Creative Juices Wine Show: Episode 4 (w/Video)!

In Episode 4, Zak & Olena taste a 2001 Bierzo. Enjoy!

Bierzo is in the Northwest Corner of this Map. Cheers!

Cuatro Pasos 2007 Mencía, Bierzo, Spain

Last night, we opened a bottle of Cuatro Pasos. It is made from 100% Mencía, and comes from the Bierzo region in Northwestern Spain.  If you haven’t heard much about this grape, don’t feel bad.  It’s one of those grapes that there isn’t really a lot of hype over, but there will be.  The same goes for the region from which it is indigenous to.

The people of the Bierzo region have been growing grapes, and making wine for longer than this country has been in existence.  Then again, who hasn’t been?  Mencía, as a grape, is a very exotic fruit that produces some very interesting, World Class wines.  Bierzo is in our opinion, the next Mendoza in terms of wine growing areas.  The transition has already begun, and you will start to hear a lot more about the amazing wines coming out of these Spanish vineyards.

Cuatro Pasos (Four Steps) is made from grapes that are harvested from 80-90 year old vines.  This is a pleasant change from the everyday wines that we’ve grown accustomed to drinking.  Finding a rare varietal such as this, with a low price tag is always a good time.  The question, as always, is it any good?

Our Tasting Notes:

Date   10.20.09
Wine Name Cuatro Pasos
Maker Bodegas Martín Códax
Region Bierzo, Spain
Varietal Mencía
Vintage 2007
Alcohol 14%
Price $13

We tasted this bottle on October 20, 2009.  It came well-equipped with a 90 point score from Jay Miller at Wine Advocate, so it was safe to make an assumption that this was a good value wine.

Cuatro Pasos displays a dark ruby, opaque purple, midnight black coloration .  Luckily for those of us with night vision, it is still clear enough to see through.  You never know what kind of creatures you might meet on a black night.    Its light ruby rim showcases its playful youth, and leads one to believe, as we did as children, that there is a world of possibility in store for us.  That being said, the nose boasts little more than black peppery notes.  (We expected more from the nose, but found its offering sufficient.)  Once on the palette, it is rather dry.  Not unpleasantly so, but dry.  The tannins are short-lived, yet pronounced and well-developed, providing the wine with a solid backbone.  Flavors of strawberry rush in on the attack, but quickly retreat, succumbing to delightful flavors of cherry, blueberry, and black raspberry.  The mixture of red and black fruit comes off as bitter, yet remains balanced.  As the wine finishes, its acidity becomes present, which brings everything together the same way a nice area rug might in your living room.  The only downside is that after 10-15 seconds the flavor fizzes out, providing the same disappointment you might feel if you spilled this wine on that nice area rug that we mentioned before.  We award Cuatro Pasos with 88 points.

Overall, we enjoyed this wine thoroughly.  We were a little surprised that despite being aged in both French and American oak for 4 months, it went undetected.  Don’t let the 88 points we awarded it fool you into thinking this wine wasn’t a tasty treat.  That score is by no means a slap in the face.  Not only will we recommend this wine to friends (and we are recommending it to you now) we will also be drinking this wine again in the near future.

In terms of aging this wine, one will be able to lay this bottle down for the next 4-5 years, but we recommend going ahead and enjoying it now.  To answer our own question, yes, it was good.

Keep checking for future updates as we will certainly be providing them.

Zak & Olena