With pasta with beans, olives and chard stems, salad and asparagus spears:
2003 Colonnara, Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi Classico Lyricus:
Unripe pear, lime skin and almond on a reticent nose; lightweight, light bodied, bright flavors follow the nose but have some depth and the almond turns slightly (and attractively) bitter, nice balance; medium length finish. The perfect wine for “spa” food; this will never overwhelm any dish and would also be a pleasant aperitif. 12.5% alcohol, $4, and imported by Winebow. Delightful with this food.

With meat loaf and roasted root vegetables:
2001 Dominio de Tares, Cepas Viejas:
100% mencia (60+ year old vines), 13% alcohol, nine months in French and American oak. I bought this ($20) on the strength of this producer’s front-line wine simply called mencia (or tinto on some labels) and have learned that there are two other upper-end cuvées beyond this bottling.
The low end wine was wonderful (see note in my post “A few more”) and showed signs that development was possible. This bottling, however, is full of caramelized wood on the nose, palate and finish – not to the extent that it obliterates what is beautifully concentrated fruit, but to the extent that it clearly detracts. This is the kind of wine-making that makes me crazy; fabulous juice that, at least for now, shows wood to the detriment of the fruit.
In all fairness, perhaps in time the wood will integrate; the concentration is certainly here to give that chance. But today this wine is nothing I would want to drink again and has soured me on this house. I will be very, very careful with any further purchases of other vintages of the low-end mencia but I’ll probably go back to by all the 2001 the store has. And all the upper end stuff has just ceased to exist.
What an immense waste. Not even the food helped.

Best, Jim