by Arianna Armstrong
I had really wanted to try Sublime Food Lounge. Coincidentally, I’d also really wanted to be invited to a winemaker lunch or dinner. Obviously, when I received the invitation to join Manuel Fariña at Sublime and try his delicious wines from the Toro region in Spain, I was fairly stoked.
Distributor Robert Castellani of Specialty Cellars orchestrated the meeting, keeping the food – like Roasted Beet Salad (with hazelnuts and beet balsamic syrup), Fresh Pear Salad (with gorgonzola and walnuts) and an amazing cup of lobster and lettuces – deftly distributed, and the wine flowing.
Mmm, and such delicious wine!
- Dueba Old Vine Sparklin Malvasia (non DO) This 100% old vine Malvasia Methode Champenoise is only available for holidays at local markets. So today was like a Spanish Christmas! Gentle beads in the glass. Yeast, green apple and citrus nose. Slightly sweet flavors, with notes of banana and yeast bread.
- Dama de Toro Malvasia 2009 Also 100% old vine Malvasia, the Dama de Toro doesn’t touch any oak. Its citrusy, strawberry, mineral self is fermented in steel tanks. Great acid, soft tannin, somewhat high alcohol.
- Peromato 2009, Vino de la Tierra 100% Tempranillo. A nose of sour milk/yogurt, red fruit, earth and acacia flowers. Soft, uncomplicated flavor profile with a short finish. This wine went remarkably well with our beet salad. Yum!
- Dama de Toro Barrel Aged 2008 Mostly Tinto de Toro (Tempranillo) with a bit of Garnacha mixed in for good measure. This wine is made from free run juice and spends 4 months in 50% American oak and 50% French oak. Great balance, lots of red fruit, velvety tannins.
- Dama de Toro Crianza 2004 Tinto de Toro and Garnacha. 8 months in American oak. Somehow, the parent vines that produce the grapes for this wine managed to avoid the phylloxera epidemic of the late 1800’s. Some people say they can taste a difference in the wine that’s been made from grafted root stock and the wine that isn’t. I’m not that fancy, but if it matters to you, definitely look up the Dama de Toro Crianza! 60+ years old vine, flavors of oak and red fruit.
- Gran Dama de Toro 2004 Tinto de Toro and Garnacha. This is great food wine. The Gran Dama de Toro is Fariña’s premium wine, and is much more complex than the others. Stronger tannins, intense cherry and red fruit, spice, licorice, vanilla and smoke. This wine comes from 80 – 90-year-old vines, and is made in small batches.
All of this deliciousness traveled from the Toro region of Spain. The area, (located in western Castilla y León, toward the north of the country, and only 40km from Portugal), has a long wine producing history, specifically growing Garnacha, Malvasia and Tinto de Toro (a premium clone of Tempranillo, with its own, unique characteristics). However, a long growing history does not guarantee premium wines, and when the Fariña family tried to export their product back in the 1970’s, they realized that the harsh, heavily tannic Toro wines beloved in the area were not sellable internationally.
Manuel quickly regrouped, and began using the winemaking skills he had learned in Requena, Valencia and Bordeaux, France to completely overhaul his family’s winemaking business – investing in modern stainless steel tanks, new equipment and high quality barriques, and experimenting with softer varietal blends. He also moved harvesting time forward by a month to decrease the amount of alcohol down from the standard 16% - 18%. With these changes, modern Toro was born.
In 1987, Manuel Fariña was successful in establishing the Toro Denominación de Origen (DO). It is this commitment to the region and his vision for Toro that earned him the presidency of the DO regulating body and the reputation as “founding father of Toro.” Clearly he did something right, because in October 2004, the inimitable Robert Parker came out with this prediction:
“By 2015, those areas that have traditionally produced Spain's finest
wines (Ribera del Duero and Rioja) will have assumed second place
behind such up-and-coming regions as Toro, Jumilla and Priorat.”
Good food, great wine and an afternoon of exciting history? Sublime, indeed. Olé!
