This was like a wonderful blast from the past when Jesus Alvarez Otero of AGRO DE BAZAN came to taste his wines including his excellent Albarinos whites as well as a dry rose, another white and a red as well : all Spanish and all top-of-the-line.
We have sold the two Albarinos whites off-and-on depending on price and availability and need. They have acted as two of our benchmarks in the store for classic/excellent/dry/complex/multi-layered and flavorful mineral/citrus dry whites to recommend for rich and tasty meals when money is not as much of an object as they are at the top of the price structure for these whites made from the now very famous indigenous Albarino grape of Spain.
I liked what I tasted here by-and-large : the quality was never an issue - just what I would have to charge for the bottles of wine? When they get to be a bit more expensive I am harder on them because once they are on our shelves here at Cleveland Park Wines & Spirits ( 3423 Connecticut Avenue N.W. Washington D.C. 20008 Tel : 202-363-4265 sales@clevelandparkwine.com www.clevelandparkwine.com ) I have to know how to recommend them and for what meals and occasions?
The labels have changed as well from the old brown bottle for one, and the green bottle for the other.
Jesus brought me six wines in total to taste on this occasion : the : 1) Contra Punt white Albarino, the 2) Gran Bazan white Albarino, the 3) Mas De Bazan dry rose, the 4) Mas De Bazan Tempranillo dry red, the 5) Mas De Bazan Syrah and the 6) Mas De Bazan Bobal.
I loved it when I saw the Bobal and I asked Jesus if he was a member of the Bobalian Society and he responded that he had never heard of it? This is where I smiled broadly and launched into my story that I used to tell customers that would come and buy some Bobal indigenous dry Spanish red from us at Cleveland Park. It was all fictitious of course and I had to explain this after telling the story that many would believe.
It went like this : " Would you like to be a member of the Bobalian Society? If you do you either have to read up and study the Bobal indigenous grape from Spain for two years and take a test or you have to drink bottles of Bobal for two weeks. Which will it be? Choose? "
I went on to say that " the grandchildren of their relative " Boba " L. Enriques that had discovered the grape and given his name to it was still largely unknown here in the United States as well of outside of Spain. They thought that this was unfortunate and so as to shine some light on this grape and his contribution they decided to create the Bobalian Society and had already started visiting cities here in the U.S. to promote it. " Of course I told this story five or so years ago as then we sold lots of Bobal and have not seen much in the past few years? Where has it been? Not many suppliers have mentioned it to me in quite some time.
So there seems to be no better time than to buy this Mas De Bazan Bobal indigenous dry red Spanish wine and to revive the Bobalian Society so that it may work it's magic once again. What do you say Jesus : are you in or out?
Here behind me are the six wines that I sampled on this Wednesday afternoon on May 19th, 2010. It's been awhile and yet I remember vividly the experience of tasting with Jesus and listening to him describe each of the wines. I liked very much the first dry white Albarino ( lighter, not as heavy, easier to drink anytime, great warm-weather dry white ) with the painted face on the label as well as the Bobal dry red. I will have to ask my local rep about these wines once again when I am back at the store.
Today, Monday June 7th, 2010 at 12:52 Pm is my day-off and I am trying to catch-up on these blogs where I have downloaded the pictures and put them into a draft form to later add the text.
The second Albarino Gran Bazan would be better with a meal as it is more complex and more extracted and flavorful. The food would help to flesh it out a bit more and make it more enjoyable : say with some fried calamari, hush puppies, clams, Spanish mackerel, fresh-water sardines from a lake? I could see really enjoying it in these situations myself and with loved ones ...
Being the artist that I am I love taking these more artsy photos that I have downloaded here. There are still many more that I have not had time to download. I will save those perhaps for another time ? another blog?
Being at home I have to check my notes on what I thought specifically of the three reds. I liked the dry rose and the three reds threw me for a lop. I was not expecting them along with the two dry Albarinos.
I had never been shown these other wines by Aurelio Cabestrero when he first showed me the other two dry, complex whites. I don't think that he sold them at that point when he was with Rory Ingram of INGRAM Imports after he left the Taberna Del Alabadero where he was the wine sommelier for years.
That's back in 2001 or so when Mike Martin and I started to really sell the GRAN BAZAN Albarinos. We may have had them before? I can't remember exactly now. It's been awhile and Albarinos hit their largest audiences perhaps five or so years ago when they were still mostly under twenty-five dollars a bottle and before less-expensive and still really good Verdejos, Macabeos, etcetera started to catch people's attention.
Albarinos seem to be once again more popular and enjoying a resurgence and that is nice as they are by-and-large excellent food wines and still quite reasonably-priced.
I will ask our local rep to come to the store and do an in-store/wine-tasting of some of these GRAN BAZAN and MAS DE BAZAN wines soon as they are perfect for the arrival of our hot and sticky and humid summers that are just around the corner.
Gracias Jesus y hast luego amigo, TONY
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