Bodegas Taron

At our weekly event on Friday July 11th between 5 and 8pm, Allen Rogers of Atlanta Beverage presents the wines of Bodegas Taron of Rioja Alta, Spain.  The wines are priced very moderately ($10-$20) yet like most Spanish wines, they taste like they should be much more expensive.  Spain has this unbeatable combination of old vines and old viniculture to team with new world investment in technology along with the right people in charge to get the product out to those of us who appreciate it.

Refreshingly, they also know how to do a winery website.  All of the following is taken from www.bodegastaron.com, which lays out information as crisply and cleanly and with as little pretense as possible.  One small problem for me though: Bodegas Taron is a cooperative venture using vineyards in four different towns in Rioja Alta which I would have liked to learn more about, but I guess that's just me since there was no further information to be had there.

At the event on the 11th we will be tasting five of the seven wines Taron makes.  Apparently Atlanta Beverage chose not to carry the top of the line red, Cepas Centenarius, made from one hundred year old Tempranillo vines.  The Crianza will be bypassed also because, according to Allen, it paled beside the others.  So now that you know about the ones that got away, here are the five to be tasted:

1.  2012 Blanco - Made from 60 year old Viura (Macabeo) vines from the four contributing Rioja Alta vineyards.  The wine is cold fermented after a slight maceration to preserve freshness.

2.  2012 Rosado - 50% Viura, 40% Garnacha, and 10% Tempranillo.  Pale pink salmon in color, light with ripe fruit and floral components, macerated and fermented in cold steel vats.

3.  2012 Tempranillo - 100% Tempranillo grapes from unspecified thirty year old vineyards.  Aromas are of wild red berries, black cherry color, good acidity with smooth astringency, fresh mouthfeel with a long finish.  (Does this sound like a $10 wine?)

All of the red wine descriptions use similar wording to describe their viniculture: "careful checks on ripening are made in the vineyard when phenol content and aromatic potential are at their peak for harvesting" and then later in the winery, hand harvesting is implied as "de-stemming" is emphasized for each wine.  All of which speaks to quality in production.

4.  2009 Taron4M - 95% Tempranillo and 5% Mazuelo sourced from low yielding vines in the four vineyards, cold maceration three days before fermentation in stainless steel followed by malolactic fermentation, four months in American oak with lees stirring.  Deep cherry color, aromatically intense ripe red berry fruit, sweet soft tannins with toasted American oak.

5.  2005 Taron Reserva - 90% Tempranillo and 10% Mazuelo.  Cold maceration for 2-3 days followed by a seven day fermentation for 15-18 days total in the vat including malolactic.  Then two years in new American oak before fourteen months of cellaring.  Ruby red color, meaty, full, intense with an elegant finish and long serene aftertaste.


Join us for the tasting on Friday the 11th which will also include the current vintage from the historic Veedercrest Napa Cabernet Sauvignon.  Then on Friday the 18th Dimitry Paladino of Ultimate Distributors joins us with a fair sampling of his wares. 

By the way, on Thursday July 10th we have scheduled a class/tasting on Sauvignon Blanc.  Please contact us for that one if you are interested.

This Friday, the 4th of July,  we will be open and tasting two whites and four reds including Veramonte Chilean Red Blend, Chakana Argentine Malbec, Ruffino "Modus" Super Tuscan, and Bocelli "In Canto" Italian Cabernet Sauvignon.  Please join us for the tasting between 5 and 8pm.