The focus is on quality wines at affordable prices, I found plenty to like here and there some real stand out wines from Ribera del Douro in the range. Here’s what I thought on the night:

DO Cava

Segura Viudas Brut Reserva NV ($13.99) - Bready and apply, quite fresh and refreshing. Looking quite good at the moment 86 Pts.

Segura Viudas Brut Rosado NV ($13.99) - Not sweet at all, dusty strawberry, quite pretty and light with something a bit herbal on the mid palate. 86 Pts

Segura Viudas Brut 2002 ($19.99) - The standout in this bracket, yeasty and nutty on the nose, cider apples and less character. Blanced fizz and acidity with plenty of length. 88 Pts.

Segura Viudas Semi-Seco NV ($13.99) - An off-dry style, sugared backed apples, a bit dusty but quite fresh. Mildly sweet. A bit simple and fruity with a clean finish. 85 Pts.

DO Rueda

Con Class Vendemia Excepcional 2007 ($17.99) - Grassy with passionfruit and a sweaty note (in a good way) on the nose. Nice and fleshy in the mouth, pear and apple. Plenty to like here. 87 Pts.

Con Class Verdejo 2007 ($11.99)- Fresh with plenty of fennel and pear on the nose, dusty and tangy. As I’ve said before, great for the cash. 88 Pts.

DO Rias Baixas 2006 ($16.99) - I didn’t take a note on this one, but still looking very good as per my note here.

DO Jerez-Sherry

Osborne Manzailla NV ($19.99) - Fairly classic manzilla notes of apples, sea spray, almonds and flor. There is something herbal on the mid palate that’s a bit odd at first but very enjoyable after that. 88 Pts.

DOCa Rioja

Aradon Joven 2006 ($9.99) - Juicy and fresh with bright cherry and blueberry. Earthy cherry and plum on palate with a clean long finish. A bargain at this price. 87 Pts.

Cosme Palacio Cosecha 2005 ($20.99) - Modern with lush fruit, plenty of cherry and plum with firm tannins and a touch of oak influcence. Solid wine. 88 Pts.

Glorioso Crianza 2004 ($17.99) - Here is a classic Crianza at a great price. A lovely nose of violets, plum and cherry on the nose with a bit of pencil shavings and earth. Traditional character with plenty of fruit. 89-90 Pts.

Glorioso Reserva 2003 ($27.99) - Subtle on the nose with some earthy cherry, plum and spice. The palate shows good fruit with some spice and slight coco. 88+ Pts.

Glorioso Gran Reserva 1999 ($45.99) - Surprisingly to me this was a crowd pleaser, normally people go striaght to the crianza or modern wines. Classic oak aged nosed of pencil shavings, mint/pine resin, strawberry and cherry with clove, nutmeg and cinnamon. A bit flabby in the middle, but some fine grained tannins and a very long finish. 90 Pts.

Bodegas Palacio Reserva Especial 2001($49.99) - A modern styled Super Reserva. Dark chocolate, espresso and ceadery oak over some dark cherry and plum fruit. The oak treatment is a little hamfisted, but there is some great fruit under there. I’m not sure if it’s in an odd place or just over oaked. 87 Pts.

DO Navara

Tandem Ars ‘In Virto’ Merlot Tempranillo 2005 ($14.99) - This opened up a bit reductive, but this blew off to show some chewy plums and cherry, nice chunky tannins and a generally soft friendly wine. A bit of sweetness in the mid palate, but it pulls it off. 87 Pts.

Tandem Ars ‘Nova’ Tempranillo Cabernet 2004 ($22.99) - Plenty of fruit here, but it’s earthy and savoury blue and red fruits. A bit juicy with nice fine tannins. 89 Pts.

Tandem Ars ‘Macula’ Cabernet Merlot 2004 ($32.99) - Soft, dry and plenty of flesh fruit tannin here. Nice plum and blackcurrant with some earthy herbs, but it doesn’t really grab me. 87 Pts.

DO Ribero del Duero

Vina Mayor Tinto Roble 2005 ($17.99) - A very well done roble with classic animale, cherry and blackberry with some herby bramble. Plenty of flesh tannins and well balanced acidity. 88+ Pts

Tabula Damana 2004 ($34.99) - These two next wines were the stand out of the tasting. This is all red cherry and mocha with some lavender and sage. Excellent mouth feel thanks to some refined tannins. Great length and character. Lots to like here and will cellar very well. 91+ Pts.

Tabula 2004 ($66.99) - Toasty oak over the top of blackberry and black currant with some violets. Juicy, meaty fruit with a shovel load of soft fruit tannins. Earthy and savoury with a core of perfectly ripe blue and black fruits. 93 Pts.

DO Priorat

Cims de Porrera ‘Solanes’ 2003 ($32.99) - An old standard that is back in Australia. pepper and spice, a little funky but very appealing. Nice plumy fruit with some pepper earth and herby bramble.

Portugal

Vinho de Mesa Rose NV ($8.49) - A little cheesy, but there are some fresh strawberry and raspberry notes. A bit too sweet for my tastes, but finishes nicely with some strawberry candy. 81 Pts.

DO Estremadura

Pink Elephant Rose ($11.99) - Musky, sweet strawberry with a good acid back bone, more in the winey style of rose. Designed for food and would be great with something spicy. 85 Pts.

DO Alenquer

Quinta das Setencostas 2005 ($14.99) - Fresh and spicy, savoury plums and blueberry. Plenty of texture and a lick of acid to keep things moving, a bit of mid palate sweetness that I’m not that keen on. 86 Pts.

DOC Porto

Taylors 10 Year Old Tawny Port ($49.99) - Nice aged characters on the nose, raisins and clove with a light sprinkle of mixed nuts. Very long finish with good integration of spirit. 90 Pts.

Taylors LBV Port ($39.99) - I didn’t catch the vintage on this, but will chase it up. Plum and cherry fruit with clove and nutmeg, a bit of hot cinnamon. Fleshy and well structured with plenty of vintage character. 88 Pts.

Here are some stats on the past year:

• In July last year 12,000 people (6,800 according to Google Analytics) looked at the site.  Last month, just over 28,000 dropped by. (13,000 according to Google Analytics)
• The top 3 search terms for the site are: Flor de Pingus, Pork Belly and Spanish Wine.
• The strangest link to the site this year is from Cosmopolitan magazine (good to see teenage girls are into Spanish wine).
• The number of Australian readers increased to 65%. From out side Australia, the USA is the largest with 10%, the UK is second with 9% and it seems that some of the producers are checking up me with Spain and Portugal both coming in at  6% each.
• There have been 1,281 real comments (528 last year), 29,178 spam commen ts (only 4000 last year!).

  

So all you have to do is guess the number of corks in the box, you can click on the image to get a bigger image if you think that will help. Put your guess in a comment on this post (Do not email it too me) and you’re in with a chance of winning a nice little six pack of wines. The wines are:

• • Cillar de Silos Crianza 2005 and Remuleri Reserva 2003 from The Spanish Acquisition
  • Two bottles of I’Corus Quinta from Broadway Liquor Distributors
  • Martin Codax Burgans Albarino 2006
  • Something else…
    

Entries are open to all, however I can only ship the wines to an Australian address. One entry per person/email address/IP address. I will anounce the winner on the 9th of July.

Good luck and thanks for reading.

I got a call from Scott at The Spanish Acquisition when I was on way home last Wednesday: “We’re going to the New Movida, do you want to come along?” How could I say no? I quickly dived out of the car and made my way down to Hosier Lane to check out Movida Next Door, or Movida Dos as everyone seem to be calling it.

Its a fairly clean, but small space just down from the original Movida. Plenty of nice wood and white walls with a small bar just in front of the kitchen. There is a small list of tapas and raciones followed by a tight list of beers, sherries and wines. Being opening night, Frank was on the pans with bevy of Melbourne food and wine identities in the bar slurping and munching their way through the menu. The staff had a tough time working their way through the crowd, and you’d get plenty of opportunity to get to know the people next to you in the bar.

I had been expecting a more ‘cheap and cheerful’ version of the full restaurant, the kind of place you can go for a couple of drinks and a couple of snack for $20. It seems this isn’t quite the reality (although not too far off). It’s not a holding bar for Movida either, or just a sherry bar (although there is sherry on tap from a barrel, fresh from Jerez). It’s something else altogether.

The menu is full of Spanish classics. The jamon and mahon croquetas are some of the best I’ve tasted, fried fresh sardines that showed off the quality of the fish, and the best of all: braised beef cheek with marrow bone. This is an excellent dish and had me looking around just in case someone was stuipid enough to leave any unguarded on the plate. Liver pinchos were well done, as was the fried anchovy on goats cheese.  The only thing that didn’t work was the eggplant ‘chips’, just not my thing really. A quick trip through the wine list saw us drinking a raft of styles: La Goya manzanilla (don’t even mention the new label to me), NPU amontillado, 2006 Castro Martin followed up by a bottle of Capçanes Lasandal.

Overall, its a fairly cool drop in type joint with plenty of atmosphere and charm. Just be prepared to pay similar prices to Movida. The food is up to it, so I can’t really complain too much. It’s open a bit later than Movida too.

So after a quick bit of bread and a glass of water, I’m on to the Portuguese table wines, as well as a couple of ports. This is the best showing of Portuguese wines I’ve seen in Australia and the quality here is unmistakable. Every wine here was high quality, showed great personality and I’d love to have all of them in my cellar.

Luis Pato Vinha Pan 2005 - A funky nose (in a good way) with cherry, blueberry and raspberry some bay leaf and pine/eucalyptus notes. Medium bodied with excellent balance but intense raspberry flavours, fine grained tannins and a very long finish. I rate this highly.

Luis Pato Vinha Barrosa 2005 - More spicy and less herby than the Pan, also a more meaty. Showing great raspberry fruit characters in the mouth but still very savoury. The balance here is superb, everything is just right.

Alvaro Castro Pepe 2005 -A great nose of red and blue fruits with a bit of funky barnyard, mocha and a touch of clove and cinnamon. Nice and clean in the mouth with tangy raspberry , a bit of smoke and minerals. Quite grippy.

Quinta do Crasto Reserva 2005 - Quite smoky on the nose with some typical rocky, sooty earth notes over the top of some plum, raspberry and blueberry fruit. Fleshy and spicy in the mouth, plenty of fruit here with big soft fruit tannins.

Quinta do Vallado Touriga Nacional 2005 - Perfumed nose of violets and christmas cake spices, a touch of mint for good measure over some plums, blueberries and cherries. Tannins are quite amazing. Very interesting wine.

Valle D. Maria Douro 2005 - This is a real step up, and that’s saying something in this line up. Mint, clove and quality small goods on the nose with some lovely fruit. Good acid level, some fleshy tannins giving plenty of texture and interest. Quite meaty and juicy. Goes on forever. Excellent stuff.

Meandro de Meao 2005 - Beautiful nose of sweet fruit: cherry, plum and currents with xmas cakes spice. Complex and inviting in the mouth with more of that great fruit and spice with some added liquorice and earthy/mineraly rocks notes.

Meao Douro 2005 - The big daddy of the Portuguese wines at this tasting. The nose is intense and complex: menthol, clove, soot, brambly undergrowth, plum, cherry, blueberry. The palate is All class too, intense and complex but open business. Quality tannins and super balance. Looks like it will live for ever too.

Quinta do Valle D. Maria LBV 2003 - Excellent QPR here, subtle raisin and prune with clove and rosella jam. Very smooth and balanced, good integration of spirit and fruit.

Quinta do Valle D. Maria VP 2005 - This makes those big blockbuster Aussie table wines look even more porty. Elegant and so highly drinkable. The nose offers up ripe fruit (my notes say pomegranate and rosella, but not sure on those) with subtle clove and other spices. Its quite minerally too. Smooth as a baby’s….

Niepoort VP 2005 - This is a step up in complexity and depth from the last one. Intensely flavoured and structured. Its a bit more aggressive in structure, but shows really well right now. One to put in the cellar by the case if you’re a port fan.

I attended The Spanish Aquisition 2005 Premiums Tasting on Monday and tasted a range of wines from the 2005 vintage in Spain and Portugal. And what a show it was, these 2005s are looking excellent and there is something here for everyone.

Here are some quick notes on the Spanish wines tasted, as usual no scores for this quick sip, slurp and spit type event. I'll post the Portuguese stuff tomorrow.

Capanes Lasandal 2005 - Raspberry, a bit of good wood and earthy/hot rock notes. Quite tight in the mouth with some fluffy tannins, some cherry, plum  and raspberry. Really like this.

Capanes Cabrida 2005 - Similar in stye to Lasandal, but a bit more serious. Showing herbs and spice with a bit of sars and chunky tannins. Very good.

Descendientes de José Palacios 'San Martin' single vineyard 2005 - Whoa, this is some serious stuff. Sweet cherry and mulberry with some blue fruits, quite musky and rich on the nose. Quite explosive on the palate with musk sticks blueberry, a touch of rasin and cherry cola. Powerful and plenty of tannins.  Excellent booze.

Palacios Remondo 'La Montesa' 2005 - This has opened up nicely, not looking as hardcore as my last look. Very good.

Palacios Remondo 'Propiedad' 2005 - Again looking a lot more open than my last look.

Telmo Rodriguez Lanzaga 2005 - Nicey nice on the nose, layers of aroma starting off with earthy cherry and mulberry then some herbs and liqourice followed by some nice wood. Very compelling.

Telmo Rodriguez Altos de Lanzaga 2005 - Vanilla, chocolate, esspresso, lots of high toast oak notes. Showing a lot of wood at the moment, with some great fruit underneath.

Telmo Rodriguez Pago la Jara 2005 - This is looking very good, the oak treatment is excellent and shows classic Toro characters of cola, dark cherry, big soft tannins and plenty of meaty, juby fruit.

Telmo Rodriguez M2 de Matallana 2005 - Looks a bit closed on the nose, earthy cherry and mulberry with some herbs. The palate is quite spicy with fine boned tannins, very long finish. Quite tight at the moment. Needs some time to sort it self out, but will be great.

Telmo Rodriguez Matallana 2005 - Spicey punes on the nose with a little nutmeg but otherwise similar to the M2. A bit raisiny on the palate with a big lick of minerals. Looks like its still in shipping shock a little.

Cillar de Silos Crianza 2005 - Class all the way, silky smooth with some animal notes, ripe cherry and currents. Very happy with this one.

Cillar de Silos Torresilo 2005 - as above, looking great and will only get better in the cellar.

Flor de Pingus - A bit introspective today, but still showing bucket loads of promise.

I turned up to the Tea Rooms at the Supper Club, notebook in hand, to have a look at most of the 04/06 Telmo Rodriguez gear, new Cillar de Silos, Cellars Capcanes and some other stuff.  The TSA crew were well setup and in full swing.  There where also some interesting back vintages and a vertical of Torresilo 00,03,04, and 05 which gave me a good view of the the 03, 04 and 05 vintages and confirmed in my mind that 04 is not all that it is hyped to be for all the regions of Spain.  In fact I'd say Dr. Jay has it wrong with his statements that 05 is a good vintage, but not up to the standard of 04.  I don't think you can be that black and white about a whole country's wine production.  The 03s are looking very good at the moment too.

I've skipped the stuff I've already writen about, plus I've put my last page of notes somewhere very safe. I'll post them up when I find them… 

Telmo Rodriguez

Lanzaga 2004 - Clean cherry, mulberry, undergrowth and cola with a long, spicy woody finish, showing very well.

Altos de Lanzaga 2004 - Telmo's top Rioja from Biodynamic vineyards.  A bit chary and tary on entry, with wonderfull cherry liquor, mulberry and spice.  Superb balance and length, will go years in the cellar.

Gago 2004 - Looking very good, maybe a bit better than my last taste. 

Pago la Jara 2004 - English tea garden on the nose, roses, violets.  Elegant and restrained with masses of tannins, but well balanced by the acid.  Really well done.

M2 de Matallana 2004 - earthy with violets, cherry, mulberry, smoke, minerals and iron ore.  Loads of tannins, I'd like a touch more acid but very good.  I'm buying some.

Matallana 2004 - Oooh lovely.  Oak treatment more obvious here with some coffee and nice timber notes, rose and violet with sage, dark cherry, blackberry and cola.  Excellent.

Monastrells 

Telmo Rodriguez Almuvedre 2006 - I always find honey in this wine. Odd. Fairly straight forward in the mouth, but a great fruit driven nose of plums and spice.  Quite mineraly.

La Purisima Trapio 2004 - More into the animale side of things, cherry and plum with a seasoning of aniseed, rosemary, sage and thyme.

Enrique Mendoza Estecho 2004 - Excellent stuff this, great nose.  Sour cherries, a bit of mushroom, minerals and light spice.  Perfect balance, just the right amount of everything I want.

Cillar de Silos

Torresilo 2005 - Amazing fruit wrapped up in some great French oak.  Mulberry, cherry, coffee, spice.  This gets a big thumbs up.

Torresilo 2004 -  Not showing as well as the last visit.  Still very good, showing more herbs and undergrowth than great fruit.

Torresilo 2003 - Fantastic wine and will only get better. 

Torresilo 2000 - More ntegrated and looks to be at the beginning of a long drinking window.  Pure mulberry fruit with a touch of coffee and spice.  

Crianza 2005 -  As always a great nose of cherry, violets, a touch of oak and coffee.  A bit closed on the palate, but showing some nice fruit.

Crianza 2001 - Excellent balance, mulberry, freshly polished leather and spice.  Loads left in the tank.

Crianza 1996 - Fully resolved, light in colour, kind of like a light pinot.  Balanced, light flavors, very burgundy like. 

I was lucky enough to get a seat at a couple of very good master classes last week.  Put on by the Australian Sommeliers Association and the Spanish Trade Commission, there were two sessions complete with a panel of local and imported personalities and lots of goodies in between the sessions.  A lot of work had obviously gone into setting up these tastings, the very nice upstairs room at Comme was the location and a number of hard to get wines where flown in from Spain. A lot of support from all the major importers as well.

Apart from the wine there were a number of good Spanish things to munch on, cheese, olives, bread etc.  But the real standout was the Jamon Iberico from Broadway Gourmet.  I think I ate about half a kilo of the stuff, so I feel qualified to say that this particular Jamon is the best I have had in Australia, really well flavored and textured, impossible to pass up. It not avilable at retail in Melbourne yet, so you'll have to go to Movida to try some.

On to the tastings.  The first session was titled "The New Spain" and was intended to show modern styles of white and red wines from a number of regions in Spain, as well as some classic sherries.  The second tasting was all about Tempranillo from three regions: Rioja, Ribera del Duero and Toro. I'll write that up separately. Each tastings had a panel of 5 up the front, including Jose Ramon Calvo from the renowned Mugaritz restaurant in San Sabasitan.  Each section started with a bit of background and history from Jose Ramon and Raúl Moreno Yagüe from SOS (now moving on to Vue de Monde), then a few comments from the rest of the panel.

There was some real contrast between the Aussie members of the panel (coming from more an Aussie/International point of view), Jose Ramon with a Spanish/European perspective and Raul with a bit of both. Some healthy debate and outlandish comments always makes for an interesting afternoon.  For me, the main benefit of the tasting was seeing some different styles and the interest from the crowd in many of these wines.  As with most of these things, there is never enough time for a full discussion.  As usual for tastings, this is just  my basic view of the wines without scores.

The New Spain

The panel consisted of  Tim White, Raúl Moreno Yagüe, Jose Ramon, Kate McIntyre and Max Allen.   3 brackets of wines, with a set of whites up front.  I was lazy and only took notes on those wines I haven't already tasted.

Flight 1: Whites

A good intro from Jose Ramon on how to drink Albarino, drink unwooded wines in their second year only, up to five years for wooded.  Max Allen had a quick chat about the history of white wine in Spain.

1. Albarino Fefinanes III ano, 2003, Rias Baixas (Barrel fermented Albarino): gun smoke, stone fruit, melon, light honey apricot.  Bright and fresh with apple, pear, light grapefruit minerals and apricot.  I like this a lot, the best wine of the non-sherries.

2. Valminor Albarino, 2005, Rias Brixas.  Lovely as always, a very good bottle at the right temperature.  Good contrast to the 1st wine

3. Belondrade y Lurton, 2004, Rueda (Barrel fermented Verdejo): I found this very interested but it was widely canned as being too international by the aussie members of the panel.  I like it, it’s very different for Spain and yes does have a bit of a worked chardonnay feel to it.  Nuts toast, butter, cashews and melon.

Flight 2: 4 red wines from 4 regions

1. Domino de Tere 'Pago 3', 2002, Bierzo (Mencia): earth, aniseed, coffee, chocolate.  Light and smooth with red cherry and blue fruits.  I thought it was ok, seemed to be well received by the panel with lots of talk of Cabernet Franc.

2. Bodegas Pirineos 'Marbore', 2003, DO Somontano (Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Moristel, and Parraleta): pepper, spice, earth, red and blue fruits, mint, herbs.  Red juby fruits, rosemary, plum, blueberry, tart sour finish. Long.  A really interesting wine, very intellectual, but not great drinking for me.

3. Pasanau 'Finca la Planeta', 2002, Priorat (Cabernet Sauignon): Sweet red and blue fruits, herbs, earth and rocks, violets.  Plum raspberry, grainy tannins, loads of acid, fruitcake and a long finish.  Very surprising, I liked this a lot but can't help thinking that it would be more interesting with some Garnacha in it.

4. Olivares Monastrell Dulce, 2003, Jumillia: Raisins, varnish.  Grapey, muscatels, aniseed, cinnamon and extremely strong tea.  I'm starting to come around to the style, but probably not well placed in this group.

Flight 3: Sherries

1. Alvear Amontillado, Montilla Moriles: Honey almonds, orange rind and spice.  burnt caramel, bitter oranges and more almonds.  I like this too, managed to grab a bottle for further investigation

2. Romate Oloroso "la Sacristia' VORS: Jerez: almost honey, some roasted nuts, and rancio characters.  Tangy salty, dry and nutty in the mouth.  Very good.

3. Lustau VOS Oloroso, Jerez: Something wrong with this, its all onions cooked in balsamic vinegar with old fish.  Should have been great, but drinks like its been open too long.

4. Gonzalez Byass Oloroso 1964:  A real marvel.  Good vanilla ice-cream, smoke, very fresh and complex.  Think of very good, smooth single malt and you've got it.  Huge length.  Wine of the tasting for me.

But really the main focus here was the almost complete range of wines produced by Vega Sicilia, Pintia, Alion, Valbuena and Uncio.  Plus two Tokaji wines form their estate in Hungry.  The only wine missing was Unico Reserva Especial.

The commitment to producing great wine is clear in every thing that they do. Apparently the guys turned up, opened and checked all the wine, checked the glasses and found a hint of something not right, so we rinsed all of our glasses in Pintia.  They don't belive in second wines here, all unused grapes go off to the distillery and if its not a good year for Unico, they don't make it.  In 2001 the Unico vineyards had some frost issues and the first buds were destoryed.  The decision was made not to make Unico for this year, so much of the fruit went into Valbuena that year.

I had a chat to Javier Aujas, the Technical Director/winemaker for the Vega Sicilia group, about their white wine project, they planted marsanne, rousanne, viognier and chardonnay in the late 90s and have dropped the fruit each year up until 2004.  In 2004 they produced a test wine, testing will continue on until 2009 and if the team believe that the wine is up to the Vega Sicilia standard they will release the wine commercially.  If not, they'll stop production and move on to something else.

The comment of the night would have to go to Pablo Alverez (Snr) who was asked what other wines they drink at home and if they drink Burgudy.  The answer was "Yes, white.  Montrachet is very big in our house." Nice.

While it was a great night, I don’t think that these type of events are the best environment for tasting and evaluating wine.  I’d prefer to have a couple of hours and half a bottle of each wine to write a good tasting note, the follow is just a brief impression of the wines on the night.

Javier Aujas talked us through each bracket of wines, the history of Vega Sicilia itself and each of the other projects.   Here are the wines:

Mandolas Dry Durmint 2003 - A good start to the night, a most unusual wine that reminded me of aged riesling.  I didn't look too hard at this one, just enjoyed it.

Pintia 2002 - Deep red in colour, as are all the Vega Sicilia reds.  Blackberry, espresso, woody herbs and a little oak on the nose.  Very smooth and integrated in the mouth, very well balanced and refined.  There are some serious tannins in here with a healthy kick of acid towards the finish. 14.5% alc. 93 Pts

Pintia 2003 - Very intense nose of blackberry and ripe plums, some spice, cola with some light florals.  Ripe and juicy in the mouth, showing the heat of the vintage. Very concentrated dark berry fruit, with some coffee and cola type flavours. Good finish. The 15% alc is well hidden.  I think this needs a bit more time in the cellar.  91 Pts.

Bodegas Alion 2001 - Very different to the previous two wines with dark fruits (cherry and currents), roasted nuts, dried herbs, pipe tobacco and a floral aspect.  Very smooth and integrated, a bit more acid than the Pintias with the classic Alion tannins. A real gem. 95 Pts.

Bodegas Alion 2002 -Very similar to the 01, however this seems much more open but slightly lacking a bit of the 01's structure.  On the nose dried herbs stand out, with some dark cherry and espresso.  Warm and inviting in the mouth with silky tannins.  93 Pts.

Vega Sicilia Valbuena 5 anos 2000 - Dark plum, vanilla and cigar box on the nose.  Plenty of pure, fresh fruit in the mouth, quite complex and structured as well.  Balanced and well integrated.  Looks like this will age very well.  94 Pts.

Vega Sicilia Valbuena 5 anos 2001 - This is one complex wine.  From here on in it is difficult to get a good sense of the wines as they change every few minutes in the glass.  There is a lot of fruit from the Unico vineyards in this wine, as Unico will not be produced in 2001. Loads of red berry fruit on the nose and oak influences like roasted coffee beans, cedar and toasty oak.  Dark berry fruits in the mouth with a huge finish and gorgeous tannin structure.  Needs time in the cellar, but a classic wine.  96 Pts.

Vega Sicilia Unico 1994 - This has everything you could ever want in a wine, ripe fruit, great structure and complexity, perfect balance, and finish that is about a minute or so.  I was lucky enough to get an extra pour of this and look at it over an hour and a half.  It changed its spots a couple of times, but seemed to settle after an hour or so.  A great nose of blackberry, cherries and currents with highlights of cigar tobacco, vanilla, liquorice with some truffle and rose oils.  Layers of flavour on the palate, dark berry fruits, minerals, vanilla and liquorice are just a few of them.  Noticeable, but great tannins.  Full bodied and powerful, yet restrained with harmonious balance.  A very long finish with some extra minerals.  This is great wine.  97+ Pts.

Vega Sicilia Unico 1995 - Very different to the 94, a bit rounder and more open with loads of fruit and complexity.  Dark fruit notes on the nose with old leather, spice, liquorice and some herby/floral notes.   Very generous in the mouth, if a bit tannic at this stage.  Dark berry fruit again in the mouth, with a bit of coffee/chocolate.  Lacks some of the structure of the 94, but is still a great wine. 96 Pts.

Oremus Tokaji Aszu 1999 - I didn't really look at this too much, but it is a great wine none the less.  Sweet, but the acid keeps things nice and fresh.  A great way finish of the night.

I think the guys from Vega Sicilia got a good look at Melbourne nightlife during the night: the Botanical back bar and the restaurant were heaving with people, with a back beat of Doof-Doof later on in the night.  As they where leaving, it looked like Pablo Jnr. was up for kicking on with some of the ladies in the bar.  Pablo Snr had other ideas.  A great night overall and one I won't be forgetting in a hurry.