Vina Santa Maria 2008 Santa Clara Crianza is one gorgeous wine!
It was time to open another Club wine from Food and Wine magazine. The wine club promotes its offerings as “excellent wines for everyday drinking.”
I had the elements of a rich everyday meal in the fridge. A survey of the six bi-monthly wines from Ron and Sherry quickly told me this was the night to try the wine from the remote, wild Extremadura region of southeastern Spain, known by some readers, I hope, for jamon Iberico which is made from black pigs that feast on acorns. I must confess I’ve only tasted that ham once, and we’ve never had a real Spanish Tempranillo — but we love that varietal when it comes from South America. I figured if it can be a great match for an acorn-saturated big black porker, it could work for me on something less exotic but also tasty.
So, first, the food. I stuffed red bell peppers with a thick mixture of short grain brown rice and green mung beans that had gently steeped in water with tag ends of carrots and other veggies, shrimp shells, clam shells and ordinary white wine. I can’t begin to tell you how I seasoned that! Herbs, cracked black pepper, garlic granules, cumin . . . the way an everyday cook makes any meal that is meant to perk people up after a day with office colleagues or construction foremen.
Why not a salad? I had mixed greens. Gently sprinkling them with raspberry vinegar and toasted sesame oil, I added half a cup of pepper jack cheese, then crowned the salad with a line of battered and deep-fried (halved lengthwise) white chicken tenders! [Use what you have, that's my mantra.] Judy had brought the chicken and some corn dogs home from the Sonoma County Fair food stand where she works for half a month in the summer. Corn dogs? No, not unless I didn’t have any chicken! And my generous fridge gave me that neat choice.
The food came out nicely — that is, Judy and Erik really enjoyed it, and I thought it deserved . . . a nice rich, bright Spanish Tempranillo. And I had some!
This wine (which you could locate by visiting www.globalwineco.com) began with a delightful nose — “blueberry, violets and espresso” is the way the wine club describes it, and I couldn’t have said it better. However, that impression is volatile, fleeting, so sniff it as soon as it’s poured.
Actually, the initial sensations of blueberries and coffee don’t entirely disappear. They experience resurrection in the mouth, along with the dark plum and “velvety chocolate” sensations the wine club describes. Surprising, and very pleasing in a rather soft, round wine, was a huge hit of beautifully-balanced (but maybe enamel-eroding) acids. Your mouth will stay excited because that sensation lasts and lasts.
It’s a lovely-looking wine — rich garnet with a ruby edge. Long-lasting generous legs correctly suggest a long aftertaste with restrained tannins that really shouldn’t scare those who often are afraid that deep-red wines will be gritty with tannic acid.
Wine left over after dinner was really delicious all by itself today. Boy, this is one great trip to a part of Spain I’ve never seen! — Bob Cramer, The Fearless Taster.