Had any good wine lately? I'm sure you have, but make a note of Baron de Ley Reserva 1995. It is aged in oak for 24 months and is a typical yet wonderful Rioja red that's characteristic of those made from the elusively flavorful tempranillo grape, an indigenous Spanish varietal noted for its plummy, smoky, oaky flavors. It often has hints of vanilla, licorice and pipe tobacco. Baron de Ley's, with rich cherry fruit, and the Baron de Ley bodega is one of several outstanding wineries I visited this past May in Spain.
Confident of this wine's quality, I opened it to enjoy with three guests a few days ago as we sampled several red wines from four quite different producing regions. I'm always pleasantly amused by the mildly shocked reactions of many wine drinkers when we do a simple tasting together and I suggest to them some of the smells I'm picking up, as we nose the wine and then taste it.
It happened again at the dinner-cum-wine tasting I prepared for my three recent guests. At first they gave mild gasps of disbelief when I suggested the flavors I'd tasted. When they concentrated more carefully, however, they concurred, somewhat gleefully, with a personal sense of discovery.