Hubba Bubba

Tough choice write the Blog or play with my new shiny white iphone, naturally the Blog won over...

Or the truth .. the old SIM card was too big so tried to adapt the old SIM but have broken it, so now have no working phone at all... :(

So back to the Hubba Bubba, now you are thinking whats the connection with bubblegum & wine tasting..well, the cherry tasting Tempranillo reminded me of hubba bubba.. so there you go, simples !

A little background to this months choice (my choice) Tempranillo -

A Brief History of Tempranillo

Proof of wine in ancient Spain was discovered in 1972, when archaeologists unearthed a mosaic of the wine god Bacchus at Baños de Valdearados in North-central Spain. Tempranillo may well have been the wine shown in the mosaic because it has been in Spain since 800 BC.
Who Brought Grapes to Spain? The Phoenicians brought wine to Southern Spain. Tempranillo originated from this area so it’s quite possible that Tempranillo is related to ancient Phoenician species in Lebanon. Tempranillo now grows most commonly in the Navarra and Rioja which are about 300 miles West of Barcelona, Spain.
Sources
International Tempranillo Day is November 8th – see www.tapas.org for more information
Find out about Spanish Wine on Catavino.net
Tempranillo on wikipedia
On with the tasting we were looking for:
Tempranillo Characteristics
FRUIT: cherry, plum and tomato
OTHER: leather, tobacco, vanilla, and clove
OAK: Yes. Commonly 12-18 mo. in American or French Oak

A full house at our wine tasting this month, five bottles tasted and compared to Sangiovese & Cabernet Sauvignon, which Tempranillo is supposed to taste similar too.

Dining room chairs were juggled and an extra table added to squeeze us all in, the food was antipasto style, nice and easy to get ready in advance.

First up, Las Primas Gran Famila  100% Tempranillo 2012 13% £4.49 (half price) brought by Karen & Mick, this was a well received fruity wine, with spicy berry hints and flavours of plums and cherries.  Generally more like the Sangiovese, although not all agreed.  Karen & Terry brought along the identical bottle although paid £6.49 for it a week earlier, strangely it tasted completely different.  Mick said we were all Pl*****s..yes, he did put that in writing !

(BTW its 24 hours on, my new iphone is still not up & running, SIM sorted, nice man at carphone warehouse salvaged what he could to get it in the new phone, connected to itunes sync'd info BUT no WiFi here at work so have to wait until I get home to finish off the set up.. Before anyone says anything to the Boss, I Blog in my lunch hours)

Number two, Lagunilla Reserva 2007 Rioja 13.5% A blend 80% Tempranillo & 20% Granache.  This wine was aged in American oak barrels. A lovely cherry red colour. Toasty aromas and mild forest fruit flavours, soft tannin with a long finish. This was my favourite wine of the evening, and the rest of the group. Although, saying that, not a record breaker, most of us gave 7/10 and one 8/10.

Next up, Marues de Alarcon 2010 13 1/2% from Marks & Spencer, that's bought from, they weren't actually at the wine club, it was brought by Steviepops & partner. A tempranillo blended with Shiraz.  A medium bodied wine giving black cherry and mulberry flavours, except none of knew what a mulberry tasted like..we generally thought it was quite a harsh tasting wine, to put it bluntly it was bit 'rough'.  Also tasted like hubba bubba too.

Last up, Navarra Tempranillo 2012 ( I can't read the name on the label, text to jazzy) a budget wine from Lidl at £3.70 brought along by Jacqui & Nick, for the cost it wasn't bad, it would certainly get drunk at a party. Deep red colour is about all that was notable, or nothing else was noted !

The evening passed in a generally hum of chit chat and laughter.

Being the host, we got one load in the dishwasher as everyone was leaving but this the balance waiting for us in the morning...

Time to stick a cork in it.

Bye S x