Monday, June 2, 2008

AND NOW MY OTHER NUMBER TWO

Jessica Stambaugh is my other assistant wine buyer, and finally, she too has the time to chime in. Her first blog is a little something about the grape Mencia...

What the Heck is Mencia? (by Jessica S.)

Now that my partner in crime, Shannon, has come aboard I have the time to break my Liquor Direct wine blogging seal. I also have a little more time to see family, friends, and go out to dinner. Yay!! I have a life again! Even though Kevin is one of my favorite people, it’s still refreshing to know that his wife gets to spend more time with him than I do now. I did, however, make sure that he told Jen I never took him for granted and valued every waking moment we spent together (UUuuugghh).

Speaking of having time for dinner, I went to Dilly Deli in Mariemont with one of my wine snob friends (I still can’t convince him that wine doesn’t need to be so darnn pretentious). They have a wine retail shop next door where you can purchase wine at retail and have it with dinner for a small corking fee. We chose the Descendientes de Jose Palacios Petalos 2006, which I knew was 100% Mencia (because we carry it…not because I’m a know-it-all) but never had the opportunity to taste it. The only other Mencia I’ve tasted in the past was Luna Beberide and was a fan. . Mencia is predominately grown in the region of Bierzo Spain, in which the grape comprises of 80% of their harvest. Mencia tends to have a floral nose and I was getting Violets like crazy in the Petalos. Let’s just say the wine had poise with its delicate tannic grip, subtle creamy finish, and complexity that makes you want to savor every sip (or at least every other one). I love the wine you can get for your money in Spain!! Stop by Liquor Direct and let me hand-sell you a bottle for $21.98. I promise it will be worth your while.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That wine snob friend drank Trilogy with you out of plastic cups. That's not too pretentious.

Anonymous said...

Oh... and that wine is biodynamic and comes from 60 to 100 year old vines with roots running deep into the slate bed below.

(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biodynamic_agriculture)

Pretty interesting stuff... I doubt it works any better than traditional organic methods but if they are spending this much time and effort into it they are forced to pay more attention to their vines than the guy that is spraying his vineyard from an airplane.