I took a little trip to the west side of the island with the family just to get away even if just for a little bit from the daily occurrences that deny one from having a life. And by that I mean mainly professional responsibilities. So we got our bags, our food, our swimwear and I got our wines. It was just a couple of days and even though it was just the wife and I drinking, I took enough to have something for each day.
So we started the trip and about half an hour in I noticed…I left our beach chairs. Classic vacation stunt. Chevy Chase would be proud. It was a good Friday which in an island where Catholics are the majority that means: stores are closed. I stopped at six Walgreen’s between San Juan and Isabela until I found two chairs on that last stop which means two things: I got lucky and man are there a lot of Walgreen’s down in Puerto Rico.
We got to our designated location in Isabela by Villas del Mar Hau, an amazing vacationing spot with wood cabins in front of the beach and a gorgeous ocean pool created by the rock formation. Now this is all after Hurricane María and this was not the same place we visited last year. They did do a superb job getting back to business so fast but the ocean pretty much destroyed a large majority of the ocean pool. Nonetheless, we found a spot, got our chairs and umbrellas and opened the first wine.
So we started with a Schlosskellerei Gobelsburg Kamptal Gruner Veltliner 2015. I am no expert in Austrian wines but this was pretty good. Also I can count the times I’ve had Veltliner in my life but the acidity this wine has is a match for beach weather in my opinion. One thing I enjoyed about the Gobelsburg house is that they are proud of their wines. Robert Parker gave this wine 84 points and they didn’t shy away, they put it on their website. The tropical citric s in its aroma, sparky acidity and extended finish made it a good friend of mine while hiding from the sun under my big umbrella.
For those like me that know very little about those long names in Austrian and German wines, Kamptal is the appellation and Schloss Gobelsburg is the winery. Wine Enthusiast gave it 90 points which seems more fitting to me but then again, just a reference. In Puerto Rico they are distributed by Ambrosia Fine Wines who carry a great variety of German, Austrian wines.
This wine went so fast that the day was still young and I told my wife I wanted to switch it up and we moved to the Connecticut Chardonnay. Sharpe
Hill is a pretty good brand that most people don’t know because, well because they ignore wines from the Northeast (with the recent exception of Finger Lakes). They have a great Riesling, a nice late harvest and a lot of other things. It had a great nose when I opened it. The malolactic fermentation was fairly present but unfortunately something was off. It was a 2012 and I had great expectations but once on mouth that wasn’t the best feeling. It felt like I put a stick of butter in my mouth. Even my wife who loves creamy chards wasn’t having it. I left it breath for a while and it diminished a bit but it was a failure on my part. Perhaps if I had opened it earlier because this wine is normally fairly decent as is a Reserve style (not like their regular Chardonnay) and it mimics a Burgundian style. I didn’t know that it was blended with melon de bourgogne grapes which until today I wasn’t aware they grew along Connecticut’s Wine Trail. So I learned something. Next one I buy I won’t wait so long. The wait will be due to no one distributing it in Puerto Rico and I got this one when some good friends visited me from there.
I must interrupt the wine notes to mention that the beach chairs I bought were so small and had no cup holders or arm rest and the wind was so strong, it was really complicated to serve wine. I know beggars can’t be choosers but I can’t believe I left those chairs home. These two I’d be surprised if they last till the end of summer. But I digress. That afternoon we ate at some place in Isabela that I won’t even mention. I don’t like to talk about slow, expensive poorly tasting food establishments.
That concluded day one. The next day we started having some breakfast in Arecibo at a small place called Bonjour Cafe & Sandwiches for a light pick me up before driving this time a little further west as we ended up in Rincón. It was a bit cloudy that Saturday but we found a nice spot but just like in Isabela, the hurricane took its toll. The coast was not the same and the erosion took its toll. My kid didn’t care one bit. He jumped right in so I did my part by opening my Brewer-Clifton Sta. Rita Hills Chardonnay 2015. One word: powerhouse. This wine was something else. That pale yellow color was just beautiful. I didn’t know of the brand until this past Christmas holiday when my old man opened up a Brewer-Clifton Rozak Ranch 2001 Pinot Noir. That was one hell of a wine, but this chardonnay was a gentleman. First of all it had a present minerality from the start, a subtle creaminess that carried hints of non traditional fruit aromas. I’m not going to start listing what I can read online, but it was formidable. The only thing I can do say is that this wine craved food. It was so well structured that just chips and beach finger food didn’t seem fitting. It was like going to a princess ball in jeans. You can get away with it if you are Sir Richard Branson but I am not. Anyway Wine Spectator and Wine Enthusiast gave it 92 and 91 points respectively. These wines are distributed in Puerto Rico by Fine Wine Imports.
That night we decided to eat at Restaurante MenTa Cuisine in Arecibo. Chef Cedric Taquin is well known for having fresh seafood and I had a nice trunk fish fillet with chorizo rissotto.
Come Sunday we decided to head back early. Once at our home my wife and I noticed there was one bottle left. But that could not be. These four wines
were sent on a mission and damn it, we don’t live bottles behind. We threw the Cava Vallformosa NV in the freezer while we unpacked and after a good thirty minutes, we went down to our swimming pool and drank our last remaining pilar of our holiday vacation. I always enjoy this cava because it is inexpensive, it has a crisp bread toast thing going on that I normally find in expensive cavas, it is refreshing and I never run out of them. It is composed of the trio Xarel-lo, Macabeo and Parellada grapes and it has won a few awards over the past couple of years. So we had our cava, enjoyed the end of the vacation and then finally called it a day.
The moral of this story: If you are assigning four wine soldiers to a weekend mission, you make sure you give them the space they deserve and enjoy them thoroughly. Also, keep your beach chairs in your car. That could have saved me and could save you a few headaches.* (Really cold places need not apply).
Cheers!
