What interests us here: drinking
And yet I love guides. I love ratings, lists and rankings. And I love them because choosing, cataloging, and rating is something we do - at least I do obsessively - every damn day of our lives: the best croissant, the third best Arabica coffee, the second best morning fuck or the worst movie of the year. And it is that the lists work because order is beauty and the charm of chaos is a hoax for modern and insecure. Order is cool and disorder is not cool. And no more talk.
All this taranta comes from La Nariz de Oro 2012. An event with a rather simple goal: choose the best sommelier of the year and incidentally the 21 best wines in the country . There are already twenty editions and the process is more than respectable because the tastings are blind and because sommeliers (more than four hundred) from restaurants throughout Spain participate in them. Neither journalists nor amateurs: active sommeliers, those who deal every day with clients, chefs and ball-busting foodies.
But wait a minute, stop the machines! I am not stating here that I do not like or respect the **Peñín Guide, Repsol or Todovino**. Moreover, I am a client (and even a friend) I simply believe that the tasting method of La Nariz de Oro is the most neutral, democratic and -therefore- valid. That because? Read for yourselves how the Peñín Guide works and how Todovino works.
In the Peñín Guide, without going any further, they taste at sight and the tasters are three professionals from Peñín. The wines, by the way, can be advertised in the Guide and for a modest price their label appears next to the tasting score. In other words, three tasters with visible labels. In the Golden Nose there are 400 and blindly, but they are also active restaurant sommeliers. What can I say...
This weekend the final was held in Madrid, after a whole year of semi-finals and qualifiers after which 63 sommeliers survived. The best. The new winner of the 2012 Golden Nose was José Joaquín Cortés, sommelier at the Modesto restaurant in Seville.
And now, what interests us here, the drink. The 21 best valued wines divided into seven essential categories:
Sparkling:
1º III Lustros Gran Reserva 2005, from Gramona (Cava)
2nd Els Cutpatges de Mestres Brut Special Reserve, from Mestres (Cava)
3rd Agustí Torelló Mata Brut Nature Gran Reserva, by Agustí Torelló Mata (Cava)
Whites:
1st Finca Valiñas 2010, from Mar de Frades (Rías Baixas)
2nd Pradorrey Verdejo 2011, from the Royal Site of Ventosilla (Ribera del Duero)
3rd Circe Verdejo 2011, by Avelino Vegas (Wheel)
Rosé:
1st Hiriart Elite 2011, from Hiriart (Cigales)
2nd Arrayán 2011, from Arrayán (Méntrida)
3rd Otto Bestué Tempranillo-Cabernet Sauvignon 2011, from Otto Bestué (Somontano)
Red wine aged less than 9 months:
1st Oak Feature 2008, from Carabal (Ribera del Guadiana)
2nd Crápula 2009, of Glm Strategies of Wines (Jumilla)
3rd Tarsus Roble 2010, from Tarsus (Bodegas Domecq) (Ribera del Duero)
Reds aged for more than 9 months:
1st Finca Terrerazo 2010, from Mustiguillo (El Terrerazo)
2nd Cosme Palacio VS 2009, by Palacio (Sons of A. Barceló) (Rioja)
3rd Arzuaga Special Reserve 2008, from Arzuaga (Ribera del Duero)
Generous:
1st Amontillado del Duque, by González Byass (Jerez)
2nd Npu Amontillado, by Sánchez Romate (Jerez)
3º Ricafembra Solera 1980, from Iglesias (Huelva County)
Sweet:
1st Don PX 2008, from Toro Albalá (Montilla Moriles)
2nd Ivory Molt Dolç, from Alella Vinícola (Alella)
3rd Ochoa Moscatel 2011, from Ochoa (Navarra)
See you at the bars. Or better, in the wine cellars.
Long live (the triumph of) Bacchus