We must admit we have not tasted as many Spanish wines as French or American or even Italian wines. But this is what decanted is all about: sharing new experiences and learning from them. At one of our favorite DC wine stores, Addy Bassin's MacArthur Beverages, we selected the 2003 Aalto Ribera del Duero
from Spain's northern plateau. Like most red wines from this region,
the Aalto is made from the Tempranillo grape. Due to similarities in
taste and structure, many experts once believed that tempranillo was
related to one of our favorites, Pinot Noir, only to be discredited by
those pesky geneticists. It was because of these similarities that we were very excited to try this example of Tempranillo.
Oftentimes, however, high expectations can lead to greater disappointment. The Aalto was a deep purple-colored wine with a strong smoky nose. What we tasted was a very tightly wound, tannic, toasty wine that got
reasonably better with aeration (exposing it to air over time), but
never really came out of its shell. Perhaps a few more years would do
this wine well, but for $54.99 we gave this wine a disappointing 5.5 out of 10.
