Aurora...borealis?
Aurora...borealis?
Ver mensaje de GastronautaLast night I opened my first Aurora en Rama from a recent order delivered 10 days ago (which incidentally means that Choche has his share waiting for him at home).
The weather here in Royal City was cold as hell, of course, not exactly a manzanilla scenario, if you see what I mean, but I wasn’t going to wait. I love everything about this rare bottling, from the vintage label to the wax seal over the cabezuela cap...but the funny thing is that while I enjoyed a couple of glasses of this...Ciudad Real was being gently covered by a very thin layer of ";flor";...in the form of snow!
Excellent color, short of golden, with beautifully fine nose--not quite as powerful or intense as in Vinoble, but I believe by now I may have mythified that sample beyond recognition anyway. As it opened in the glass (a very interestingly shaped Riedel handblown #5 from their ";Sauvignon Blanc Global Workshop";) it revealed truly engaging nuances of flor, surprisingly neat yellow fruit, crisp acidity, some glyceric mouthfeel, and excellent length. The second half of the bottle is scheduled for today.
Cold, cold, cold... I mean cold you know ;))
Ver mensaje de GastronautaMadrid is a big ice cube these days! =8-O The last weekend I had a lunch with friends in my new (rental) apartment and there were some wine leftovers, e.g., Fino C.B. (December ";saca";). It was great, nevertheless I used it to cook some artichokes (wiht serrano ham of course) and I drank a couple of sips of that leftovers... but well, with this weatheeeer.... I opened a red merlot to fight the winter! :) E. Mendoza Merlot ’99 Gasp! 13.8 % alcohol I hesitated with using a stem or a fork and a knife ;) So easy winter quaff for 6-7 EUR, but I can’t remotely imagine to drink this wine in the coming spring...
Cheers,
Jose
Aurora pasada en rama
Ver mensaje de GastronautaYou need good central heating to enjoy a manzanilla right now! :-)
You say: ";with beautifully fine nose--not quite as powerful or intense as in Vinoble";
Two things regarding this:
- This manzanilla (like most of them) grow with more air. Probably today will be more expresive.
- This autumn and winter have been very dry in Sanlucar (Alvaro Girón dixit last week-end) so the flor perhaps is not in their best condition in this beginning of year...
Re: Aurora...borealis?
Ver mensaje de GastronautaWines become less aromatic when it is raining (or snowing). If you can’t wait for warm weather, at least wait for dry weather.
Re: Aurora...borealis?
Ver mensaje de GastronautaI think you are right (ALL of you, I mean). The winter sacas are usually more tame, the weather didn’t really lend itself to a proper recreation of Vinoble, and the heating (in the home of a cheapskate subtropical guy) wasn’t anywhere near high. My shivering however did help with the swirling and that worked for aeration... I didn’t see any substantial improvement after 24h, I must say, but the wine was good enough, low 90s.
Wild claims (including mine, of course)
Ver mensaje de GastronautaAll those claims, I must say, are highly hypothetical. We don’t have enough data to say that finos/manzanillas behave in that particular way (relatively shy nose), under these extremely dry conditions. As long as we cannot benefit from the experience of a sufficient set of years having a significant number of manzanillas/finos ";en rama"; in the market, our speculations are necessarily based on shaky ground. However, it is still a good question since three manzanillas in a row (San León, Aurora, and, Barbadillo saca de invierno –see Mario’s tasting note-), show a similar profile. So, anyone in the sherry business can give us more information coming from the only reliable source, that is, the soleras?
One qualification though. Both Juan and Gastro tasted San León and Aurora at Vinoble. It is not unlikely that those samples came from a selection of the best casks.