Thursday Night Tasting is currently on the road, in Munich, Germany. Tracy and I have just returned from Dachau, which is a few minutes by train from the center of the city. We saw the enormous central yard, where prisoners were forced to stand as punishment for a missing person at roll call, sometimes dying on the spot. We saw the camp's two crematoriums and the rebuilt barracks with their triple-stacked bunks. We saw the showers where prisoners were beaten with leather whips and the showers where they were to be gassed.
What does this have to do with Rioja? Nothing. But now, after a trip back on the S-Bahn, where we split a bar of chocolate and hazelnuts, I'm drinking a glass of it. We bought two bottles of Rioja, a red and a rosé at the supermarket about an hour ago. The small shops here close at 7:00pm, so if you don't get to the bakery, the wine store, or the pharmacy during the day your only real option is the supermarket. I'm drinking the red:
2008 Viñadel Asador Rioja (3 Euro)
It's OK. Lots of wine in Germany is sold at supermarkets, and it's surprisingly cheap. Some of it looks too iffy to consider or the blends are too weird, like Chardonnay-Riesling. In any case, this wine is light and thin, though with that kind of ferrous, almost metallic twang that gives it something half pleasing and half irritating. It's got wood notes but it's not oaky. It's not acidic but it I feel little needles on the tip of my tongue. Uncomplicated, simple, and really nice to have here at the kitchen table in our quiet neighborhood.
