January 14, 2022

BODEGAS FAUSTINO Gran Reserva Rioja

(Rioja, Spain) $39

Eleven years old and just now released. That tells the story of Rioja, the one place in the world where you can buy beautifully aged red wines made from the grape variety Tempranillo for a fraction of what they should cost. (I’m not complaining). Faustino is a very traditional Rioja producer and true to form, this wine has great “old” flavors—old fine leather and old books—plus woodsy notes of earth and pipe tobacco, and a luscious savoriness. This wine and a couple of thick lambchops make for a sumptuous evening. (13.5% abv)

94 points KM

Available at Vivino

Which grape variety below has a name whose etymological origin means to speak badly of another person?

A. Catawba

B. Malbec

C. Ugni Blanc

D. Alicante Bouschet

Ok this was probably pretty easy if you know a little French, since mal is French for “bad,” and bec for “mouth.” But allow me to explain further. Although it is now famous in Argentina, malbec’s ancestral home is Cahors, a tiny, ancient wine region in southwest France. Here, the wine is known as le vin noir, “the black wine,” not only because of its dark color, but also because of its severe, tannic, dark flavors. The word malbec is actually a nickname for the grape’s true ampelographic name: côt. But in the nineteenth century, malbec became a slang term for someone who spoke badly of others. There must have been a lot of malbecs in Cahors, for the word became a common surname—and an affectionate term for the local grapes.

“Partly we recovered the old familiar things, partly we created something wondrous and new.”

—OVID
Roman poet (43 BC – 17 AD) from Metamorphoses

BODEGAS FAUSTINO Gran Reserva Rioja

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