meljones wrote:
I'm the opposite. I prefer almost all Riojas to RdDs. They're too full of themselves. Too big and hot and posh.
I have to say that I fall into the Mel camp. I dont think it is to do with a reaction to change (although sometimes readers would think so) - Sorry
The whopping wines are difficult to taste , because they are so whopping and palate dominating, so you cant look inside them. In a Rioja there is nothing like, IMHO, a mature or a ready one that has elegance and finesse and a beautiful nose that keeps pouring out - even if you have a cold !
Shezza, of course you wont know how these have moved Up & Up the money tree. Not that long ago Tondonia and Ygay were not off the scale, and one coveniently forgot about them for a while.. Ygay white as well.
It is many decades since Rioja's were liquidised oak, and anyway not all Bodegas made them that way. La Rioja Alta, a 2000 middle ranking one in the burgundy shaped bottle, was heavily discounted at Maj recently. A mature Tondonia can taste like very ripe strawberries and creamy oak, and is quite light in colour, although excellent body.
I too wanted to have a go again with the Beasties (apropo Ba) but no one is saying how these will cellar, or are they. The old Yecca ones from Sunday Times WC don't appeal that much to me
So until one knows - how can we tell
Perhaps this one:
Our favourite was Gran Feudo Reserva 2003, which is £7.99 from Waitrose and comes from Navarra, which is near Rioja. It had an oaky, spicy nose and perhaps it was the American oak that made us comfortable and feel that we were smelling something Spanish, by which we meant “quite like Rioja”. The taste was also recognisable, with great balance, alcohol at 13%, some oak, liquorice and a “furry” finish. Furry finish after six years - I always try and "cellar-out" a furry or grouty feel, so may be it's not too furry then.
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