Flight of Fancy

Posted 01/17/2008 at 10:23 AM by Carolyn

My older sister, El Gato, is going to Chicago for the weekend, coming home for 20 hours, and then going to London for about a month. The last time El Gato was in Europe, she had platinum blond hair and was therefore a prime target for would-be muggers. She evaded these thugs completely unscathed on more than one occasion, thus earning the somewhat nonsensical nickname El Gato. Now you know that story, and none of us has to worry about El Gato traveling alone in Europe. Besides, her hair is much less blond now.

Anyway, she’s going to be gone for some time, so we went out last night for a little girl time. We got dressed up and went out to a wine bar. My friend MJay joined us after work, and we decided to split a flight of wine and a charcuterie plate. We decided on a flight Rioja to have with our platter of fancy forcemeat.

I don’t know why it’s called a “flight” of wine, but I like the concept. You get half pours of several wines with one thing in common, like grape variety or country of origin, and then you have your own mini-tasting! Why the heck wouldn’t you go for a flight?

They brought us four Riojas to try. The first, a Mencia from Luna Beberide, 2005, was pretty tasty. It had a somewhat musky aroma with fairly assertive fruit flavors. MJay and I liked it, but El Gato was kind of unimpressed by it.

The next wine was Tempranillo from Mano a Mano 2005, was more robust. It didn’t have any of the muskiness of the first wine, but it did have some awfully strong tannins. But, not strong bad. Strong good! We all enjoyed that one.

Next up was Bodega Castano’s Mourvedre from Yecia, 2005. MJay really liked this one. “I like the third one!”

El Gato did not care for it at all. “I think the third one is intolerable.” Dag, El Gato. Harsh words. MJay claimed that one for herself right away. It was very smooth and well balanced. I really don’t know what El Gato didn’t like about that one.

Finally, a ‘02 Grenache blend from Marti Fabra in Costa Brava. I really can’t tell you how I felt about that one because my notes by this time were illegible. Ever notice how when you don’t spit during a tasting, your notes become less and less intelligible? But, honestly, who’s really spitting?

All this, and a cute platter of foie gras, saucisson, and rabbit pate. How terribly civilized! I mean, it’s fun to be fancy.

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