The Date and Time: Wednesday February 19, 2020 3PM to 5:30Pm
The Event: Rioja Masterclass with Oscar Urrita from Grupo Bodegas Olarra, and Charles Jewitt of Trilogy Wine Group.
The Venue: George Brown College, King Street
The Target Audience: two dozen wine media and sommeliers, in a seminar tasting setting.
The Availability/Catalogue: Oscar spoke briefly about the company's holdings in La Mancha and Ribeira. The thrust was on Bodegas Ondarre in Rioja, but he also pointed out that the Rioja company could legally produce a Cava wine, which unfortunately we could not try today.
The Quote/Background: Oscar covered the quality levels of Rioja, the winemaking character, the classification systems and the new arrangement of "single vineyard", "village", and "zone". Several terroirs were indicated in the video displays of terrain maps and the three ranges of wines. For Ondarre, the barrels are about 40% French and 60% USA, at a medium toast. The wines are all blended after separate barreling. Wines from specific vineyards included Valdebaron (VALDEBARON RESERVA 2015 +11784 $22.95 Viana northwest) and Mayor de Ondarre, and the grapes employed were tempranillo (subdued soft fruit), mazuelo (smokey character), and graciano (alcohol body with long length). We had samples of all three.
The Wines:
+378885 – Erudito Seleccionada 2015 $39.95 (rated *** 89-90)
+723452 – Bodegas Olarra Reserva 2015 $19.95 (good polish but still needs time: rated *** 89-90)
Future Vintages Releases:
+063904 - Cerro Anon Reserva 2015 (May 25th, 600 cases) $20.95, following on the 2014.
Cerro Anon Grand Reserva 2011 (release Fall 2020), P.O. not yet issued $29.95 (rated **** 92)
Anares Reserva 2015 (release Fall 2020), P.O. not yet issued $19.95 (rated *** 89-90)
Private Stock for ordering through Trilogy:
Bodegas Olarra Anares Reserva 2010 $21.95
The Food: cheese boards and charcuterie platters, breads, crackers, dried fruit and nuts
The Downside: there were few paper notes at the time, all of it was on a powerpoint memory stick for later retrieval at the office.
The Upside: a chance to dig deeper into Rioja.
The Contact Person: trilogywg@gmail.com; spuritt@hotmail.com
The Event's Marketing Effectiveness and Execution (numerical grade): 88
Chimo! www.deantudor.com
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