Years ago Viv’s dad excitedly pointed at a bottle of red wine in the wine-cellar of The Spanish Table. He was interested in it becasue it was branded as “Marques de Caceres,” and his Spanish ancestors hailed from that locale. We bought the wine, a ’94 rioja, not expecting anything and in ignorance of riojas in general.

The wine was magnificent, huge, amazing.

A few months later the same vintage began appearing in Costco, and I bought a bunch. I turned my dad on to it and he bought a case. Since then, we have often picked up vintages of this wine.

Yesterday, I realized that rioja is supposed to be a relatively volatile wine, with a limited and somewhat short shelf life. We have a couple bottles of that ’94 still hanging about. I’m happy to say that my palate is sufficiently ignorant to remain happy indeed as I drink it.