. While we plan to survey the 2001 vintage in Ribera del Duero, Rioja, Toro, and Priorat in a similar manner, this type of review of Bierzo seems particularly timely.

The 2001 vintage in Bierzo arguably is a watershed for this up-and-coming Denominación de Origen. Alvaro Palacios, after several years of developing his properties and making "Corullón" and "Bierzo,” introduced four single-vineyard projects: San Martín, Las Lamas, La Faraona, and Monçerbal. 2001 was also the premier vintage of Paixar, an auspicious project of Alberto and Eduardo Garcia and the principals of Luna Beberida. For another producer, Dominio de Tares, 2001 not only produced another single vineyard offering, "P.3" (or Pago Tres), but this year of the 2001 release seemed to garner new notoriety for this bodega, including a place in the Wine Spectator's "Top 100" list, a first place finish for the 2001 Cepas Viejas in a large blind tasting by Spanish celebrities organized by El Mundo and, of course, a Verema "winery of the year award".

We chose nine wines. Keeping the number of wines to a manageable level required eliminating several additional offerings. One criteria was that the wines be on official D.O. wine, in this case primarily a function of the amount of the local grape, Mencía. This eliminated such high quality offerings as those from Luna Beberide, for example. Prior samples of a few lower-priced Mencías in the preceding months also identified several wines of little interest that could safely be eliminated. Nevertheless, no doubt a number of creditable wines were not included.

Served blind, the wines were decanted an hour in advance and tasted over about another two to three hour period. We tasted in one long single flight, commenting on each wine and drawing comparisons. Finally, each participant cast his vote for the top three wines .

Tasting notes

Wine 1. An impressive start to the proceedings, this was a luscious, juicy wine with raspberry and cassis fruit on the nose along with some violet and coffee. The wine was nicely concentrated but not overpowering or lacking acidity. Overall, this wine was characterized by elegance, great balance between fruit and mineral sensations. Although very well structured, the framework did not interfere with the enjoyment of this supple wine. Afterwards, Wine 1 was revealed to be Dominio de Tares "P.3."

Wine 2. This wine certainly had less concentration than Wine 1, a much simpler profile, and a fairly loose structure for such a young wine. The attack was a bit weak and the oak profile was the least attractive of all the wines sampled, showing pronounced buttered popcorn characteristics. This wine also seemed to lack the distinct minerality of the other wines. Nevertheless, it possessed some ripe red fruit and relatively simple appeal and was a step up from a basic "quaffer" Dominio de Tares "Cepas Viejas"

Wine 3. The nose here was slightly reticent, with cherry, blueberry and a touch of licorice and herbs. In the mouth this wine to demonstrated a characteristic present, often to a greater extent, in most of the wines -- a palpable minerality that not only was detectable on the finish but was an important element at the core of the mid-palate. The fruit was slightly more meager here than what would be ideal, perhaps a bit green. An interesting combination of balsamic and black chocolate bolstered the slightly weak black cherry. This was likened to a good Loire Valley Cabernet Franc. Descendientes de José Palacios "Corullón" .

Wine 4. Corked! There were fewer than 2000 bottles of this wine produced and it is a shame that TCA claimed this one. Descendientes de José Palacios "San Martín".

Wine 5. This wine possessed a ripe cherry and licorice nose and a well-balanced, medium-body palate with ripe blueberry fruit and minerals. Except for a slightly overdone buttery oak profile, it was a wine characterized by overall harmony. Skilled winemaking was in evidence, but the wine arguably lacked sufficient precision and personality. Descendientes de José Palacios "Las Lamas" .

Wine 6. A unique wine with striking personality, the nose was characterized by blackberry jam, violet and licorice. From the end of the attack through the beginning of the finish, the wine showed a muscular concentration of fruit, minerals, espresso, and markedly sweet tannins. The mid-palate was at once amazingly rounded, layered, and powerful. Oddly, however, the wine was a little weak on the attack and short on the finish, but the wine is very likely to will spread out beautifully over time. A minority thought this wine was too overblown, like certain American Cabernets, but most thought the wine struck a delicate balance between strength and sensuousness. Descendientes de José Palacios "La Faraona".

Wine 7. A wine with a character that does not leap out of the glass in the same way and Wine 6, but was impressive nonetheless. The wine seemed to have all the component parts of the previous wine but was less brawny but also longer overall. Also, the fruit profile was somewhat fresher and given lift by ideal acidity. The wine was as balanced as Wine 5 but with clearly greater delineation of its complex elements of black fruit, dark chocolate, menthol, limestone, and fine granular tannins. Descendientes de José Palacios "Moncerbal"

Wine 8. We found no clear flaws, but a this wine was step to a leaner, more compact style featuring raspberry, dark chocolate and a bit of licorice. The mid-palate minerality of many of the other wines seems less detectable here. Descendientes de José Palacios "Bierzo" (We understand that the 2001 “Bierzo” may have been made only for the export market, but we considered it to represent very good quality for its price of about $25.)

Wine 9. The most blackish in the glass, this brooding wine had relatively subdued aromas, but one could barely coax a little blackberry/cherry, dark chocolate, and licorice/lead pencil. The wines performance in the mouth was an astonish contrast. Powerful and layered from the attack through the finish, this was clearly the longest and most persistent wine of the tasting. It was very layered, with intense black fruit, leather, and minerals. Interestingly, most of the tasters detected what seemed to be a bit of cabernet sauvignon elements. In addition, this wine was likened to a 2001 Priorat. Paixar

And the winner is ...

1. The voting was unanimous with respect to the best wine of the tasting: all six participants ranked Dominio de Tares P3. first.

2. Four of six tasters ranked Paixar as the second best wine, and the wine also received one vote for third place. So Paixar was a clear second.

3. The votes for third place were split almost evenly between La Faraona and Monçerbal, with the slight edge to La Faraona. (Three participants placed Moncerbal third, and La Faraona received one second-place and two third-place votes.)

Final Observations

Our impression is that all the wines were of high quality, which is not surprising since most of the wines were made from very old vines -- upwards of 100 years old -- and six of the wines were made by the renowned Alvaro Palacios.

One of the most notable features of the wines was a pronounced minerality that is not often associated with Spanish wine.

A comment about the Palacios single-vineyard wines: although one of these four wines unfortunately was corked, the remaining three clearly demonstrated very distinct and fascinating personalities and taste profiles.

Finally, it bears noting that all these wines are babies. Each taster evaluated the wines’ future potential relative to immediate enjoyment according to his own predilections. We have no doubt, however, that all the top wines will improve with time, and we would dearly love to taste all these wines again in seven to eight years. Unfortunately, many of the wines are so rare (e.g. total production of La Faraona was only two barrels) that repeating this Bierzo 2001 blind horizontal tasting at that time may be impossible.

Even if this specific array of wines cannot easily be reassembled, our tasting strongly suggests a bright future of exemplary, terroir-driven wines from Bierzo.

(c) Walt Zalenski and David Bueno