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Cims de Porrera Classic 1999: Great Value Spanish RedMar 11 '06 Write an essay on this topic.The Bottom Line A great taste of Priorat red: robust, generous, yet very approachable. Last night, I held a dinner at home for the members of Los Golfos, a group of fun-loving 50-to-60-something golfers who I regularly play with on weekends. Most all of them are of Spanish descent, hence, the group's name, which in English roughly means "the bums" or "the hobos" (aside from the obvious reference to the game of golf). The Food Appetizers were Parma ham, Salami Milano and Manchego viejo, paired with Prosecco di Conegliano-Valdobbiadene; followed by cream of broccoli soup, our house salad and pan-seared pepper-encrusted sea scallops paired with a young, chilled sauvignon blanc from Marlborough, New Zealand. The main course was grilled US Prime rib-eye steaks, and, in deference to my guests' heritage, I served a few bottles of Cims de Porrera Classic 1999 to pair with the slabs. The Wine From the steep slopes of the Priorat (Priorato) county of Catalonia (Catalunya) in Spain, the wine is made of carignan (cariņena - 70%) and grenache (granacha - 30%) grapes, picked entirely by hand from vines ranging from 60 to 100 years old. New Allier oak casks were used for around 17 months aging before bottling. Luxuriously deep, darkly reflective purple with a dark ruby-red blush in the glass, the wine generously displayed spicy aromas and flavors of very ripe dark fruit, blackcurrant liqueur (cassis), hints of anise, nutmeg, well-integrated oak/vanillin with dark chocolate surfacing mid-palate and to the back of the mouth, through to its long, lingering finish. Confidently robust and full-bodied, the wine had a rich mouthfeel to it: luxurious texture with good heft, exceptionally well-rounded, chewy, with abundant yet smooth and sweetish tannins. It effortlessly held its own, simultaneously cutting through the steaks' richness while highlighting their flavor. At the equivalent of, roughly, US$58 per bottle in Manila (at the current rate of exchange) and ranging from US$49.99 to around US$70 per bottle in the USA, I consider this wine to have a very good quality-to-price ratio.  |
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