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by Guest Contributor Fernando Vigón
Life always has its up and downs. The downside started a few days ago when Blanca got home after work:
“Fernando, have you ever heard of Montecastro y Llanahermosa?” she asked.
Her ominous tone of voice made me felt uncomfortable, as I tried to read between the lines.
“No, I haven’t. What is up with it?” I answered.
“You haven’t! Oh, it is not big deal, just a 15 € wine, rated 93 by Parker. I guess your value-for-nothing wine hunting skills seem to be a bit rusty”.
That was below the belt I thought. Luckily enough the up side was just round the corner: “By the way, I left two bottles in the kitchen. We can taste one for dinner”
And so we did and the Montecastro y Llanahermosa 2005, D.O. Ribera de Duero, a blend of 95% Tempranillo, 2% Merlot and 2% Cabernet Sauvignon turned out to be a superb wine, dark ruby, explosive nose of blackberries, with elegant mineral and woody touches. Persistent in mouth, very well integrated tannins, it possesses the right balance between power and elegancy……and of course a bargain.
Ashamed by my poor show of weakness I decided to go on another bargain hunting tour and as usual the results were amazing:
The first prey was the Hecula 2005 Bodegas Castaño, 100 % Monastrell, a terrific example of Yecla, the tiny D.O. in Murcia just 4.000 Ha. located in the barren inland part of Murcia with a strong emphasis on young powerful wines based on Monastrell. With a knock out price of 9 €, deep ruby purple coloured, a sweet nose of blackberry jam and sweet, full bodied exceptionally concentrated in mouth, it is perfect to be drunk now and over the next 5 to 7 years.
The next one was a blockbuster: Nita 2006, Meritxell Palleja, 10 €, D.O. Priorat. 45 % Grenache, 35 % Cariñena, 15 % Cabernet Sauvignon, 5 % Syrah. Very bright cherry, the wine has ripe blackberry and dried herb scented nose, medium to full body it shows the mineral richness hallmark of the Priorat “terroir”.
I must admit I have a certain fondness for el Bierzo and its wines and the Ultreia Saint Jacques 2006, Raul Pérez, D.O. will be from now on my shopping list. The fact that the price is 6 $ does nothing to do with it. With a dense dark ruby colour, highly expressive, owns an stunning level of fruit, it is a simple and yet delicious wine, perhaps lacking complexity but making it up for it with a overall sense of elegance and fruity finish.
I am looking forward to talking to you again about my summer holydays wine shopping. In the meantime, please enjoy these wines.
by Guest Contributor Pablo Echenique
To be honest, not very long ago when I heard anyone saying that a wine was “elegant” I could not help laughing. To me, such an adjective had always made me think about Coco Chanel, Armani, the London shirt-makers, Sinatra and the Prince of Wales and, of course, about my dad, but never about wine.
Tinto Arzuaga changed my mind. I first had it as the perfect companion to a “lechazo” (roasted baby lamb) in Lerma’s relatively new Ojeda restaurant (the Burgos temple now has a branch in the ducal town).
Arzuaga is the short name for the wines created by “Bodegas Arzuaga-Navarro”, owned by Florentino Arzuaga that is, in fact, the father of Spanish fashion star designer Amaya Arzuaga. According to their web site, their cellar is quite young (as young as born in the early nineties). This is hard to believe, given the great quality of its wines.
Tinto Arzuaga crianza 2003 (I just can imagine what the “reserva” and the “gran reserva” have to offer) has a beautiful dark cherry colour. Wild berries are definitely there; also a pleasant smoked wood remembrance. It is definitely elegant. When you drink it, I would not say like my friend José Areilza that “one feels like driving an old Jaguar in a cold winter morning through the hills of Álava”; but perhaps it is like “feeling a silk curtain going down your throat” or even like “listening to the prelude of “Tristan und Isolde” coming out of an old and cherished gramophone”.
Now, every time that I pass by Amaya’s trendy fashion store in Madrid, I immediately can smell those berries and I think about the Duero, a river that crosses old Castille and dies in the north of Portugal, that is becoming, more than ever, a great reference for wine lovers.
Yesterday we had an interesting dinner at La Penela, Madrid, the famous Galician restaurant of La Coruña that has also opened in the capital, in Infanta Mercedes 97.
La Penela reached culinary heights thanks to its “carne asada” (roasted meat) and specially, “tortilla de patatas”, no need to translate this, I hope, besides other great Galician goodies like fish, seafood, Padron peppers…
Our dinner revolved with equal passion around the super yellow tortilla and the US presidential elections. Consensus was that the Clinton-Obama contest has become a true globalized race, so much that newspapers all over the world spend a lot of time analyzing it, as if non US citizens could vote in the primaries or in November (NB: in my other blog, on European affairs, http://www.blogeuropa.eu, I have endorsed Obama, not just because we went to law school together). We drank our humble and delicious semi-liquid tortilla with a sophisticated wine, El Rincón, from Madrid, a new-new thing of Pagos de Familia del Marqués de Griñon (check out the beautiful label and presentation of the wine, way to go!). Everybody around the table agreed that it was a very different wine from any others we had tasted -we had among us the former Master of the Cellar of one of the Oxford Colleges and he was pleasantly surprised. El Rincon is made with shiraz and garnacha grapes and will shock you with its wondrous mineral notes and a touch of spices like cinnammon. The combination of this powerful and ambitious wine, designed to have a global projection, with the simple tortilla was another metaphor of the US elections being experienced with trepitation by citizens of so many different countries.
by Guest Contributor Otto Silenus
Wikipedia, always a reliable source, tells us that Leucade is the name of a greek island where the female poet Sapho allegedly leapt to her death from the 100 foot (30m) high cliffs. Other sources tell us that those who followed her example and survived the jump were more fortunate; thus was the fate of Nicostratus, who emerged from the Ionan Sea relieved from the pangs of disprized love.
Not being so broken hearted, and, at least, unwilling to share those risky activities, some of us decided, a few days ago, to turn our minds to a less exciting but closer Leucade, that of a pre-roman settlement called Contrebia Leucade, near Inestrillas in La Rioja. Contrebia Leucade ows its name –as the greek island- to its white colour; built on white limestone it literally means “white village”.
La Encina Bodegas y Viñedos, a winery in Briñas (Rioja) with products as reliable as Tobelos and Tahon, decided to test how the very same wine can develop and change when aged in French oak barrels and American oak barrels. The result has been called LEUKADE. Using the excellent 2.004 vintage -100% Tempranillo, grown in the hills of Sierra Cantabria, the wine was matured for sixteenth months in different barrels, and then bottled, obtaining 7050 bottles of American Oak and exactly the same amount of French Oak. Sold together in a twin box, it allows you to compare how an excellent wine, with almost identical colour and condition, develops a different aroma and taste. That was the purpose of our meeting.
Popular wisdom pretends that wine matured in American Oak is stronger and less subtle; our experience proved more complex. Read the rest of this entry »
by Guest Contributor Fernando Vigón
Alvaro Palacios is one of the most outstanding personalities in the Spanish wine milieu. Back in the eighties he was the youngest wine maker of the group that started the Priorat revolution. His blockbusters then include Les Terrasses, Finca Dolfí, L’Ermita and Corullon. His mark has always been working with native grapes like grenache, mencia, graciano, and mazuelo.
Luckily for all of us, Alvaro worked also in El Bierzo and Rioja in the late nineties. I had the opportunity of tasting some of his second generation wines during Christmas.
To my mind Petalos de Bierzo 2006, Descendientes de J. Palacios, D.O. El Bierz, was the best of them. 100 % mencia (reportedly a 50-80 year old vine). Aged for 6 months in French oak, it is a knock out wine for a price of only 17 euros. Opaque ruby and purple coloured. It reveals an astonishing breath of minerals and raspberry. Medium bodied, round in mouth, powerful, fruity and well balanced. A bit too early to drink, in two years time it should explode.
From El Bierzo I also strongly advice you to have a go at the Dominio de Tares Cepas Viejas, 100 % mencia and Pitacum Aurea Roble 100% mencia , of course without forgetting Alvaro’s master piece Villa de Corullon, 100 % mencia.
Then we have Alvaro in La Rioja: Finca La Montesa 2003 Bodegas Palacio Remondo, D.O. Rioja. Aged for 12 months in French and American oaks. An unusual blend of 40% grenache, 45 % tempranillo, 5% mazuelo and 10% graciano it shows a medium to dark ruby coloured with a purple edge , a very elegant aroma: fresh fruit, cacao (well, others tasters dixit), round in mouth with pure and long finish, but it lacks the complexity you always look for in Alvaro Palacio.
I enjoyed however very much the Propiedad 2005, Bodegas Palacio Remondo, D. O. La Rioja. A blend of 60 % grenache and 40 % tempranillo. Aged for 14 months in mostly French oak. Deep ruby-cherry coloured with scents of ripe fruit and hints of toasty oak. On the palate it is a delicious medium to full bodied wine, powerful and moderately tannic. It can be drank now as well as over the next decade.
All the wines were magnum bottled and it is well worth remembering that 2003 was very good in La Rioja, 2005 excellent in la Rioja and 2006 was also excellent in El Bierzo. In any case, I vote for spending more time (and money) in El Bierzo.
by Guest Contributor Pablo Echenique
Winter is certainly a good season to recall past summers and to make plans for the next one. I believe that happy memories play a very important role in contributing to build what I would call the “mood of happiness”. One of the good memories that always comes to my mind when I think about summer holidays is the gorgeous wine aperitifs that me and my family (in the broadest sense of the word) share in the garden of what it used to be our grandparents summer house in the south of Galicia, facing the Cíes islands, a place of breathtaking beauty that, in my opinion, offers the best sunsets that can be seen on Earth.
Summers in northern Spain are quite different from the Spanish cliché of sun and sangria. Still, we in the rias baixas (the southern coast of Galicia) are lucky enough to enjoy sunny days in which we spend mornings in the beach and dedicate the afternoon to other activities. The routine remains unchanged throughout the month of August. At around three o’clock p.m. we all gather around Aunt Margot’s porch table (now that grandparents have unfortunately passed away and the place includes four summer homes) and, still wet from our sea swims, enjoy different Spanish white wines, always served very cold, together with some Galician gastronomy pleasures.
As we travel from Madrid, we always stop by at Palacio de Bornos, a cellar belonging to the Rueda region (Old Castille), and buy plenty of bottles of its renown “Verdejo Vendimia Seleccionada”. Borno’s verdejo, an affordable wine that sometimes looks yellow-coloured and sometimes seems green (perhaps after having three or four glasses), is obtained from vineyards that are over 80 years old. Verdejo is the name of an original grape from Rueda. This wine is just the perfect companion to our long and fruitful family discussions about all the good things and the bad things in life. Also a necessary step before the after lunch outdoors siesta. There is no doubt that, if the wine aperitif is followed by a glass or two of Arzuaga (one of my favourite red wines, from Ribera del Duero, about which I promise to post a comment very soon), then the siesta is much more enjoyable. Sometimes I am even able to hear in my dreams the prodigious Galician bagpipes played by Carlos Núñez, the virtuoso Celtic musician that was born and lives in Vigo.
“Iberians on wine” has just turned one year old this December. It has been a good year. A word of thanks to you, our dear readers, and to our Guest Contributors, Fernando Vigón, Luis Barreto and Pablo Echenique. You have all helped us, busy editors, keep the blog alive and kicking. We are still amazed by the surprising number of visits per day. Please keep indulging in your eccentric tastes.
I finished 2007 watching the Ridley Scott movie “A good year” and drinking a wine that had been recommended to me by Josechu Salgado, the finest wine taster in the family, called Pintia 2003 ,from Toro (circa 27 euros). At New Year’s dinner we opened two bottles of this somewhat new kid on the block, a creature of Vega Sicilia, a little bit like a cousin from the countryside.
The first bottle of Pintia was too rustic and lacked good manners, it remind me a bit of the movie I had just watched, with Russell Crowe trying hopelessly to impersonate a British upper class banker, not terribly convincing. The second bottle, however, was very good and lived up to the high expectations we had. It was much more like “Le Coin Perdú” , the Provence wine that Crowe falls in love with.
by Guest Contributor Fernando Vigón
I took the advantage of a recent long week-end in Huesca to carry out a comprehensive tasting of one most of the exciting vineyards in the Spanish wine landscape, Enate.
Born in 1991 under Nozaleda’s brother’s businesslike mindset Enate is today the spearhead of Somontano, ten years ago an unknown local area in northern Aragon (Huesca) and now one of the coolest D.O. in Spain. Its blending largely based on French grapes, cabernet, merlot, chardonnay…… has made quite a name for itself. Its image carefully crafted, don’t dare to miss the labels, high workmanship and a product range with the right balance between top and value-for- money wines turned the emerging superstar vineyard into an impressive success.
I am very keen on the ENATE CABERNET SAUVIGNON-MERLOT, 6 €, Cabernet Sauvignon 50%, Merlot 50% and not only due to its price. Purple cherry, an aroma of ripe dark fruits, blackcurrant, blackberry, maybe with a hint of vanilla and green herbs. Powerful and flavoursome in mouth. Firm and tannic finish. A real bargain.
In the same price bracket you must not fail to try the ENATE CRIANZA, 9 €, Tempranillo 70%, Cabernet Sauvignon 30%. Matured for nine months in oak and 18 months in bottle. It is made in international style, with sweet black currant, and berry fruit with toasty oak? Ripe, dense, medium to full bodied. It will drink well for over 5 to 7 years.
I am not going to elaborate on the ENATE MERLOT-MERLOT, 21€, 100% Merlot. To my mind the best merlot in Spain nowadays, I wrote about it in this blog last spring.
I have a soft spot for Enate’s flagship the RESERVA ESPECIAL 96, 65 € -yes, in spite of the price- , a blending of Cabernet Sauvignon 55%, Merlot 45%. Matured for 18 months in French oak barrels and 24 months in bottle before released for sale. A classic, it shows a dark ruby colour and sweet oaky scents mingled with jammy raspberry, perhaps a touch of coffee and floral scent (according to my wife). Dense, superbly concentrated, with elegant tannins and nicely integrated wood. A knock out.
How do you top that?
One of the things I really liked about my new house was the wine cave in the basement, underneath the stairs, a fantastic cozy space to collect and store wine… until heavy rain came to Madrid. My basement was flooded and the wine bottles I kept there got too much humidity -nothing I could do to save them. So much for years of collecting special wine bottles! Tragedy? I am triying to look at the bright side and I am enjoying the thrill of starting over. Here are the three wines I have chosen to re-start, just in case you need ideas to do so:
My friend and benefactor Juan Jimenez Laiglesia, the best Antitrust lawyer in Spain, came to the rescue actually withouth knowing I had lost it all. Some weeks ago he offered me a case of Contino Selección Especial 2004. This is a wine that sings, a top Rioja well looked after by a few families that stands out for its delicacy and smoothness.
The second addition to my born again wine cave -now in a very different location- comes from Portugal. I had the chance to teach in Lisbon for a few days and I bought some bottles of “Cortes de Cima Shyrah 2003”, from Vidigueira, Alentejo. Shyrah is one of my favorite grapes. This Southern Portugal wine is full of sunshine. I am just enjoying it until my friend Miguel Alvaro de Campos, co editor of Iberians on wine, who introduced me to the Cortes de Cima wines some time ago enlightens us with his comments.
Last but not least I have added to my new-new wine cave some bottles from Guitian, Godello, a miracle Galician white wine from Valdeorras. This has been a suggestion of another friend, the historian and policy wonk Charles Powell, who raves about it. I drank it for the first time yesterday with my father -he of course knew about this wine since its inception in 1992, it is very hard to surprise him. Guitian was the perfect wine to taste in the garden before lunch, in a beautiful autumn day. Guitian has the same yellowish colour of some fallen leaves and yet is lively and its wit never dies, like a good after dinner conversation.
I received so many and so sharp criticism on my first contribution to “Iberians on wine” (high prices, low quality, lousy wines) that this time I decided to pay a visit to my regular suppliers -Siguero, Barolo, Lavinia- and at the same time do the wine shopping for my summer holydays in Asturias. I don’t know yet what I enjoyed the most: the time I spent choosing the wines -there were quite a few people wine-hunting, we chatted and street talked quite a bit – or tasting the wines later in Asturias.
To my mind the choice was a knock out. I should start telling you about Etim Selección Syrah D. O. Montsant 2002 – 100% Syrah (15,5 €). It is a wine of a saturated purple colour, spectacularly crammed with fruit, full bodied, roundness and richness in mouth, moderates tannin with a future, perhaps a hint of tobacco. Top notch. (For the record: 5 to 8 people on average took part with me on the wine-tasting, and these notes are a summary of different opinions, it goes without saying that I never find tobacco, leather, chocolate and all that stuff in wine. )
Let us then go to Manto Negro 2003 Casa Padrina, Benissalem, Majorca, a superb blend of Manto Negro, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot (8,2 €). Medium deep ruby, light nose with an aroma of spicy oak. Medium to full bodied, Flavorful in mouth, blackberry and blueberry fruitiness, smoky oak in the background? In two or three years it will be superb.
I also enjoyed Arrayan Syrah 2002 T, D.O. Mentrida- 100% Syrah. Read the rest of this entry »
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