IESE Wine & Spirits - 4Gins

I'm a little prone to sentimentality on occasion - amplified with the effects of that good booze. So please indulge me. For IWS' final event of first year, we showed love to the other half of our name. We would be tasting gin. For gin, for friends, 4Gins.

A little word, first. I cannot begin expressing (eloquently at least) how grateful and thankful I am for the support of my classmates, my friends. When we started, I had just a glimmer, a shimmering in the distance, that I wanted a wine club. A place where we could gather, have fun, and share a few glasses together of that sweet, sweet nectar. And so we started, not with the clearest idea of how to do things, but rather with a clear purpose - that everything IWS did would follow those three greatest principles wine teaches us. Honesty, authenticity, conviction - the holy trinity. 

There's a group in Barcelona, drinks professionals, called Slow Drink Movement. Their mandate is simple - to host tastings to educate and promote various spirits in a fun, relaxed way. I had met one of them at his day (or rather, night) job at a bar in Eixample, and right away, I knew I had found my guy. Young, energetic, creative, and skilled behind the bar. So we started talking, and although it's taken a few months to put together, we were finally able to do 4Gins. Four gins, all English, showing a variety of styles. The boys took us through a tasting first, explaining the differences in distillation process and their effect on the final product, before using the same gins to make four cocktails. A powerful impression, combining the best of both worlds - we were able to see the nuances in each gin in their original states, before seeing how different they could be once applied in cocktails. My favourite one of the night? Man, that Oxley was a discovery. Powerful, linear, incredibly dry. But I have to say I've a newfound appreciation for Plymouth. Complex, dry, but with great elegance. Finesse in a gin, served straight? It's possible. Many thanks boys. 

So ends IWS' first year. It's been incredible, and the great support and reception we've received gives us encouragement to continue working hard to bring you cool things to taste, to experience. Next up? Vineyard visits ... wine/spirit importers/retailers ... artisanal beers ... we've only just started.

The culture of drink endures because it offers so many 

rewards - confidence for the shy, clarity for the uncertain, 

solace to the wounded and lonely, and above all, 

the elusive promises of friendship and love.

-Pete Hamill

DF

IESE Wine & Spirits - The Grand Wines of Spain

2013 Marques De Caceres. Ecológico Bio | Rioja
2012 Legaris Roble | DO Ribera del Duero
2011 Arzuaga Crianza | DOC Ribera del Duero
2009 Marqués de Murrieta Finca Ygay Reserva | DOCa Rioja

As in life, wine is about time and place. Time and place. A few hundred metres in one direction, a few hundred in the other ... a few months early, a few months late ... it's all to give a sense of identity, a sense of purpose to the wine, isn't it. And just like in life, the best wines represent those three immutable qualities: authenticity, honesty, and character.

I was excited for this. IWS hosted a tasting of the two most famous wine regions of Spain: Rioja and Ribera del Duero. A pair of wines from each, of varying ages. What we wanted to achieve was to give our members a sense of how differently the same grape varietal - tempranillo - can react depending on where it's grown, and the winemaking applied. So we started with the Marques de Caceres, an organic wine. Young and fresh, a bit nondescript, but a good, simple wine for the table. The Legaris was a clear step up in quality. A wine I've tasted before, and what I felt was a good representation of the modern Ribera. Fruit forward, but remaining balanced, a plushy, well-textured wine. The Arzuaga was a major discovery for me. Grown just downwind from the vineyards of Vega Sicilia and Pingus, this was a throwback Ribera del Duero. Structured and tight, but with the most beautiful red fruit character and integrated oak. Creamy vanilla and bright fruit, finishing focused and tensile. Square-shouldered yet remaining elegant. And finally, the Marqués de Murrieta, the grand old man of Rioja. Superbly delicate and fine, all silk and cashmere on the palate. The ballerina to the blockbusters of Ribera. A slight orange hue on the rim, but youthful and linear. Sheer elegance, class in a glass.

Time and place. We look for these inimitable influences in wines of quality and distinction. Is there really a framework for tasting? I don't think so. Sure, experience teaches us to look for certain things, for certain attributes that tell us about a wine. But is that the only point? Put in another way, should we be tasting or drinking? Perhaps a discussion for another time, another bottle. Let's think a bit on it, the next time we reach for a glass. The tasting brought up a lot of interesting discussion - about tasting, about the influence of winemaking, about the language of wine. Let's keep those conversations going.

Many thanks to my officers for making this tasting happen, as well as to our members who continue to show love and support for IWS.

The culture of drink endures because it offers so many rewards ... above all the elusive promise of friendship and love

Pete Hamill, A Drinking Life: A Memoir

DF

IESE Wine & Spirits at L'Anima del Vi

2012 Xavier Benier 'Pur Jus' | AC Beaujolais-Villages
2012 Simon Busser 'Sauvages' | AC Cahors
2012 Cueva by Mariano Vino Natural | DO Utiel-Requena | Valencia

Take courage when the road is long

Don't ever forget you're never alone

I want you to live forever

Underneath the sky so blue

I want you to live forever

Underneath the sky so blue

- Live Forever, Drew Holcomb & The Neighbors

I'm so proud to announce the official kicking off of the IESE Wine & Spirits Club, at an event that was at once both a realization of a personal dream as well as a statement about Europe as a continuing source of inspiration in wine. Firstly, much gratitude and credit to my other club officers for helping me set up IWS, as well as this first tasting.

And what a tasting it was.

This (as yet) adolescent wine adventure has been a roller-coaster, so to speak. Barcelona's been fantastic for cheap and cheerful bottles, but we should never be settling, no ... never accepting. Give me a decent bottle, or I'll break your fingers. Nicely. Gently. Because without a challenge, without constant change, we get lazy, we get complacent, we start to think we know it all. And if I want to accomplish anything with IWS, it's to challenge our members' perception of what wine is, what taste is ... in short, everything they thought they knew about wine. If I can get just one person to say, You know what, eff this, I'm drinking this the way I want to drink it, I think we've done our job. Hack at the feet, pull that noose tight around its neck ... let's pull down those statues the old standby worshipped, and be free to have our own personal relationship with wine.

Right. Back to the tasting, before I took a sharp right. There's a tiny wine bar in Barcelona, in one of my favourite neighbourhoods. El Born is such a cool place, with all these little alleys hidden away in dark corners. And in one of them stands L'Anima del Vi, run by a man absolutely committed to natural wines. Benoit brings in interesting things, across France and Spain ... and the latter was the big learning for me. I've been to L'Anima del Vi many, many times, always finding something new to taste, something inspiring. I never knew that there was such a large group of Spanish natural winemakers, but there are - and they're doing a great job. Wines of great depth and purity, with all the sunshine-y brightness you expect from Spain. As I said to my members, this first tasting was organized partly for selfish reasons, and partly because I wanted to set the tone for what IWS will stand for. Selfish, because I'm a bit obsessed with natural wines at the moment ... but more importantly, IWS will be about real wines, true wines, and wines that sing of honesty, authenticity, and character.

After all that build up, how did the wines show? Benoit chose some good ones. Beginning with a Beaujolais-Villages (100% gamay), sharp and expressive, like a rapier. Deadly acidity, screeching in the natural style. The Sauvage Cahors was next. Simon Busser, a disciple of Olivier Cousin in the Loire, who returned to the Cahors to make wines of great finesse and depth. Dark, with an animale personality that roars on the bouquet, yet coos on the palate. A bit of love from the fact that Simon farms these 100% malbec wines with horses? Or simply because he's able to stick to the principles (zero sulphur) yet create these magical wines that change a hundred times in the glass. We ended with a Spanish wine from Valencia made from a varietal that no one's even heard of, much less tasted. Bobal, a native grape, and for all intents and purposes, a minor blending varietal. And as luck would have it (or the other way around), the winemaker was at the next table. Immediately recognizable as a lush, full-blooded Spaniard (the wine, but also the man). Sunshine and spice, like all things nice. Soft and round, that glorious ripe, raisin-tinged fruit.

Good. A good start. The Chairman is pleased. Many thanks and much appreciation for those who attended, and all those who supported IWS. Many, many, many big things coming up for us!

DF