Wine Tasting Notes

ON THE NOSE:

Cream cheese, steel, cherry, toasty oak. Some pepper comes through just a bit later, along with vanilla BEANS, not just mere vanilla. We are getting blueberry and cedar notes as well while this beautiful deep ruby Spanish wine acclimates itself to our studio. Also present is some of that dusty rock we always seem to get on Tempranillo wines, always welcome, and always captivating and comforting.

There is opulence to the sweet and the cream that emanates from the glass, instantly putting this wine into the 90-something point category; it is a comforting and benevolent nose, with fruit and minerality breaking through as well. Later, after finishing a glass, I also get some asparagus (albeit sweet asparagus) in the goblet as it offers its lingering bouquet; always, and I mean ALWAYS, smell the glass after your wine is done. Hmmm … I also smell play-doh here too, and I recall that this is not the first time I have noted this aroma profile in a wine. You know what else is here? A hint of pomegranate!

I want to take a moment here to elaborate on the bouquet left over when your wine glass is empty; you are truly missing something special if you do not take the time to savor this intoxicating essence before going for another pour. It’s different than the regular nose experienced from the glass with wine present. The residual gases that are available are somehow more concentrated, and perhaps even more honest (though this is a subjective stance), and can help tell a more complete story than if this aspect were ignored. This wine, particularly, has an incredible residual bouquet in the glass, and we found ourselves smelling the wine glass far more than the actual wine. Don’t miss out! If you find yourself the proud possessor of this profound pick, do indeed relish the protracted fragrance in the glass between pours.

ON THE PALATE:

Ah, YAH! This is good stuff; this is really good stuff. We love these Spanish wines with their great tannins and balanced acidity. You’ve GOT to take air into the mouth as you sip this wine, else you lose the brilliance and depth of the tannins, the residual flavor left in the gums and tongue; perhaps this technique needs to be practiced to be perfected – I still occasionally gag and cough as the wine goes down the wrong pipe – but the effort is well worth it as what is extant in the wine is much more obvious than is noticed by merely sipping and swallowing the elixir like water or, god forbid, beer! (Just kidding, we like good quality beer too!) I am getting lots of licorice here, and Darcey yells out “charcoal!”

After a subdued attack the wine explodes up and down with great but not overpowering acidity, as well as the aforementioned tannins. There is grit here, in a good way, refined gnash: a nice gritty grip. This is good wine, and the above notes were all written within a mere thirty minutes breathing time! Clearly this wine has much to offer. The finish is quite long and satisfying, with a delectable drying of the mouth, fruity at first, then the mineral aspects remain, steel and graphite, finally rounding out to a nice medium tobacco linger.

As this wine stays open longer it offers more and more, which, again, is one thing Darcey and I really admire about good wines. French toast, chocolate, and vanilla, sour cherry, and even some citrus essence, they are all here. There certainly is a lot to taste in this wine. After several hours the wine is reminding us of a Zinfandel, with pepper and spice and concentrated fruit. Still later I notice that the flavor profiles that were earlier budding here and there individually have coalesced into a “smeared” palate; this reminds me of a puddle in the mud that has almost drained, the standing water gone, but before the earth at the bottom of the puddle cracks. There is still a patina of wetness in the puddle that is the culmination of the reduction of the liquid puddle as a whole. This is what I taste! Is this making sense? Again, a smearing of the flavors where they are now one, instead of an orchestra made up of separate instruments, they have blended, not simply harmonized, not playing in sync, but mashed together. And in the mouth it is a muddy, slippery experience, not at all unpleasant; different, though, than anything I have yet experienced.

All in all we are extremely pleased with this bottle, turning an average weeknight into an evening of bliss; yes, very good wine can easily have this effect. The complexity is wonderful, if not exceptionally deep, but it does have that classic capricious component where each pour brings new things to the fore. The tannic structure is awesome without being overpowering, the acidity is perfect, the finish delectable, and the residual glass bouquet stunning.

We have to add and admit that we did not actually intend to order this particular wine. We ordered the $25 Numanthia Termes, but whoever picked and shipped the wines evidently made a mistake and sent us the $53 Numanthia Toro instead, much to our delight. As we drank this wine, as yet unaware of this mistake, we kept thinking that it was a great value at $25, and considered buying a case. It wasn’t until I looked for the label graphic for my tasting notes on my personal website that I realized we were indeed drinking the more expensive bottle. Sometimes wonderful little mistakes happen, though Darcey and I firmly believe that there is no such thing as a mistake (or a coincidence), so for some reason unbeknownst to our conscious selves we were supposed to consume and report on the Numanthia Toro … and it was wonderful! If you can afford it, BUY IT!

(Click here for an explanation of our ratings ...)

Our Rating: 93

Would we drink it again?

ABSOLUTELY! Glad we have another two bottles!

Would we buy it again?

Well, at $53 maybe not (too many others to try at that price), but at $25 with the mixup we sure would buy it again. To be fair, I think that I would indeed buy this bottle again if I had the money.

Wine Store notes

Numanthia is a gorgeous Spanish red wine gem made of 100% Tempranillo in the region of Toro by Bodega Numanthia Termes. The Tempranillo grape is known here as Tinto de Toro. The wine is named for the people of Numancia, who heroically resisted the Roman legions in the first century B.C. The Numanthia vineyards are located on the southern bank of the Duero River.

Steven Tanzer just rated this wine 93 points. The rest of the world's foremost wine critics have not yet released ratings for the 2005 vintage, but watch out when they do! The Spanish wine guide Guia Proensa rated this wine 97 points for the 2004 vintage. Robert Parker gave the 2004 vintage a 98 and has rated Numanthia an average of 95 points over the past 6 vintages, ranging from 92 to 98! How many other wines can claim that level of consistent excellence? Don't miss this extraordinary wine!

Numanthia is deep ruby red with gorgeous aromas of cassis, blackberry, coffee, cedar, spice and mineral notes. Full-bodied with moderate acidity and firm tannins, it was aged for 20 months in French oak barrels. It offers robust flavors of blackberry, black currant, chocolate, spice, and toasty oak. Powerful, layered and complex, it will reward cellaring for another 10-12 years. The wine shows length and concentration on the finish.

Enjoy Numanthia with roasted lamb, steak, paella, roast pork, and aged cheeses.

About the Toro Region

Like the Ribera del Duero, Toro straddles the great Duero wine river. The main grape of Toro is called Tinta de Toro, a synonym of Tempranillo, which produces some of Spain's finest red wines. Old Tinta de Toro vineyards, planted with only about 1,000 vines per hectare (ha) account for 65% of the region's vines. The rest is high- quality old vine Garnacha and the white grapes, Malvasía and Verdejo. Most of Toro's vineyards are planted at 600 to 750 metres above sea level. The climate is sunny and dry - the region gets only about half the annual rainfall of Bordeaux, but the vineyards are dry farmed, not irrigated. The soils around Toro are well-drained and often sandy, an environment not hospitable to the phylloxera bug - as a result, most vines are not grafted on to American rootstocks.

In recent years, the long-time Toro producer Manuel Fariña, whose Bodegas Fariña is still the major bodega exporting from the region, tamed alcohol levels and began to win international recognition for the concentration of fruit, balance, and price-to-quality of his red wines. Manuel Fariña was the driving force behind Toro's acceptance in 1987 as a fully fledged denominación de origen and served as the DO's first president. Fariña's rich, fruity, but well- balanced Colegiata brands, which are named after the 12th-Century Colegiate church of Toro, were the first wines to show the true potential of the region. Still rustic and sturdy in style, these well-priced wines taste of black cherries, currants, coffee and bittersweet chocolate. Gran Colegiata tintos de reserva are aged in American oak for 18 to 24 months. There is also a Gran Colegiata 'media' crianza, which spends four months in new American oak, and a rich, young Colegiata blend of 50% Tinto de Toro and 50% Garnacha, that sees no oak and is an excellent bargain.

During the past few years, major players from other regions such as the Ribera del Duero, La Rioja and Navarra have moved into the area to purchase or plant vineyards, or build wineries. Alejandro Fernández, owner of Pesquera and Condado de Haza in the Ribera del Duero, has bought a 250ha former fighting bull ranch outside the village of Vadillo de la Guareña and has planted 100 hectares (ha) of ungrafted vineyards. The first wine to come from this new venture will be the 1998, provisionally to be called Alejandro Tinto.

Although only 18ha of the Fernández spread are actually within the DO Toro, the new wine will carry the designation Vino de Castilla y León. The cognoscenti know that the Vadillo wine comes from the Toro region and, given the track record of Alejandro Fernández with Pesquera, few doubt that it will rank with the top red wines in Spain. Fernández has also made 300,000 bottles from old vine Tinta de Toro grapes bought from growers in the Guareña River valley near the estate. The wine has been ageing at Vadillo in American oak barrels in Fernández's centuries-old, spectacular, hand-hewn cellars.

Mariano García, the former winemaker of Vega Sicilia and partner in the acclaimed Bodegas Mauro in Tudela de Duero (Valladolid), is already making a non-DO San Román from existing old vines Tinta de Toro and Garnacha from his vineyards at San Román de Hornijos. In April 1999, García introduced me to his Bodegas Mauro San Román Tinto 1997. The wine is labelled Vino de Castilla-León, and although it does not carry the designation Toro, it is probably the best wine ever made in the region. It is a rich, powerful wine (13.8%abv) made from 91% Tinta de Toro and nine percent Garnacha grapes, harvested from mature vines and aged for a year in new and used French oak. This deep, black cherry-coloured wine shows toasty French oak, concentrated ripe blackcurrants and black cherries in the nose. On the palate it is rich with ripe blackcurrant and black cherry flavours, hints of the 'tarry' liquorice similar to that in Vega Sicilia, and a long finish with bittersweet chocolate flavours.

A 1998 San Román barrel sample had not yet spent the requisite time in oak, nor had it been clarified, but showed promise with lots of sweet, ripe fruit and a fine, stylish finish. A year later, the wine was still tight, but showed deep blackcurrant fruit under the tannins. The Alvarez family, García's former employers at Vega Sicilia, are also planning to launch a new wine made from Tinta de Toro grapes. They have purchased vineyards and are currently ageing their first, as yet, unnamed. Tasted from the barrel this spring, I found it rich, though well-balanced, but still dominated by the new oak in which it was ageing.

Antonio Sanz, the peripatetic Rueda-based winemaker, has been making basic Toro wines in the cooperative bodega at Morales de Toro since 1984, but in 1997 he began ageing his reasonably-priced, full-bodied, but well-balanced, Tinta de Toro-based Bodegas Toresanas Amant in an old convent in Toro town. (Some markets may see this wine under the name Dehesa Gago Chamerlot.) Sanz, who also produces the excellent Palacio de Bornos Rueda whites and Dehesa de Cañonigos Ribera del Duero reds, is a major player in the emergence of Toro as an important wine region.

Wenceslao Gil, who came to Toro in the late 1970s, and has made wine at Cigales, Burgos and Salamanca, produces Vega Sauco at an old underground bodega near Morales de Toro. Vega Sauco, which can be overripe, rustic, and at times awkward, is well regarded by some in Spain, but I have never found it much more than quaffable. The wines generally contain at least 90% and usually 100% Tinta de Toro. The crianza is aged for one year in American (80%) and French oak; the reserva gets the same treatment for 18 months.

Frutos Villar, a major producer of commercial table wines, is based in Cigales (Valladolid). Its Maruve Toro wines can be patchy in quality, but in good years are rich (if somewhat meaty), powerful, and quite ripe. At the cooperative at Morales de Toro, several winemakers have vinified their wines for the past few years while waiting for their new wineries to be finished. It also makes one million bottles of the inexpensive, sometimes pleasant and quaffable, yet heady and rustic, Viña Bajoz, plus another 250,000 bottles of Viña Bajoz crianzas and reservas.

Other wines from the Toro DO are the Cermeño and Marqués de la Vila line from the Bodega Cooperativa Vinos de Toro; Bodegas Francisco Casas Camparrón; and Grandes Vinos Envero Reserva. Toro wines have long been as big, black, brusque and heady as a Spanish fighting bull, but more sophisticated wine making techniques should tame these tendencies, producing a finesse the wines have lacked in the past. Even the minor players in Toro will soon feel the pressure to upgrade the quality of their wines as Alejandro Fernández, Mariano García, Antonio Sanz, and the Alvarez, including Rioja's Eguren family (producers of Señorío de San Vicente), join the rush for black gold.

cliffordjames.org

Numanthia Toro 2005 Tinto de Toro