The Wine Curmudgeon

Wine of the week: Cune Rioja Blanco 2010

How much did I like this wine? I bought another white from the same producer that cost a couple of bucks more, and I didn’t even have to think twice about it. Just picked it up and put it in the cart. That doesn’t happen very often; if a wine costs more than $10, I’m often seen mumbling to myself in front of the shelf.

Even more impressive is that white wines from the Rioja region of Spain have traditionally been pretty awful – badly made and even oxidized.

None of that is the case here. The Cune ($10, purchased, 12.8%), made with viura, has enough white fruit to be noticeable, maybe some lemon peel, and is amazingly fresh and clean – very impressive given the track record for white Rioja. Chill this, drink it in the summer on its own or with salads or seafood. Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2014 $10 Hall of Fame.

And yes, even though the company name is CVNE, the wine is called Cune. 

Wine of the week: El Coto Rioja Crianza 2008

The Wine Curmudgeon has been tasting a lot of post-modern Spanish wine lately, the kind made to appeal to the American palate and the Winestream Media. That means they have as much as 1 1/2 points more alcohol and lots of sweet red fruit. The wines are sound (my new favorite wine term), but just don’t taste particularly Spanish. There’s nothing really wrong with this, as long as you understand what’s going on.

The El Coto ($11, purchased, 12.5%) , on the other hand, will never be confused with one of those wines. It’s about as Spanish as they come –  red wine from the Rioja region made with tempranillo, a very funky, classic mushroom/forest floor aroma, and a fair of amount of oak on the finish that shows up as vanilla. And don’t worry about it being an older current vintage, since that’s not unusual for Rioja.

What makes this wine even more enjoyable is that it’s not old-fashioned in technique. There is lots and lots of bright cherry fruit, all in balance and all quite pleasant. And, since it’s Rioja, it will pair with everything from roast chicken to meatier fish to grilled beef to Spanish cheese.

If this isn’t quite a $10 Hall of Fame wine, it’s a reminder that old-fashioned doesn’t always mean out of date.

Wine of the week: Barahonda Monastrell Sin-Madera 2010

The joy of wine – the absolute, most wonderful thing – is tasting something you’ve never had before and knowing that it’s something you want to drink again and again.

Such was the case with the Barahonda ($9, purchased, 14%), a red wine from Spain made with monastrell and from another regions that only Patrick Mata at Ole Imports seems to have hard of.

How impressive was this wine? It’s a previous vintage, and whenever an $10 wine still tastes like this, imagine how wonderful it will be when it’s the current vintage. Look for a funky Spanish aroma -- the wine geeks call it barnyard, but that doesn’t do it justice. It’s an earthy, intriguing smell that always makes me think of Spain. There is also some dark fruit, lots of spiciness and not a bit of oak.

It’s a food wine, as many Spanish wines are, and really needs something like grilled meat to show it at its best. Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2014 $10 Hall of Fame.

Wine of the week: Faustino 2010

Rioja – red wine made with the tempranillo grape from the Rioja region of Spain – has long been one of the world’s great wine values. The simplest Riojas, called crianza, are everyday wines that usually deliver tremendous quality for $10. That more of us don’t know about them is one of the many things that make the Wine Curmudgeon so cranky.

Bodegas Faustino, which has been making wine in Spain for 150 years, has long been known for its wines with Roman numerals – Faustino I, Faustino V, and Faustino VII. This Faustino ($10, purchased, 13%) is part of its “modern reds” line – a term that usually makes me run screaming into the night, hinting as it does of merlot blended into the mix, winemaking alchemy to produce sweet fruit, and lots of fake oak.

Happily, this “modern red” is terrific basic Rioja, with everything as it should be. Look for cherry fruit, bright acidity, earthiness and that wonderfully funky Rioja aroma. The only thing that seemed modern about it was better winemaking – no off flavors or smells, which can sometimes happen with old-style Rioja.

You can serve this with almost anything except a white cream sauce, which is one of the great strengths of Rioja. It’s especially fine with bean dishes.

Wine of the week: Alaya 2009

There’s a certain style of Spanish wine that is decidedly un-Spanish but has become a particular favorite of the Winestream media. These wines are red, often made with garnacha, and are fruitier and higher in alcohol than most Spanish wines.

Having said that, some of them are actually worth drinking. We’ve covered Evodia on the blog (and I’ll be reviewing the new vintage later this year), and the Laya ($9, purchased, 14.5% alcohol) fits into that category as well.

It’s not quite a $10 Hall of Fame wine – the oak that’s there gives it an almost Adams Extract vanilla flavor. But everything else is present for great cheap wine, including lots and lots of black fruit that is neither sweet nor extracted – just intense. Yes, the alcohol is high, but the wine handles it well and you won’t flinch when you taste it.

It’s probably a bit much to drink on its own, but it would pair with most winter dinners, including beef stew and maybe even macaroni and cheese.

Wine of the week: Cristalino Brut NV

Sometimes, one forgets old friends. Not intentionally, of course, but because of the press of business and the rush of life. There are new wines to try and more posts to write, and one sometimes takes things like Cristalino for granted.

For which I’m sorry. It has been two years since I reviewed Cristalino, the Spanish sparking wine known as cava, and that post was more a back-handed slap at the lawsuit that made it change its name because a federal judge ruled that consumers might confuse it with the $150 Cristal, which was French and Champagne. (Its new legal name is Jaume Serra Cristalino, which I refuse to use.)

This was one of the first wines I ever reviewed professionally, back in my newspaper days, and it has never – and I mean never – let me down. The first bottle I opened for this review was flat (no doubt sitting on a shelf in a hot warehouse too long), but was still quite drinkable.

Cristalino ($7, purchased) is everything a cheap wine should be and too often isn’t – varietally correct and well made, with distinct flavors and character. Look for terrific bubbles, a little bit of green apple fruit, and even a sort of mineral finish. Yes, it’s simple, but it’s also not too much of one thing or not enough of another, an incredible achievement for a $7 wine.

It will take its rightful place in the 2013 $10 Hall of Fame in January, and I will drink more of it this holiday season and recommend it for Thanksgiving. Because it’s always good to say hello to an old pal.

Wine of the week: Ludovicus Blanco 2011

Last week’s discussion about the book “Grape-a-hol” made me wonder: Do I do enough to find $10 wine that doesn’t taste like grape juice with alcohol? Are the wines I review worthy of being reviewed?

Then I found the Ludovicus ($10, sample) in my database, and felt a whole lot better about what I do and how I do it. This Spanish white is the kind of wine that the big milt-national wine companies claim they make, but know, deep down, that they don’t even try to do. It has a little bit of citrus fruit, but this wine isn’t about fruit. Rather, it’s made with the Spanish version of grenache blanc, so it has spiciness, minerality, and even a bit of honey – a combination that I don’t taste in a lot of other wines. It’s surprisingly complex and yet still drinkable at the spur of the moment, something else that hardly ever happens.

I wrote in my notes “No idea how this wine can be this good at this price.” It’s almost certain to make the 2013 $10 Hall of Fame, and is highly recommended – another reason why Ole is Spain’s best wine importer.