Wine List Showdown in the Spanish Section - Allende 2004 Rioja & El Regajal 2006 seleccion especial

David and I recently celebrated our 5 year anniversary. We went to BLT Prime and decided to splurge on steak and creamed spinach. the food was good but over-priced. The atmosphere was very nice and clean and well decorated and CROWED for a Wednesday night -- I guess BLT is doing fine. Anyway - I was looking at the wine list and because I'm on a Spanish kick, was checking out that section. The sandy-haired sommelier came to the table to ask if I had any questions and I did indeed. There were two wines in the $65 price range I was interested in 1) the Allende 2004 Rioja and 2) the El Regajal vinos de Madrid (that's how it was written on the wine list).

He explained to me, in his no-eye-contact-way that the Allende was a very modern style of Rioja using the Tempranillo grape - so more fruit forward lots of cherry and strawberry while the El Regajal was more earthy and dusty and mineral driven. Knowing that David was getting BBQ Brisket and I was getting a fillet chose the Allende 2004 Rioja thinking I'd get a bigger wine. At the time - I thought the wine was OK. It was good enough, but it wasn't what the sommelier had made it seem and it seemed a little to delicate to pair up with a brisket and the Bearnaise drenched Fillet Mignon. I wasn't unhappy, but I wasn't thrilled with my selection. I think the wine would have showed much better with a different food pairing

So I had to laugh when I saw the El Regajal bottle on the shelf at Zachy's earlier this week -- I was curious about the bottle that I HADN'T selected that night. I asked the wine buyer what his assessment of the wine was: modern, opulent, very lush - it's a blend of Tempranillo and Cabernet Sauvignon and some other grapes too. I bought the bottle.

THIS was the bottle that we had expected to be drinking that night at BLT - had the sommelier not lied to us or switched the descriptions (no - I know what you're thinking -- IIIII did not confuse the descriptions -- I don't make mistakes!) we would have been more satisfied. All the same, we enjoyed it pretty nicely on our couch with chorizo and coconut rice.

At any rate, they are both good bottles of wine. The Allende is from Rioja - the region in Northern Spain located on the Ebro River near Navarra. It's comprised of three subregions - Rioja Alta, Rioja Baja and Rioja Alavesa. The main grape here is Tempranillo. The Allende was 100% Tempranillo (spicy, wild strawberries, violets) but Garnacha (Grenache) Graciano and Mazuelo among others are found here for the red wine. White Rioja also exists.

The El Regajal is from just outside of Madrid - which is pretty cool - the winery is located on a rare butterfly preserve (hence the image on the label) and they've been around since 1998 (i think - I was reading the Spanish site and i don't speak Spanish). This 2006 wine is made from a blend of 45% Tempranillo, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20%Syrah, and 10% Merlot. It was just as the Zachy's wine buyer had described: lush and opulent, there were deep rich berry aromas and roasted plum and coffee.

Both of these wines are about $24-$28 on the wine shelf!