Lunch with Dr. Vino, Max Marinucci and Mark Franks!

So, Tyler (Dr. Vino) and I put this on the calendar about a month ago. We added Max to the party, since while I had come up to see his beautiful store, he had not yet checked out my more beautiful store. Since Mark Franks does nothing all day, I invited him to tag along. I had never met Dr. Vino before and since we are forever tied together for attempting to overhaul the Monkton Mafia, it was only fitting that we broke bread. And, of course, we had an agenda.

Nola Palomar, frequent poster here, and owner of Veleta, a Bodega in Spain, had sent me some samples of her wines to taste. Tyler had received some samples of Viu Manent Viu 1 (a vertical of 2004-2006). The Veleta was of keen interest to myself as Nola has been very vocal about her inability to get Jay Miller to take note of her wines, since she does not go through a major importer of Spanish wines (which puts her a disadvantage according to Miller). Viu 1 is of interest because, while I have never even heard of these wines, Jay Miller scored the 2004 a 92+, the 2005 a 92 and the 2006 a 62!!!! This is a $60 Chilean wine and we were curious to see if the 2006 sucked as much as DrJ thought.

I invited Max, because, well, I like Max and while his palate sucks, it would be interesting to see what he thought. Mark Franks tagged along to show that we were not cheating to write this report. And I like Mark, so what the heck.

We went to Milonga, a Mediterranean Tapas place that recently opened in North White Plains, not far from Grapes The Wine Co, the greatest wine store on earth. We popped 10 btls of wine for lunch and they charged us $30 to do it. The food is basic, inexpensive but pretty good. I have been 3 times in the past 6 weeks (since theyopened) and have no complaints, although they just raised their food prices, which I find odd.

First flight: Veleta whites and Rose
1) 2008 Veleta Vijirieja: A fun wine for me. Inexpensive and a good summer sipper. Nothing exciting about it, but knowing the pricepoint, a perfectly good value.
2) 2008 Veleta Chardonnay: No one particularly enjoyed this one. I think Max mentioned KJ Chard look alike. Max sells a lot of KJ, so he would know. It was okay, but not for me.
3) 2008 Veleta Rose (Tempranillo): This was 13.5% alcohol, and you could feel like it was a bit more. The alcohol overwhelmed any potential good fruit for me.
4) 2006 Veleta Tempranillo: Mark and I thought that this was slightly corked. I will reserve judgement, as I felt like it could be better
5) 2006 Veleta Noladas: Now we are talking...a blend of Cab, Cab Franc and Tempranillo, this was a wine that I would happily enjoy many times over. Rich and concentrated, this had layers of fruit and a nice finish. A pretty serious wine for the money. Good match for the foods we were enjoying.
6) 2006 Veleta Cabernet Sauvignon: This was a good wine, albeit uninspiring. I kept going back to the Noladas, and considering that they are probably around the same price, this one suffered for me, because of the Noladas.

It should be noted that Josh Raynolds has reviewed these wines and given them all about 87-88 points consistently. They are worth seeking out, considering the low prices, in particular #1 and #5.

Ok, onto Chile...Viu Manent...Tyler poured these vintages blind for us (good idea),
As a whole, these wines were not enjoyed by the group. They were inky, dark, and brooding...
First wine...This was the best of the bunch for me, showed a lot complexity, good fruit, good balance and a wine I would drink again (although not at the price)...it was the 2005 (which was my guess)

Second wine...very similar to the first wine, similar nose but a little more tobacco there. In the mid palate is where I saw a flas as compared to wine#1...there was no fruit there...maybe suffering from age, but not likely. I had a feeling it was 2004, but I saw the quality as a whole suffer here, so I was hoping it was 2006...alas it was 2004

Third wine...the oddball, which made it easy to see the difference when compared to the the other wines, so it has to be 2006, right? Well, it was, but there was no way this was a Jay Miller 62 pointer. In fact, I think we all agreed that it was right up his alley. This was straight out of Barossa style. Clearly, something has changed in the winemaking, but I would have thought, interms of WA review, for the better. I hated this wine. It showed no nuances that the first wine showed, it was way more spoofilated than the others.

Ok, now onto the "extras"

Max brought a delicious btl of 1976 Lopez y Heredia Gran Riserva Bosconia. After a few minutes of funk, this blossomed into a beautiful wine. Showed no oxidated qualities that I have not liked in other Lopez wines. Very fresh, very light in color and very good.

I brought a 1996 Ponsot Clos de la Roche. I know Mark never drinks Burgundy, so I put in a ringer. Mark said it was his favorite wine of lunch. Not sure if, in context, that says much, but the wine was tasty. Not a great wine for me, but very good. It was just missing that next dimension, that I would expect from a 1996 Red Burgundy.

Overall, a great 3 hour meal, with good people, on a Friday. Love this Job!