La Palma - Days 2-3

28-May-09 - The temperature at sea-level was in the low 30s, and I arrived at the bus for the first session in shirtsleeves. The driver looked at me curiously and asked if I had a jacket. I said I hadn't. She frowned: "I think it might be rather cold where we're going. I suggest you go and get one." It then transpired that the first tasting session was to be held in the conference room of the Observatorio del Roque de los Muchachos, perched on the rim of the volcanic crater at the very top of the island, at an altitude of about 2,500 m. It's only 88 km but once you get away from the populated areas it's solid hairpin bends up very steep slopes through towering pine forests, and it took us more than 2 hours. I found myself wishing that they'd hired a bus with a loo but, this being Spain, the driver pulled over after an hour and a half so that everybody could get out and have a fag. My needs were more urgent, and fortunately there was another (empty) minibus nearby where I was able invoke the Victorian Hansom Cab act (offside rear wheel subsection) while the rest scrutinised a 'you are here' map, and we subsequently had a group photograph taken.

In spite of the altitude (we were well above the clouds) it was very comfortably warm at the observatory, and I didn't need the jacket. One of the most fascinating moments came as we approached the administration buildings, when I noticed what appeared to be a giant mural by the roadside. As we got closer, it became clear that it was, in fact a concave mirror about 2 metres across and, as we passed, its reflections moved and rotated like a giant kaleidoscope.

Some of the observatory buildings on the edge of the crater

Cars parked above the clouds

Once inside there were more photographs before we got down to business. There were 35 wines, all Malvasía of course, 1 sparkler (surprisingly good), 15 dry, 2 semiseco and 17 sweet (the traditional 'Canary-Sack', famous since Shakespeare's time). We were marking on the 100-point scale but I have converted them to the 20-point scale. There were far too many to post a full list here. If you'd like to see the full list please e-mail me. My top scores (perhaps predictably) were all in the 'sweet' sector. These all got 19/20:

At 2,500 metres

2006 Mozaga, Montana Clara, DO Lanzarote - lovely, mature, honeyed, rich fruit, subtle and complex on the nose, rich, perfumed fruit and excellent balance on the mid with good acidity and a long, clean finish. Excellent.

2008 Testamento Esencia, Cumbres de Abona, DO Abona - big, soft subtle spicy fruit on the nose, clean acidity cutting the richness on the palate, fresh fruit on the mid and a long, golden finish.

2005 Tamanca, Tamanca, DO La Palma - almost Oloroso-style fruit with dark, subtle hints on the nose, and more 'Oloroso' on the palate, but with fresher fruit and good acidity, leading to a long clear finish. Excellent.

1997 Canari, El Grifo, DO Lanzarote - that Oloroso style again, with dark, nutty flavours and the beginnings of a bit of aldehyde, but the fruit leaps from the glass on the palate and the acidity is still fresh.

29-May-09 - At sea level

Day 2 of the event was held at the hotel complex, with a further 32 wines but (and here's the scary bit), the organisers had taken the top 10 wines from the previous day and inserted them into the tasting on the second, but we didn't know which they were. More on this in a minute. In the meantime, here are the 19/20 wines from day 2:

Malvasía Old Reserve 10-year-old, Barbeito (?), DOC Madeira (?) - another Oloroso style with caramel on the nose, and a rich, warm caramel/nutty mid: "Oloroso, but with fruit".

1990 Blandy's Malvasía, Blandy's, DOC Madeira - some aldehyde masking a dark, nutty fruit on the nose, lovely rich dark style but still with fresh acidity, excellent length.

Malmsey 15-year-old, Henriques & Henriques , DOC Madeira - dark, aromatic Amontillado-style nose, also on the palate with dark, warm delicious fruit and nicely balanced acidity. Excellent.

Interestingly, the wine that won 'best in show' across the board was a 1933 Malvasía from Justinho in Madeira. My tasting note was: big Oloroso-style maturity, power and richness on the nose but with aldehydes apparent, enormous power, spice and richness on the palate with a dry finish in a semi-rancio style. I gave it 18/20.

Now the scary bit: as I mentioned, they snuck the top 10 from day 1 (at 2,500 m) amongst the wines from day 2, and I cross-referenced my marks for those wines on each tasting. The average disparity was 3% higher at sea level, with a maximum difference of 14% and a minimum of 0%. Does this mean that the palate really does change according to altitude? I begin to understand the challenges faced by panels tasting wines for airlines.

But the tasting confirmed my thoughts that these are excellent wines, and deserve a wider profile. The problem seems to be that the dry wines suffer from the logistical nightmare of getting them to the mainland before they can be distributed, with its obvious cost add-ons. The sweet wines, fabulous though many of them are, have simply gone out of fashion. It's very sad.

Anyway, after the sea-level tasting we were taken to lunch at the seaside: the Kiosco La Zamora is a modest set of low buildings on a promontory sticking out into the sea at La Zamora, about 2 km up the coast from the hotel. We sat on the terrace under an open-sided canopy. Over the wall on the north side was a sheer drop to the volcanic black, sandy beach below, and in front of us was, well, my kind of food: plain-grilled fish of the day (alfonsiño on this occasion), locally-caught shrimps and lapas (limpets - not for me, unfortunately), and the classic papas arrugadas, which I love. We drank the 2008 Pedregal from Bodegas Tamanca (60/40 Bujariego/Albillo) which was splendid with the fish, and the red was a Negramoll called T!on (not sure if I've got the orthography quite right with that one) from Bodegas Carlos Fernández, which is a tiny two-man band in Breñas - it was excellent but the Pedregal was better with the fish. We finished off with tiny tumblers of 2005 Zeus Dulce from Bodegas Llanovid, the largest co-op on the island. Made from Negramoll, it was truly sublime.

The black sandy beach as seen from Kiosko La Zamora

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