Vizcarra - Ramos tasting

Last night I joined some 15 other guests at a wine tasting led by Juan Carlos Vizcarra Ramos, owner, vineyard master, wine maker and chief marketer of Bodegas Vizcarra-Ramos.

Juan Carlos led us through some of their best recent releases, as well as offering us two very special wines that are not yet on the market.

We began with the Vizcarra Senda de Oro 2004, a 100% Tinto Fino (aka Tempranillo), made via carbonic maceration that was dark cherry in color and loaded with fruit.

Next we sampled two Vizcarra Crianza wines from 2002 and 2003. The differences in style between the two were striking. The 2002 was rather spicy and the 2003, due in part to the heat of that year, had a slightly caramelized taste.

After tasting the 2001 and 2002 from the expressive Torralvo range, Juan Carlos moved us on the stars of his winery, the Celia and Ines wines, each named for his daughters.

Celia 2001, which received a 91 from Robert Parker, is made from Garnacha and Tempranillo and comes from 50 year-old vines. It was inky dark red and very elegant.

Celia 2003 is soon to be released. I found it to be a bit more subdued than the 2001, but still quite expressive.

The new wine, Ines 2004, had just been recently bottled, but even so, it was surprisingly composed. The fruit was very strong, but the tannins were quite well developed. it was velvety and nuanced. Made of a Merlot - Tempranillo blend, this wine will be released in 2006. The wine at the time of release should be truly exceptional.

During his presentation, Juan Carlos talked about how the 2005 vintage is progressing (risks of drought and possibly the need to harvest early), his approach in the vineyard (paying close attention to what is happening on the vine) and in the winery (use of cold stabilization and large, 400L oak barrels for aging). He expressed concern that with all the improvements in Spain, the there is a risk that everything will end up tasting alike, but with wines like Celia and Ines, he shouldn't need to worry!