Part one of Passport's guide to Moscow's favorite - Passport magazine

Wine Tasting
Scandinavian
Tapas
and
Spanish
Wines
text by Charles W. Borden
photos by Maria Savelieva
This month we decided to go back to
Night Flight for our Spanish wine tasting,
and give Chef Michael Willuhn a chance
to serve us some Scandinavian tapas and
Night Flight’s classic Planksteak.
I seldom try Spanish wines, but this
month learned this was a mistake. Long
relegated as poor cousins to their French
neighbors and with dozens of Denominations
of Origin (DOC), Spain’s wines
seem just too difficult to select.
Spanish wines are mainly red, and the
country is the world’s third producer by
volume. Spain’s wines at their worst are
as bad as any plonk, and some make it to
Russia as cheap vinomaterial (bulk wine
– the source of most Russian wines),
which is then reformulated, bottled
and labeled as Russian. However, Spain
has always produced some powerfully
great red wines to rival the best French
and have been of better value. Some of
the best come from the Ribera del Duero,
Priorat and Rioja regions.
The Spanish Denominación de Origen
(DO) controls the classification and
labeling of wines, and works in a way
similar to Italian and French systems. Vinos
de la Tierra is similar to the French
geographical designation ‘vin de pays’.
The Denominación de Origen and Denominación
de Origen Calificada are
the designations for quality wine areas.
Crianza are wines aged less than two
years, Reserva at least three years with
one on oak, and Gran Reserva requires
at least five years aging.
July 2009
Katerina Medvedeva, MTS
Steven Fisher, Citigroup
During recent months we have followed
a new format to select wines for a wine tasing.
Rather than picking wines from the
shelves, I cull through the price lists of the
principal fine-wine importers before the
shopping trip. In each case I create a long
spreadsheet of all the wines in the category
we are seeking, in this case Spanish, from
these importers. This resulted in about 150
wines from about forty bodegas (as wineries
are called in Spain), if not to count the
vintages of each wine.
Once the spreadsheet is prepared, I
log on to Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate
and Wine Spectator and search for each
winery. These are good sites that provide
short comments and ratings for thousands
of wineries and wines around the
world. Search results are displayed by
wine and vintage and it just takes a brief
look to get a rough idea about which
wineries consistently have good ratings.
This lets me pare down the list to a manageable
number of well-rated wines for a
short list to take to the wine boutiques.
A substantial short list is needed because
many of the wines on the importers’
lists may not be currently available,
at least in the shops. Also, some wines
are primarily destined for restaurant
wine lists rather than retail.
With five boutiques each owned by
one of Moscow’s top wine importer, Kutuzovsky
Prospekt has everything we need.
Heading in from the Third Ring Road,
the first stop is L’Intendant, the sole Moscow
shop owned by MBG Impex. Swinging
back around to leave town, the next
four shops are within 100 meters of each