Older red wines from Italy and Spain

It is quite interesting to try older red wines and this time I have tasted two older red wines and also a younger red wine.

The first older red wine is the Marques De Arienzo Reserva from 2004. This I found at a lower shelf and I had forgotten about it. I think I bought it in 2010 and had been forgotten. It is a rioja wine and it is made of the Temopranillo (85%) and Graciano and Mazuelo (15%). The colour is dark red with a brownish tint indication an older wine.In the nose I get a smell of red and black currants. In the taste if get dark cherries, black currants and some tannins. I think that it has reached maximum maturity and it should be drank right now. As I don't feel that it will increase in complexity. A very good wine but I don't think that it increases so much in complexity by this long aging. 2-4 years of aging is recommended.

The net older wine is a wine that I have tasted before. It is the Les Cretes wine Fumin from Valle D'Aosta. The vintage is 2009 and the ABV is 13%. In the taste I get a dark fruity taste with red sour cherries and some black currants. In the aftertaste I get some viols and oak. I like this wine and it ages very nicely. I think that this wine can be stored maybe for 5 more years.

To finish it off I go with a younger wine from Veneto and it is a Castelforte Appassimento from 2014. The ABV is 14%. In the taste I get red fruits with some spices. A quite easy drinking wine.

Wine for barbeque

The days have slowly become warmer and yesterday was the first really good day to have a barbeque but due to other circumstances it was shifted to Sunday instead. And that was even better as the weather today was better, more warmth and no cold winds at all. Instead of the usual pork fore the barbeque I had beef for once. And what wine would go fine with the beef. Looking through the cellar I found a Marques De Arienzo Gran Reserva from 1998. That would be a fine addition to the weather and the barbequed beef. Marques de Arienzo started in 1981 and in 2010 it was bought by Marqués de Riscal S.A. This wine is made from Tempranillo grapes and has an alcohol level of 13% vol. The smell was very good. A good sign of a well stored wine. The colour of the wine was deep ruby red, very nice. The taste of the wine could be split into three difefrent phases. The first phase was a strong taste, almost earthy and leathery. Then t became a bit bitter to be followed by a long nice aftertaste. For those interested the 2001 Gran Reserva can be found at Systembolaget.