This was a great experience that I enjoyed this past weekend at home with my wife and my next door neighbors. It was fun : it was unexpected and overall really very nice and I learned something about three FAMILIA ZUCCARDI dry reds ( Cabernet Sauvignon Q series 2007 from Maipu -,Malbec Q series 2009, and 2007 Tempranillo Q series ) as well as about the dry white Torrontes Q series white 2010. I loved it. Thanks Cristina our rep of Winesellers LTD ( Niles, Illinois ) for getting me the samples to enjoy at home with food, family and friends. As a result you will have this blog as a testament to these two days of tasting and evaluating and largely enjoying the experience.
I started on Sunday as I was cooking - grilling outside both a large salmon filet for my wife and I as well as some pork filets to be shared among the three of us which included our son. I also decided to build an open-air fire out on our deck in our stainless-steel fire pit as it was quite cool and still damp and we wanted to be outside and the sun's warmth was leaving us.
Funny, I was ready for a glass of one of these red wines. I first took care of my wife and offered her a glass of the 2010 Torrontes FAMILIA ZUCCARDI Q series. I had a taste, too just to check the style out. It was medium-to-light-bodied, dusty-dry as I like to describe it, refreshing and a touch too cold. I would like it better as it warmed in the glass and opened to reveal more of it's fruit center and less of the acids and the outer structure.
I was really anticipating the red ( which would it be ? ) as I get ready to go outside and grill our dinner. I decided finally from the three reds that it would be the Tempranillo as I was fixing some pork filets and we were having Scottish salmon as well. This Q series FAMILIA ZUCCARDI 2007 Tempranillo ( " from selected and unique 40 year old vines from Santa Rosa vineyards ) was a bit tight and closed for me. It needed some food : it needed it now. It also clearly needed to open up and trying it like I did immediately after opening it was tough as I wanted it to pamper and to caress the insides of my mouth and belly. It poked at me instead : the acids seemed a touch hard and the fruit had not filled and rounded the center of the wine yet. It was too compact, too hard and not nearly open enough to please me as I went about grilling and working on our fire.
My wife brought with her a bowl of pistaccios to enjoy. We were both hungry and so we enjoyed those quite a bit as we sipped our wines and I waited impatiently for that moment when I would really enjoy this Tempranillo Q series 2007. When would that finally be / would it ever be? Fortunately for me it would soon be but I could not rush it. I should have opened it an hour or more before starting any of this. I should have guessed. I was too busy with all that I was doing and so I simply had to wait it out and it did deliver nicely.
I thought of my neighbors as I was grilling. They have been good neighbors and nice enough to let me use their lawn mower when I need to mow our lawn. I had done this just earlier in the day and I had told them that I had these wines and would bring a glass over for them to try each red with me. The food was cooked and the flame was off. I lowered the grill top and rushed over with the bottle of the Tempranillo for them to try. They were cooking dinner as well just back from two soccer matches for their kids. I poured and I rushed home.
The Tempranillo Q series 2007 FAMILIA ZUCCARDI from Mendoza, Argentina had opened more now and I enjoyed my glass with dinner.
However, that was not the end of the story or the evening. I still craved a wine that was fuller and richer and that would please me even more on this cool, damp October evening in northern Virginia where we live. I had gone ahead and previously just pulled the cork on the bottle of the 2007 Q series Familia Zuccardi Cabernet Sauvignon and poured myself a glass. I liked it almost immediately. It was much more open and from my opinion much more drinkable immediately. It was fuller, lusher, rounder and had less bite and was simply more pleasing. I was happier with this taste even if it was not necessarily the best taste to match with the salmon and the pork.
I tell people all the time : " drink what you like. Even if it does not match as well with the food drink it because it's what you like and want for the moment and this was you have both solid food and liquid wine and you are enjoying both. That's really all that matters. The rest is simply for show. So at dinner I really switched to the Cabernet Sauvignon 2007 to enjoy with my meal when my son and my wife and I all sat down inside while our fire that had warmed us outside continued to burn and we could see it and it's flames and glow.
I like the FAMILIA ZUCCARDI Q series wine labels. You have to have really good eyesight though as some of the most interesting print is so tiny at the bottom of the front label that you will more than likely miss it altogether. But before I include that here I will include their statement from the back label.
" For 40 years Zuccardi has been innovating and researching in different soils and microclimates of Mendoza. The Zuccardi Q Tempranillo was sourced from selected hand-picked grapes from low-yielding vineyards in the foothills of the Andes mountains, then vinified and aged for 12 months in new American oak barrels under the supervision of one of Argentina's most respected winemakers. This is a wine of great structure with notes of tobacco, leather and chocolate. It can be cellared for ten years ". I should have read this more carefully before opening and enjoying. I was too quick and too lazy to read all of this.
In my defense, though I would like to say that I like to be surprised. I don't want to go into an experience knowing a whole lot. I want it all to be wonderful and serendipitous and clearly " of the moment - my-our moment ". So I sacrifice some for this but I think what I come away with is infinitely more revealing and mine and a true discovery on my terms and no one else's. That's the ultimate : that's the very best I can do from my point-of-view.
I liked this back label. I do not like that they do not mention the name of the " most respected winemakers "? What are their names : please tell us here in the comment section at the end of this blog. That would be nice to know.
On the front label they write about the 2007 Q series FAMILIA ZUCCARDI Cabernet Sauvignon : " From La Consulta ( 1100 mts 3608 " ) and Tupungato vineyards ( 1250 mts / 4Q ( or is that " 0 " ? ) 35" altitude? I like this. It stimulates conversation. Please do comment further on this for everyone reading this. Explain it further and tell us all what it really means for the wines that we are drinking?
Cheers. I will write more soon. I am posting this blog " as is " and will continue it later tonight when I get back from work. Enjoy it as it is. I will also add the pictures that I took later. I still have to finish telling about our neighbor that came over this evening and then enjoying the wines ( including the Malbec - which I found the least-pleasing of the three reds ) again the next day - Monday - when I opened the Malbec Q series FAMILIA ZUCCARDI 2009.
I should also mention that I have not spoken of the Bonarda Q series because Cristina brought that to Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel : 202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com, anthony.quinn@clevelandparkwine.com , also now on Facebook at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits and on twitter at : cpwinespirits ) earlier last week. We enjoyed it there. Thanks Cristina. Stay-tuned for more really soon. Anthony ( TONY ) Quinn
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