Wine with Meg + Mel
The fun + frank podcast which helps you navigate the world of wine. Hosted by Australia's first female Master of Wine Meg Brodtmann, and self-titled Master of Sabrage Mel Gilcrist.
Wine with Meg + Mel
Tasting Tips: How to tell medium reds apart (Merlot, Carmenere, Tempranillo, Mencia)
What Meg's drinking: 2018 Tyrrell's Semillon $35
Wines tasted:
- Terra Rossa Merlot Coonawarra 2020 $33
- Casillero Del Diablo Reserve Carmenere $26
- Earthworks Barossa Tempranillo $19
- Salterio Mencia Bierzo $17
Follow us on instagram @winewithmegandmel
Hi and welcome to Wine with Meg and Mel. We are here to help you navigate the world of wine. I'm Mel Gilchrist. I'm a master of wine at Meg Brotman. This is our third in this series of tasting episodes, so we are doing how to taste and how to tell the difference. Basically, if you're a master of wine, like what meg did, how you're going to taste the difference between stuff?
Speaker 2:yes, yeah, yeah. So because a lot of you know anyone who's done wct knows that just that medium range, yes, a lot of wines are going to come in with medium acidity. Yes, medium tannins, medium alcohol, and then how the hell do you tell them apart? Exactly, cabernet can smell like Merlot. Merlot can smell like Cabernet. So there are tricks.
Speaker 1:So we did how to taste light red wines last season and I will link it in the show notes so that people can, I mean, probably start there, right, and then they're easier. Yeah, yeah, if you really want to get serious, I think if you want to go out and buy these wines and taste along with us, you would probably get a lot out of it. So how would they? Well, they can look at the show notes and see the wines and, instead of listening to the podcast immediately good, oh, okay, you know, listen to the podcast tomorrow, because they can stop it.
Speaker 2:It's not live, it's not live.
Speaker 1:Meg, we're not on the radio. Bless, we're not on the wireless. You're so like cool and hip sometimes.
Speaker 2:No, there's definitely elements and sometimes I think we're on the radio, okay Okay, and I listen to. I spend my life listening to podcasts, so I should know, you really should know, that you can stop them and listen to them later.
Speaker 1:You can, they are infamously Because I do save my.
Speaker 2:Rachel Maddow For when I'm cooking dinner.
Speaker 1:Yeah, see, exactly, yes, okay, well, if you're still with us and you haven't gone off to buy these wines, we will get there shortly. But first, meg, what do you mean drinking?
Speaker 2:2018. Tyrell's Semi-Om Yum. As you know, tyrell's are the ones that put all the bling everywhere and Taylor's are the two that put bling everywhere, and I found it, I think, in Dan Murphy's, but just kind of a. I think it was under the current release, but it happened to be, but it was the same price. It was like line priced. It was $. The current release, but it happened to be, but it was the same price. It was like line priced. It was $30 or something. Anyway, it was. I've said this a thousand times Hunter Valley Semi-Or is just one of the greatest drinks that have walked this planet. It was so Aged, specifically, if it's aged, yeah, and I can't tell you what 18 was like. I know it was quite a dry warm, yeah, maybe I don't know, um, but it is. It goes with everything. It's a really good summer drink. It's got high acidity, so it can go.
Speaker 1:It wasn't one of the was sorry, it wasn't one of the main. No vineyards, it was just like entry entry level yeah, really really good wine okay, I can't even link to it. You might have to go searching for it.
Speaker 2:Oh, why, what's?
Speaker 1:Well, I mean, if I say Dan Murphy's, it's all just the HVD or the Stevens.
Speaker 2:No, actually, maybe it was.
Speaker 1:For the 2018 specifically. Maybe it was the.
Speaker 2:Stevens, I was going to say did it start with?
Speaker 1:S. Oh yeah, Is there one with S $45.
Speaker 2:I think it was cheaper than that, but maybe that's through Terrell's, terrell's, terrell, terrell's, not Terrell's. Yeah, I know, it sounded really weird when I said it. What's his name? Pharrell Williams, terrell Williams, terrell, yes, big.
Speaker 1:Maybe they need to work with him. Okay, so that one is $35 in different drops, so it probably was that.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, that sounds about right. Okay, it was delicious. Get it, buy it, don't drink it, lay it down.
Speaker 1:Oh, you mean get a current vintage and lay it down, or?
Speaker 2:even get the 18 and lay it down. It was so young.
Speaker 1:Well, so how long would you age an Hunter?
Speaker 2:30, 40 years. Oh my God, this was drinking. It was a beautiful drinking window, don't get me wrong. I like my life too much to age wine that long. But it was the colour had. No, you would not have known it was six, nearly seven years old. Yeah, you would not have known. It was just like it had just been bottled Anyway, okay, beautiful Fun fact, so fun fact. Speaking of Pharrell Williams, I was interested to read the number of wineries that play music to their wine.
Speaker 1:Oh, no, yes. So I knew that in this is ridiculous, right.
Speaker 2:I knew that in my husband worked in South Africa with a winemaker and he would play classical music to his barrel, so it was just 24-7. And then I knew in Montez, in Apelta in Chile, that they had Gregorian chants being played in their cellar, but that kind of connects because they are quite Catholic. But then in Burgundy Saint-Ainé Marc Jessum and his son Jean-Baptiste play classical music only Mozart or Bach while their white wine coalesces in barrel. In Texas, hill Country, canada, family Vineyards Brendan Canada sings to her only Mozart or Bach while their white wine coalesces in barrel In Texas, hill Country, canada family vineyards Brendan Canada sings to her vines the high notes of music and wine.
Speaker 1:Do you know what? Singing to vines annoys me less than people that will only play Mozart, Like it sounds so freaking wanky. You don't buy into this, do you no?
Speaker 2:I don't, but I just. Oh my God, he decides when the wines are ready by testing them with the ding of a tuning fork. Oh my God, far out. Read this article. I'm not sure where I got this article from, but I just thought. You know, winemakers are quite eccentric and that's just a little bit of eccentricity. But there was a woman, jo Bersiak. I could never pronounce her name. I'm sorry, jo. I think she's now a PhD in the way music affects the way you taste wine.
Speaker 1:Well, yes, that's proven, because your perception is Cross-modal, exactly.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:I've seen that with music. I've done exercises with people where they put on red glasses versus putting on green glasses, and what colour you're predominantly seeing will bring out different notes in the wine. Oh, wow, so you could have. If you had a wine and you really wanted to bring out certain, you know, spice or whatever. You should paint your tasting room red and it will taste sweeter. Wow, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've done full-time workshops with people around this. You should paint your tasting room red and it will taste sweeter.
Speaker 1:Wow, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've done, I've full done workshops with people around this, well, so maybe this does happen. No, but that's to do with perception, not to do with. This is to do with ageing. This is to do with the actual winemaking.
Speaker 2:It would be different if they were playing different types of music in the tasting room while people were buying or blending, and that probably would change.
Speaker 1:I'd bet money that that would change things.
Speaker 2:Anyway, I just thought it was a cute little concept, you know, highlighting the eccentricity of winemakers, yes, or the wankerism, whatever you want to put it.
Speaker 1:Me and Dan, the winemaker at Shandong, have this big joke at the moment because there was, I've read, or something meticulous, meticulously aged wine and it's like how do you? He goes. Flawed aging of the wine, he goes. You know it's funny. You mention that because I walked past Loic the other day and he was just standing there meticulously aging all the wines, the shit, we come up with in wine. Yeah, that's bullshit.
Speaker 2:Well, it's like you know grapes. I'm just testing this because it's undercooked. Oh okay, grapes were picked to their optimum ripeness.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we laughed about that one too.
Speaker 2:That's always a good one, because you know, we all, sub-optimally, pick our grapes. All right. So for our medium-bodied reds, I have got Carmenere. Yes, merlot. She probably should have done the Merlot first.
Speaker 1:Yeah, we still have time. I think that's a good idea actually.
Speaker 2:Sorry, we're tipping the wine out.
Speaker 1:We're tipping it out. I think we should do, because that's a good baseline for a medium.
Speaker 2:This is probably the world's most famous medium red. Surely Baseline for a medium, this is probably the world's most famous medium red. Surely this is the I was going to say.
Speaker 1:Karen but it's not really Karen the most vanilla of mediocre of wines. Vanilla is a good word, but vanilla is also good because vanilla ice cream goes with everything and does make a lot of things better.
Speaker 2:Including my beautiful crepe Suzette made at my table at Gimlet, the other night.
Speaker 1:Ooh, gimlet Threw that one in there. Mm-hmm, I was just at Gimlet.
Speaker 2:Yes, I know it was fantastic, but I'm broke now. Yeah, I know. So we've got the Parker Estate from the Coonawarra Terra Rosa Merlot 2021. This is about $30. Yeah, I didn't want to. You know how in the past we've done Merlot and we've kind of dissed it by buying cheap. Yes, I'm so glad you got a nice one. So I thought, even though some of the other wines that we've got are a little bit cheaper, I thought, no, I'm going to give Merlot your best foot forward.
Speaker 1:And Merlot deserves it truly. It gets so much shoot Like let's give it the best shot here.
Speaker 2:So one thing with medium-bodied reds is they'll usually be medium to deep in colour. Yep, they won't be light in colour, so the colour's going to give you an indication. Okay, right, then aromas have got nothing to do with it.
Speaker 1:Sorry, can I just quickly jump in and ask you when you were doing your MW and you were doing the tasting segments, is that how you did it in your head? Would you taste it and go all right, I'll be medium reds. Now we figure out what it will be, or was it?
Speaker 2:Not initially. So some people in the MW have a grid system.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:And they write it all down. I'm not quite sure how it works. If anyone knows how the grid system works, mw's write in and let us know.
Speaker 2:I just wrote my tasting note and then you analyzed it and then I would go back and drew noon from noon's winery. Mclarenville said to me because I struggled with reds. Yeah, he said to me, you can taste, you're writing down the right note, you're just making the wrong conclusions. Interesting, so go after you've tasted the wine, forget you've tasted the wine, forget you've tasted it. I'm handing you this tasting note. Oh, interesting, what is that wine?
Speaker 1:And is that what you recommend people do? Yes, this is how I tell all the diploma students to do it.
Speaker 2:So write like a lawyer, think like a detective.
Speaker 1:If you smell green capsicum, your brain might go oh I know, it's Cab Franc. And then you go down this and then everything you taste is Cab Franc.
Speaker 2:Of course you force yourself to taste Cab Franc.
Speaker 1:Yes, yeah, you're subliminally.
Speaker 2:And you are riding a Cab Franc nose.
Speaker 1:And you retrofit it to Cab Franc.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so we do an exercise in WCT Level 3 where we have two Shirazas. They it's in WCT Level 3 where we have two Shiraz's. They don't know what it is. One's from a cool climate, yarra Valley, yeringberg. One's from a warm climate. And then they're told this is the same grape variety. Taste the wines, give me a full tasting note. Then we want to name the variety and what kind of climate it's grown in. People see the first wine which is a cool climate Yeringberg, shiraz, syrah and their mind goes to Pinot and they write a Pinot note, wow. And then they say it's Pinot. And I said, well, what is wine? Number two, that is purple, 14.5% alcohol. And oh well, I thought maybe that was central Otagan.
Speaker 1:Okay, so this is a really good discussion to have at the start of this, so Write your note Just write what you're smelling in the glass, without bias, you know or conjecture.
Speaker 2:Just write what's in the glass and then go back. And then go back and figure out what it is and pretend someone's handed you the note and say, okay, what is it.
Speaker 1:I love that. That's really good advice to kick us off. Okay, so, merlo, before we get into what's in this glass, what are we expecting?
Speaker 2:So I'm expecting red fruits, red currant, maybe some plum, maybe some raspberry, maybe some cherry, could be thinking peanuts. Relatively lighter in colour, it's usually medium in colour. It's usually a sort of a ruby red Chocolate.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I always get that like a dusty cocoa chocolate thing.
Speaker 2:Yes, dustiness is another one, and the tannins are like driving behind someone on a dusty road. I like that. That is a Merlot tannin, even in its Pomerol form, which has got Cabernet Franc in it. It has this dusty element to it.
Speaker 1:Yep, so this has a dustiness. It has that red fruits, it has like plum and strawberry, and I definitely get a dusty chocolate like like a drinking chocolate or something yeah, and you know, when you first snap dark chocolate, yeah, and you know that feeling that dark chocolate, high cocoa gives you about.
Speaker 1:That's what a Merlot Tannin is almost like yeah, it's not super complex on the nose, so what else could this be? Um, okay, so what else could it be if it was? Just the thing is it's not bright, juicy red fruit, it is a more subdued fruit. So I guess it could be like it could be a pinot, but not like a super perfumed Pinot, like maybe like a cheaper Pinot.
Speaker 2:Yeah, dry ready Pinot Sub 20 Pinot Malbec, malbec.
Speaker 1:I expect floral from Malbec.
Speaker 2:And I don't think the colour's deep enough for. Malbec and the colour's not deep enough.
Speaker 1:It's not bright and juicy enough to be gamay or grenache. That's a bloody delicious one. Is that how it tastes? Yeah, what about Tempranillo? It could almost be a Tempranillo?
Speaker 2:Yeah, it could be.
Speaker 1:Tempranillo yeah, yep.
Speaker 2:So far, that's where we're at. Yeah, but Tempranillo for me tends to have more of a purpley colour and a bit of mulberry fruit but still, yes, and I that Tempranillo.
Speaker 1:I smell a more array of fruits. I think Tempranillo is this beautiful grape that has the ability to have red and black fruits in it, whereas this is just pretty, yeah, whereas Merlot is red fruit.
Speaker 2:Sometimes I have had Merlots that smell like blackcurrant.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, that is nice, it's lovely, isn't it?
Speaker 2:Yeah, okay, but see how the tannin is. And this is the trick, people. Yes, don't focus on the flavours and aromas, yep, don't focus on the structure. Yes, merlot usually has medium, maybe medium plus acidity. It never has high acidity. Yeah, tannins always around that medium level. Everything's medium, that's right. Yeah, alcohol may be high, but the tannin is just that dusty, dusty, dusty tannin. Once you've held that in your mouth, I think you can eliminate virtually everything else.
Speaker 1:Yep, yep. So what was the other main thing that we said? It would be A pinot, yeah.
Speaker 2:The tannin isn't right for pinot. That's just not a pinot tannin. Even if you completely stuff it up, that is not a pinot tannin. No, it's not a pinot tannin. And don't forget that when you're in an exam situation, it's likely that this will. If you've got a merlot, it could be putting you in a particular location, or these are all made from the same variety from four different regions around the world. So you are getting some clues, say in your MW, yeah, but just write your note, forget that you've tasted the wine, and then go through and circle what things are and then say, okay, what great varieties are like this. So in my MWWI would write down so, if it were, obviously they're going Merlot, malbec, Tempranillo probably that's where I would land, depending on what the question was. Yeah, and then I would go okay, what backs up each of those? You've got one where you'll have five. Yeah, what backs up each of those and what eliminates those? And that's how you work through it.
Speaker 1:And I think this is a nice representation of a good mellow. It's bloody delicious. You're right. All the ones I've tasted before have been crap Like this one's really nice, so that's probably my bias.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know what I mean. Like if it's going to be crap, so I'm not going to spend a lot of money. This is a premium, I mean, and Kunawara always over delivers for the price point.
Speaker 1:Yeah, parker Estate. I mean, you've paid you, so that's good, that's great for this. Really, I reckon people would taste this and enjoy it so much that they would be surprised there's no, that is delicious. It is delicious, okay. Um, next we have merlots. Sorry, finish. Actually, what do you expect on the finish?
Speaker 2:medium is they don't, they don't? They very rarely go long, long merlots yeah they sort of finished about five or six seconds. Yeah, you know you taste the flavour, but still you're left with that dusty driving down the dirty road, dusty road in your mouth, and the tannins aren't Cabernet, which are those blocky, chalky kind of tannins. So now we've got the oh my God, heavyweight bottle. This would have cost a fortune to import to this country. People. Casillero del.
Speaker 1:Diablo. I should have all the people, all the wineries are sending us wines to taste this year. I should have put a note in being like just so you know, if you send anything in a heavy bottle, meg will hang shit on it.
Speaker 2:Okay, this is Casillero del Diablo, so Conchitour is the biggest brand in the world. Didn't know that? Reserva Privada Carmenier, from Valley del Repel, so Repel is the center. Well, you've got Santiago here, you've got. No one can see this, obviously. So you've got Santiago, and there's only really one wine region north of Santiago. There are a couple, but one main one the central valley.
Speaker 2:Repel Valley is the center of the central valley okay so it's just at the base of the andes, so it runs from the andes to the coast. Okay, good for me, probably the best country for carmine in chile. Yeah, okay, um 2022. So usually reserva 22. So usually reserver in chilli means that it's been aged with oak.
Speaker 1:Oh okay, people can't see what you just did. I did, she did some air quotes Oak. Yes.
Speaker 2:So it would most likely be staves. Yes, so grown reservers in barrel, reservers in staves, and varietal, as they call it. Varietal sorry, I've just poured myself. Yeah, so don't forget, carmenere was mistaken to be Merlot in Chile until 1996 when a French ampelographer came through and said this is Carmenere, pretty much a lost variety from Bordeaux. Yeah, and there's a guy in Italy, in the Veneto now, who's trying to, because it is in the Veneto historically. Yeah, and he's trying to resurrect the two hectares that they had. So Carmenier, for me, usually has high alcohol, 13.5% to 14.5% Yep Warm alcohol. His roasted beetroots can have a lot of that capsicum methoxypyrazine aroma. Um can be blueberries, but again, key, the tannins are much more like shiraz tannins.
Speaker 1:They're not mellow so I would smell this and I would immediately say okay, is this carmine cab franc or an underripe Cab Sav? Yep, it is that like green capsicum.
Speaker 2:It is green capsicum. It is hardcore and this is the problem. If it's shaded it gets this what's called methoxypyrazine, it gets this green cap smell. But that's good, because we are down to three great varieties now.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Yep, right, because they're only the three great varieties that really do that, and this is because this would be a high-volume wine.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:So they're growing a lot of crop on the vines. Yeah, so it's not a high-quality Carmenere, basically.
Speaker 1:Okay. So that's good that we're down to three, and so I guess the the easiest way to figure out if you've got an underwrite cab. If you tasted an underwrite cab, the tannins would bite your face off and the acid would be quite and the acid okay. So it's pretty easy to have a taste and determine that it's not that.
Speaker 2:So then we're down to two yep and carmine has pretty moderate, moderate acidity. It loses malic acid at a great speed of knots during its ripening process. Um, they can add acid in chili, but this has got pretty moderate acidity. But feel how soft and gentle. They're like bubble bath. Oh my god they are. They're like having bubbles in your mouth. Okay, and that would. That is carmineer tannins. So shiraz was the only thing that, youannin-wise, you can confuse it with.
Speaker 1:Oh my God, that is so true. They have Shiraz tannins, whereas Cab Franc is probably closer to a carbonate tannin. Yeah yeah.
Speaker 2:Well, it is the parent, one of the parents. So it is more clunkier Mm-hmm, and do we know many Cab Francs with this amount of alcohol?
Speaker 1:No, no, because they're often.
Speaker 2:Grown in a cooler climate, cooler places. So we automatically say, okay, this is something that's warm, it's warm alcohol. It's got to be something that grows in a warm climate. So, just on flavour, just on structure, if we took all the flavour out and we didn't have that hint of methoxypyrazine, we'd be between Shiriraz and carmine Yep, yep, based on tannin and alcohol.
Speaker 1:And then, as soon as you get the herbaceous, then you go bang, carmine, yep, awesome. This is such a helpful episode. I reckon people will love this.
Speaker 2:Mind you, this is how I do it. There are a million ways to do it, but this is the way I do it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, well, you are one of a handful of master of wines in australia, so I feel like you're a pretty good person to uh take the lead off mech.
Speaker 2:So next we have a wine that's been sent to us earthworks tempranillo 2022, south australia. I don't know anything about it. Plus and juicy, with layers of chocolate, licorice and boysenberry, finishing with cocoa powder tannins do you find much difference between the Tempranillo grown in Australia versus Spain? Not much difference between the Hoven of Tempranillo grown in Spain. But when you start having Reserva and Grand Reserva, I find that they are more layered and complex wines from Spain. No one's really doing a Reserva or Grand Reserva equivalent out of Australia.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's true, they should. Yeah, I agree. So first of all, colour-wise, this could be Pinot or Merlot.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:It's very light in colour.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Like it would be almost light, I reckon.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it is. It's quite light, I get. I can just pick Tempranillo Straight away. I'm like bang Tempranillo, what are your?
Speaker 2:what are your it's?
Speaker 1:a specific kind of. It's a blueberry, I think it's a blueberry. I find in Tempranillo that I don't get really anywhere else. It's a blueberry, I think it's a blueberry. I find in Tempranillo that I don't get really anywhere else, and it is that it's like it's that combination of the red and black fruit that you can get.
Speaker 2:Mulberry. Mulberry, that's the thing Beautiful If people haven't smelt or tasted mulberry. Mulberry is almost like blueberry meets blackberry, isn't it? Yeah, it is, but with really high acidity, but it really high acidity. But it is this purple red in color that's beautiful. Mulberries will be coming out, or my mulberry tree's almost ripe, yeah, so it'll be coming out probably the end of march. Yep, um, get out, buy yourself a punnet of mulberries. They probably cost you five or six bucks, but it's well worth it, because once you've smelt it, it's like gooseberry.
Speaker 1:You've never, you never, forget it I um, I find when I smell a wine and I like the nose that much, it becomes really high stakes because I'm like I hope they can follow through on this and it's really disappointing when they don't.
Speaker 2:Okay, so we've got high alcohol in that wine.
Speaker 1:It's quite a. It's like there's not a lot of structure or something. It's just quite pleasantly drinkable.
Speaker 2:I think that the descriptors of chocolate, licorice and boysenberry finishing with cocoa powder, tannins, is kind of.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's it. It's got a really medium kind of body, a medium finish, but lovely it is lovely, but why is it Tempranillo? Okay, medium across the board, I think. So medium acid, medium tannin, medium finish, medium unaged, aged it's different. Butaged you expect medium across the board and I think both kinds of red fruit and maybe that's it for me and tannins for me.
Speaker 2:Tempranillo tannins are halfway between Malbec and Merlot. Oh my God, now you're testing me.
Speaker 1:Malbec and Merlot. Oh my God, Now you're testing me. Malbec and Merlot.
Speaker 2:Dustiness of Merlot, yeah, but more of that Pac-Man-y grip of Malbec.
Speaker 1:That is next level and probably explains why you're a muscle refiner and I'm not.
Speaker 2:Have you ever eaten, tasted quince when it hasn't been cooked? No, okay. So my mum calls them quangers. Okay, the tannins on it are just. They're kind of like Tempranillo tannins. I don't recommend people go out and do it. Although this is quince season In Chile, there's a lot of quinces grown next to vineyards. Okay, so we would often have quince fruit at the same time as picking. But don't eat it by itself. It has to be cooked. Anyway, tempranillo is a tricky one, is this?
Speaker 1:a good demonstration of a Tempranillo Like. Do you think this is like?
Speaker 2:No, ah, it's not definitive enough. Okay, but again, in an exam situation, you're going to be given some clues. Yeah, so these, are you going to get a Tempranillo from Australia? Unlikely, if they're doing Tempranillo, they are going Portugal or Spain.
Speaker 1:Yep.
Speaker 2:So it may have other Spanish grape varieties, it may have some whites thrown in there, but sit down with Navarro, rio, rioja, tempranillos, from Hoven right through to Grand Reserva and see what your hooks are. It's a tricky one I struggled with. Spanish Great varieties, for me, are the hardest because they are really medium.
Speaker 1:They are yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:You know, and they can often masquerade as something else because they're all so similar, they're almost like from the same family, but everything's sort of related.
Speaker 1:And age, just like if you taste a Hoven compared to a Gromit Zerva it's not the same thing, it's like a completely different wine. It's crazy. I mean it is a different wine, but you know what I mean. It's like it's not even from the same family.
Speaker 2:So that's a tricky one, but my advice on those tricky ones is get a whole heap of temps around and then get some temps next to Merlot.
Speaker 1:Yes, and just get that. I don't know. I represented Spanish wine for a little while, so I drank a lot of it, and I think, just when you get used to a particular like that Tempranillo, to me there's something in particular that I just tasted it and it shouted Tempranillo at me, so maybe it's one of those ones that you just need to drink enough.
Speaker 2:of Memorise, memorise, memorise, memorise.
Speaker 1:I mean, that's some good homework, right yeah. So, now we've got Menthea. Yeah, which was not on my bingo card for today. It's getting bigger and bigger.
Speaker 2:The reason I kind of chose it is because the colour for me is very Merlot-esque, mm-hmm, but the tannins just set it apart. Yeah, so this is from Biezo. This is from Celterio. That's the winery Mencia, from Biezo. This is from Celterio.
Speaker 1:That's the winery Mencia from Biezo yeah.
Speaker 2:In Spain 12.5% alcohol and it's a 2021. This is imported by Pinnacle Drinks.
Speaker 1:Okay.
Speaker 2:So Biezo is sort of on top of Portugal in the north. Got my geography shit, is it west?
Speaker 1:Northwest of.
Speaker 2:Spain. Yeah, it's the left-handed side of Spain, up the top of Portugal, so it's sort of around Galicia. It gets a fair bit of rain and Minthea. For me again, like Tempranillo, describe the characteristics of Minthea, don't know no. Blue and red fruits.
Speaker 1:My only context of the Minthea grape is I know that it's added to Tempranillo for ageability and colour. If you're turning Tempranillo and it's going to be a grown reserver Minthea is one of the main ones that add to it for colour and ageability, but that's beyond that. I couldn't tell you what it tastes like.
Speaker 2:So it is becoming trendier and that's why I got it. One of the reasons I got it today because it can appear in MW exams and diploma exams. I think because it's sort of a bit of a trend set up. Colour could be Merlot. Yeah, climate exams. I think, because it's sort of a bit of a trend set up Colour could be Merlot. Yeah, medium ruby colour Smells of like raspberry and strawberry jam a little bit. That's been mixed together, mm-hmm, the fruit is more compote-y, it's more cooked fruit than fresh fruit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's like a darkness. There's not a vibrancy to it.
Speaker 2:I wouldn't say there's any blueberry or blackberry in there.
Speaker 1:Do you get something almost like a forest floral? There's something green in there definitely Something kind of manky, but not bad manky, good manky. I need to come up with a better word for manky, don't I? For me it's a little bit like you know, when mud becomes a bit stinky yes, I get that all the time and I don't mean it in a bad way, I actually like it.
Speaker 2:It's not a yes, bad thing, but it's got that sort of a green. I'm gonna say fetid, which is a terrible term, but there's an earthy greenness about it.
Speaker 1:Dirty mud, I don't know. Yeah, we need to come up with a nicer way to say dirty mud, but it's what I'm getting to. But there is a hint of green.
Speaker 2:I don't know if this is made with stems or anything, but the thing that will give it away it's only 12.5% alcohol. Those tannins, it, those tannins.
Speaker 1:It tastes so different to how it smells. Hmm, it's yummy, though, do you know? It almost tastes like a Nebbiolo. It's a little simple.
Speaker 2:Do you get?
Speaker 1:that? Yeah, it is. Is it a little cork tainted? Yeah, probably Just a little yeah.
Speaker 2:But the tannins. It was under cork. We're just saying it might be a little bit cork-tainted, so it's probably unfair to. We can't talk about the flavours but we can talk about the tannin structure, which is dustier and chunkier.
Speaker 1:I was laughing. They were here when you said that. When you said it was under cork-taint, you said that into the microphone.
Speaker 2:They heard, even though you were talking to me, but you can still see past cork taint to have a look at the structure of the lime. So we might try and get another bottle of this at another time. I'm not 100% sure. It's one of those cork taints where the fruit just seems dulled. It does, and, as you said, not what you expected. No, not at all. Yeah, but anyway, my taco message still serves the same. Mencia has these dusty, grippy tannins, a little bit like Mataro Mivedra.
Speaker 1:It's got and have, like Chinon, wine from Chinon. So what if Merlot was a bit rougher?
Speaker 2:If Merlot had been kept on its skins for like six weeks? Yeah, okay, yeah, merlot's the like elegant lady here. Lady, this is the brutal Merlot.
Speaker 1:Not supposed to say things like that anymore.
Speaker 2:Meg, yes, we're not allowed to use gender-related terms.
Speaker 1:Okay, yes, we're not allowed to use masculine and feminine related terms. No, okay, I think this has been a really good episode, like I think, um, in terms of being able to break down what a wine is based off what you're tasting. Hopefully, um, there's some diploma or west at three students who are listening, who are fine. Well, actually, westesset 3 don't need to decide what it is, they just need to do a good note, but I don't know even. It's just nice to know. I think, as a wine, a someone who enjoys wine, that's what got me into wine in the first place. Um, we went to, of course it was. We went to Debilge. I know, you know, my friends are salad or manager there now oh my god, really tell them to send me some stuff, so.
Speaker 1:But I remember standing there tasting stuff and I was like I just wanted to know. All I wanted was to be like I want to taste a wine and know whether it's a Riesling or a Chardonnay, and that is what set me off and I started doing courses and stuff. I mean, clearly I can tell you if it what we were doing and what we're doing now, but I couldn't back then. No, how would you know? Yeah, so I think it's really handy to go through and do this with all the wines. So this was our medium reds. We will get to heavy reds later in the season, but bottom line is it's down to structure.
Speaker 2:It's got nothing to do with flavours. Ignore the flavours. The flavours will give you. Okay, I'm here.
Speaker 1:So start with structure, decide what it could be yeah and then come back and bring in the flavours to Support or get rid of Okay. But don't start with flavours and aromas. All right, love it. Well, we will be back with you next week, but until then, enjoy your next glass of wine and
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