2007 Bodega del Abad Carracedo Tinto Mencia

DATE CONSUMED

Sunday, June 23, 2013

VINTAGE

2007

WINERY/PRODUCER

Bodega del Abad

WINE NAME

Carracedo

TYPE OF WINE

Red

COMPOSITION

100% Tinto Mencia

SUBNAME/NICKNAME

N/A

VINEYARD DESIGNATION

N/A

REGION/APPELLATION/A.V.A. (American Viticultural Area)

Bierzo, Spain

ALCOHOL CONTENT

14.0%

PRICE PAID

$22.49

WHERE/WHEN BOUGHT AND/OR HOW PROCURED

We got this wine from winestilsoldout.com, a fantastic clearinghouse that includes free shipping when a minimum number of bottles are purchased (four bottles in this instance).  The original price for this wine at release was $90 (confirmed by Wine Spectator and Robert Parker).

BOUQUET

This wine has a fantastic, fruity, spicy bouquet, with subtle elements of earth and oak.  There’s an abundance of dark fruit and savory herbs on the nose, along with an earthy oakiness.

 

TASTING NOTES

Holy Cow!!  This is a fabulous Spanish red and, as far as I know/can remember, our first experience with a 100% Mencia wine.

The first impression this wine made upon my palate: this wine is very Chateauneuf-du-Pape-like.  It shares many characteristics with the world’s greatest red blend (in my humble opinion; I’m sure Bordeaux lovers are rolling their eyes like crazy right now!), including gorgeous black and red fruit, tons of spices, and that lovely earth/terrior from the Southern Rhone.

This wine is fantastically rich and creamy, with mostly black fruit (plum, boysenberry, and blackberry) along with some red fruit (cherry and raspberry).  There’s also a truckload of savory spices that compliment the MOUNTAIN of black pepper.  The saline earthiness and creamy, sweet tannins from the oakiness contribute to the rich, smooth, elegant, lingering finish.  This wine is fantastically well-balanced, deeply-flavored, smooth, rich, and creamy, and at $22.49 a bottle, one of the best reds we’ve drunk all year.

Once again, this wine shares almost EVERY aspect with a quality Chateauneuf-du-Pape.  If tasted blind, I imagine that I would have guessed that this wine was indeed a CdP.  At $22.49 a bottle, if I knew just how good this wine was going to be, I would have ordered at least a case of this Spanish beauty.  Sadly, this bottle is the last one of the original four that I ordered from wtso.com.  Looking forward to the 2008 vintage!

PAIRING SUGGESTIONS

We paired this wine with a rack of lamb and the wine could NOT have paired better with any other protein!  Arthur spices the lamb and sears it in a cast iron pan and then spreads a thin layer of Dijon mustard and panko breadcrumbs on the fatty side and finishes the rack in the oven.  This big, bold, gorgeous wine begs to be paired with a big, bold, gorgeous main course.  It paired perfectly with Arthur’s rack of lamb and would also pair well with curried lamb shanks, a ribeye smothered in Kosher salt and a ton of freshly-cracked black pepper, along with just about any red meat dish (prime rib, meatloaf, etc.)

AGING POTENTIAL

Based on a little bit of research regarding the Mencia grape, it is generally made to be drunk fairly young.  At almost six years post-harvest, this wine is drinking beautifully right now and based on its structure (it’s still slightly tannic) I would imagine this wine would continue to develop and evolve gorgeously for another ten years or so.

SCORE (on a 100-point scale)

93 (after I tasted this wine and wrote all of these tasting notes, I checked to see what Wine Spectator and Robert Parker gave this wine (who tasted and scored this wine YEARS ago).  WS gave this wine a 93 in November 2011 and Parker gave this wine a 90+ in April 2010).

I’m 100% confident that this wine does indeed deserve a 93-point rating.  Wine Spectator scores/tastes/judges all of their wines blind, meaning that when they’re tasting a wine they don’t know who produced it and how much it cost.  That’s why I consider Wine Spectator THEE most reliable source for wine ratings (after me, of course!).  I love it when they give a grotesquely over-priced French wine (like $1,500 a bottle) 80 to 90 points.  Either way, I feel pretty good about giving this fantastic wine 93 points.

Q.P.R. (QUALITY-TO-PRICE RATIO) (POOR, FAIR, GOOD, EXCELLENT)

Original release price of $90: FAIR

Wtso.com price of $22.49: EXCELLENT

WINERY WEBSITE

http://www.bodegadelabad.com/