Like a bus in the rain, you wait ages for your first bottle of UBE and then three come along at once. Having had my first bottle on Friday here we are, not a week later, on bottle number 2, this time in the marvellous  Taberna Verdejo.

Not a lot to report against last week’s tasting, this came out with a little bit of an aroma/first impression of oxidation but it improved a lot after the first glass or so. Still those same sweet herbal (ie herbs that suggest sweetness) flavours. My lunch companion made an excellent point about the acidity – or maybe intensity – of the wine giving it a nice balance. I certainly noticed the fruit more this time.

Actually speaking about that intensity a couple of funny things happened pairing wise. We had an excellent lunch, with a couple of navajas each, half a menestra, half a callos, a wild boar escabeche and a pato azulon: so good indeed that I completely forgot about the oloroso desert I wanted to try. Anyway, we started with a manzanilla pasada, then opened the UBE, planning to move onto an amontillado, but before we knew it we had eaten the callos (which are meaty, smokey and very tasty here) with the UBE  and, you know, it wasn’t at all bad as a pairing. Evidently we are talking contrasts but the freshness of the wine cut through the rich flavours and it stood its own ground in flavour terms quite comfortably.

No doubt about it, this is serious wine (and it was a serious lunch).