Somm's Table

I have a growing proverbial stack of posts that I’ve been meaning to write forever – I’m sure this is not an uncommon problem among bloggers. A lot of them are about wine events I went to in the Before Times, and right about now I’m looking back on these bygone days quite longingly. One such event was a wonderful lunch I attended exploring the wines of Bodegas LAN at Bellota Restaurant in SF in November of 2019. Since we’ve been taking a look at Rioja recently, now seems like the perfect time to take a look back at this lunch too. It was really a lovely way to better get to know the wines.

LAN’s wines are pretty easy to be found in the US and they have wines at many price points. They have been around since 1972 and they’re a medium-sized operation with a lot of reach, but they’re conscientious about the environment and how they work, paying close attention to things like water usage, soil erosion, pollution, and they do not use chemical herbicides in their vineyards. Their winemaker María Barua has been a big driving force behind many of their initiatives. We’ve actually explored LAN on this blog before in Cooking to the Wine: Bodegas LAN Rioja Reserva with Smoky Seared Octopus, so please take look at that post for a little more info, as well as to grab a very tasty recipe. You can also learn more about their sustainability practices here.

Now let’s jump right into the lunch and line-up. Even though the wines were tasted a while ago now, many of these age very well, and of course newer vintages are available of the wines that are intended for younger consumption. It’s also a good way to see how the different styles and age classification levels affect the wine. Here’s a infographic from Winefolly.com as a refresher:

The wines were paired with a really beautiful menu of updated Spanish classics prepared by Bellota, and since both the wines and food were quite classic, the pairings can easily continue to provide inspiration. I really loved the food and absolutely hope to go back in the After Times (fingers crossed). They are currently offering takeout and delivery.

Here's what was on the menu:

Heirloom Tomato Salad with stone fruits, cucumber, migas, jimmy nardello peppers, six-month aged manchego.

Patatas Bravas (always a favorite!) - crisped potatoes, chipotle brava salsa, and smoky aioli.

Tortilla - Spanish omelet, swiss chard, green garlic, chorizo, potato, goat feta, pimenton aioli.

A beautiful Paella filled with fall vegetables including wild mushrooms, autumn squash, broccoli di ciccio, sunchokes, chestnuts, pickled red onions, and pomegranate.

Chuleton - Wood-grilled, dry-aged Flannery beef, basque tximitxurri, bone-marrow holandesa, and shallot butter.

Queso - Three Manchego Flight with quince paste, celery, and grape picos.

Churros with dulce de leche and salted chocolate sauce - Yum!

And here are the wines tasted (click the links for additional details on each wine):

Santiago Ruiz O Rosal Rías Baixas 2018 (Average price $21) - Round peach and citrus notes, backed up by saline and stones.

You might be wondering what a Rías Baixas is doing in this line-up. It turns out Bodegas LAN owns this winery in NW Spain as well.

This wine made a lovely aperitif and it was excellent with the tomato salad!

D-12 Rioja 2015 (SRP $18) - Violets, bright black cherry, a touch of tobacco, dill. Easy drinking and juicy with a little grip on the finish.

D-12 Rioja 2016 (SRP $18) - A little plusher than the 2015, showing notes of raspberry and red plums, a hint of cinnamon. It also shows a little more tannic grip and structure than the 2015.

Blend: 100% Tempranillo.

Historically at LAN, wines that stood out as being particularly good after fermentation were assigned to vat number 12. The D-12 is an homage to the legacy and the place. The 2016 is 10th vintage of this wine.

Both of the D-12’s were really nice with the tortilla dish. They were also solid with the salad, particularly the bright 2015. The 2016 was also nice with the potatoes.

Viña Lanciano Rioja Reserva 2012 (SRP $25) - Red plums, black cherry, baking spice including cinnamon, black tea, and herbs. Elegant and smooth, with a grip from dusty tannins on the finish.

Blend: 90% Tempranillo, 8% Graciano, and 2% Mazuelo. Vines come from 30+ year old vines from their Viña Lanciano estate vineyard.

This is their original flagship wine. It’s always a reserva and made with the intention of being respectful of the traditional regional aromas associated with the wines. I really enjoyed this with the potatoes, including the lightly spicy sauce.

Edicíon Limitada Rioja 2013 (SRP $43) – Classic nose with savory tertiary notes, cherries, berries, and plums. Tobacco on the palate, the fruit still shows freshness despite the age.

Blend: 82% Tempranillo, 10% Mazuelo, and 8% Graciano. 2013 was a difficult vintage, but still a very nice wine.

Edicíon Limitada Rioja 2016 (SRP $43) - Ripper fruit notes, a mix of red and black fruits, in comparison to the 2013, with hints of dusty earth and baking spices in the background. Smooth and elegant.

Blend: 87% Tempranillo, 9% Mazuelo, and 4% Graciano. An easier vintage than the 2013, and it comes out in the ripeness of the grapes.

The two Edicíon Limitadas were particularly good with the paella. The 2013 got brighter in the pairing, and the richness of the 2016 was perhaps even better.

Xtrème Organic Rioja Crianza 2014 (SRP $18) - Chocolate on the nose, with light moist tobacco and cedar. Black cherries, raspberries, and plums. Silky with nice acidity, and dusty tannins. Tastes like it could easily age longer.

Xtrème Organic Rioja Crianza 2015 (SRP $18) - Exotic notes of musk on the nose, sandlewood, dark plums, black raspberries. It was plush with an uncurrent of brightness.

Blend: 100% Tempranillo

The Xtrème Organic line was spearheaded by María Barua, and it shows her and the winery’s commitment to the land and a more sustainable future. These are the first two vintages of the line. The grapes come from a special parcel on the Viña Lanciano Estate.

The wines sang with the steak, in particular the 2015. Sooooo good!

It’s been so nice to reminisce about these beautiful wines and this delicious lunch. If we ever make it back to Rioja in the After Times, LAN will definitely be on my visiting list.

And for one more pairing and LAN wine exploration, check out Chuck-it-all-in-there Paella paired with their Culmen Reserva.

The churros weren't paired, but they were good, so we'll use them to end on a sweet note.

This post contains affiliate links, including these Amazon Associate links, from which I might receive a commission at no cost to you.

We celebrated 4th of July weekend this summer with our friends Lucy and Drew at the Culinary Cabin.

We love these weekends. They’re all about cooking up a storm and drinking good wine with our friends for days straight. I have to say, I love the summer trips even more since I love sunshine and we get to intercut the feasting with hikes and occasional boat rides on Lake Tahoe.

(We have a few more Culinary Cabin posts in the works from trips this summer. To own it, this one has been pending for a month now!)

Summer also means that there are more chances to use the grill. Since we live in an apartment, we don’t get to grill at our place. It’s fun to make use of one when it’s available.

One about Tahoe is that shopping options are limited. However, a while ago Drew discovered a wonderful specialty store called Market 28 in Tahoe City. There’s always something fun to be found here, so it’s now almost a tradition to stop in for treasure hunting. This time around we found frozen madako tako, or steamed octopus, along with a few other flavorful treats. We decided to use them to create seared, smoky octopus dish that was traditional of nothing whatsoever.

I had a bottle of Rioja Reserva waiting for us and thought that we could create a tasty pairing for it with the octopus. Tempranillo is Spain’s star grape, and Rioja is arguably its star region. (Located in NE spain, Rioja shares the category of Denominación de Origen Calificada, or DOCa, the top rung of Spain’s quality ladder, only with Priorat.) Red Rioja’s (white and rosé versions exist too) are usually Tempranillo driven, with Garnacha, Graciano and Mazuelo (aka Carignan) as the potential supporting cast. I think Rioja's wines are among the most versatile reds out there.

The tricky thing about Tempranillo is that it can be a little bit of a chameleon grape. It usually has red to dark red fruit flavors of strawberry or cherry, but it can go deeper and darker. You’ll also often find savory tobacco and herbal notes, and earthy notes like clay. The structural elements – acidity, alcohol, body, and tannins – can kind of range all over the place, which can sometimes make this a hard grape to pin down. Tempranillo’s million and one aliases speak to this grape’s multiple personalities. Here’s just a small sampling of the names it goes by: Cencibel, Tinto Fino, Tinto del Pais, Tinto de Toro, Tinto Madrid, Ojo de Liebre, Ull de Llebre, and Aragonez and Tinta Roriz in Portugal.

The other thing to be aware of is oak aging. In Rioja (and elsewhere in Spain) you might see the words Crianza, Reserva, or Gran Reserva on the bottle. In the US and other New World countries, we sometimes stick Reserve ad Grand Reserve on the bottle and it really doesn’t mean anything. They’re marketing terms that might be the winery’s way of telling you this an upper tier, or maybe they just thought it sounded good. That’s not the case in Spain. Crianza, Reserva, and Gran Reserva are regulated terms pertaining to the length of time the wine has been aged in oak.

This infographic from WineFolly.com summarizes the details.

Both oak contact and aging affects the flavors in the wine, and these indications can give you an idea of the types of flavors you might find. Straight up Rioja, with now other indicator, will have little to no oak aging. These will tend to have lighter, brighter fruit flavors. As you move up to Crianza, you can start to expect little hints of spice notes in the wine, which comes from contact with the oak barrels. Reservas tend to have more spice notes, plus notes of tobacco and leather than start to emerge as wine ages. Gran Reservas spend the most time in wood, so you get lots of spice box notes, as well as lots of complex savory leather, tobacco, mushroom, earth, and dried fruit notes that come with time. One more thing to be aware of is that oak has tannins and can add to those already in the wine.

THE WINE & PAIRING

Today’s wine is a the Bodegas LAN Rioja Reserva 2012. The winery has been around since 1972 and the name is made up of initials of three provinces of Rioja DOCa: Logroño (currently part of La Rioja), Álava, and Navarra.

Note: This bottle was provided as a sample. No compensation was received and, as always, all opinions are my own.

LAN’s wines are pretty easy to find in many places in the US. They’re sizeable, but they pay careful attention to sustainability. They believe by doing so, they help to develop the immunity of their vines to pests and diseases. They also predominantly work manually in their vineyards as part of their effort to reduce soil erosion and pollution. In addition, they limit their water usage and do not apply any chemical herbicides. Their sustainability practices go much further – you can read about them here.

LAN’s winemaker María Barua has had a big part to play in their sustainability efforts. She got her love of wine from her father, who would always take great care in selecting the wines to be served with their Sunday lunch. She went on to study Chemistry and Enology, and eventually started working at LAN in 2002, where she rose through the ranks. María puts LAN’s founding principle that winemaking starts with viticulture into practice. This is enhanced by research and innovation. María has spearheaded some of LAN’s more special projects, like LAN Xtrème Organic, her and the winery’s commitment to the land and a more sustainable future.

Photo of María Barua courtesy of Bodegas LAN and Gregory + Vine PR

Our subject wine today though is their Rioja Reserva 2012. Like I mentioned, we enjoyed the bottle at the Culinary Cabin over July 4th weekend. Greg, Drew, and I gathered around to taste it and get ideas for our lunch. The wine showed notes on the nose of steeped cherries, tobacco, cigar box, dills and other mixed herbs, hints of coffee.

On the palate, there were sour cherries and other mixed red fruits, light tobacco, mixed herbs, leather, licorice, and spice box – a pretty classic representation o Rioja Reserva. It had medium acidity that was approaching medium plus, medium tannins, and medium+ body. Greg noted that the wine’s structure was very integrated, a fact that only increased with time, as the wine got smoother with air.

As I mentioned, we’d picked up octopus at our favorite local store and we thought it would be a good match with the wine. So you might be thinking, ‘Red wine and seafood?!’ Depending on the region and style, Tempranillo can have moderate tannins (I did say they could run the gamut). When this is the case, and it often is with Rioja, it allows the wines to work with certain seafood dishes. Seafood and tannins don’t like each other very much and tend to clash, creating unpleasant flavor sensations when had together. It’s one of the factors that has led to the rule of thumb that seafood should be paired with white wines.

As is the case with a lot of rules of thumb, however, the reality is more nuanced, and if you know more about the issue you know there are ways around it. Picking red wines that have light to medium tannins will lead you to a higher success rate at having them get along with seafood at the table. Light, delicate fish are also less likely to play as nicely as something a little more meaty. Salmon and Pinot Noir are generally considered to be a classic combo for just these reasons – rule of thumb be damned.

Octopus is also a pretty meaty piece of seafood, and I find it often works well with light to medium red wines. On the flip side, the tannins on this Tempranillo were present, but not terribly aggressive, so it stood a good chance of working well with the octopus. The oak was a similar case, and we thought we could integrate those flavors further by giving a smoky char to the octopus on grill. In addition, Greg, Drew, and I all huddled around the spice drawer tasting and smelling things to come up with a blend we thought would work.

I took our selections and made a seasoning mix that served multiple purposes. It served as a rub for the octopus, seasoning for vegetables to be grilled, and got mixed into an oil to be drizzled on at the table.

Just as we’d hoped, the complex mix of herbs and spices brought out similar notes in the wine, with the char on the octopus speaking to the light toast. It all worked super well together!

OTHER POSSIBILITIES

I think we covered the basic of red wine pairings for this above: keep your selections in the light to medium body camp, with tannins that are light and/or very supple.

I think this dish should be fairly versatile – plenty a white wine and rosé would work here as well!

By a similar token, I think this is a wine that can go well with a lot of different dishes. On their site, LAN recommends, “All kinds of meat, particularly game, lamb, ‘cocido’ and other rich stews.”

THE GEEKY DETAILS

Taken from the tech sheet.

GRAPE VARIETIES: 92% Tempranillo and 8% Mazuelo.
VINEYARDS: Selected vineyards in the Rioja Alta and Rioja Alavesa subzones with an average age of more than 25 years.
WINEMAKING: Fermented in stainless steel tanks, with temperature control to ensure that it doesn't go over 28ºC to avoid losing the aromas from the grape. Three weeks' maceration with frequent pumping-over to ensure a good colour extraction.
AGEING: 18 months in hybrid barrels of French and American oak. Bodegas LAN is a pioneer in the use of hybrid barrels that combine American oak staves - giving vanilla elegance - and French oak bases, which provide touches of spice. LAN Reserva remained a further 20 months in the bottle, to complete its rounding off.

MONEY TALK

The SRP on this wine is $20, and Wine-Searcher.com lists the average price at $16. The wine delivers quite a bit at this price point, making it an Over Achiever.