Cosme Palacio y Hermanos 2002 is a perfectly good rioja. Its traditional label is inviting. A tall bottle, it’s everything you’d expect from a rioja. And the taste has all that leather/tack room nostalgia.
But wait. There’s more!
At least with the Bodegas Palacio reserva especial 1995. Also a rioja, first is the bottle. It’s not as tall and elegant as the Cosme Palacio. But it has this attraction. It is very dark, almost opaque. It is solid, very solid, with broad shoulders and a slightly narrower foot. Like a Bordeaux but different. It exudes the kind of power you’d expect a matador to. No, a bull. It wants to be noticed there on the shelf elbowing the wimpy Italians.
Despite the $70 price tag and no previous knowledge of this vineyard, it was a bottle I had to pick up and buy. It felt solid and reliable.
Some 11 years old, it aged well. Dark red, velvety smooth it had all those sweaty saddle soap and tack room smells with a whiff of horse manure that I so love from rioja.
Indulgent and expensive. But so are horses.
Worth it. Or perhaps I’m a sucker for all that macho Ernest Hemmingway bull.