The second winery we visited is Descalzos Viejos, a traditional moniker literally meaning “old unshoed ones”, which was a common name for certain orders of monks.  The winery is housed in the church and grounds of the old monastery. The site was completely abandoned when 2 architects from Ronda acquired it and restored it.  The nave of the 500 year old chapel is a unique and charming setting for the winery’s fermentation room! 

One very impressive winery in Ronda is Cortijo Los Aguilares, the personal retirement project of a Basque businessman, José Antonio Itarte.  The estate is a huge finca and the vineyards only cover some 19 hectares of the total 800 available…wine here is made on a very artisanal basis…after extensive soil analysis only the best parcels were planted with vines!  Also on the estate are free-range Iberian black pigs…we saw them running through the oak trees from a distance.  The winery itself has two buildings, both of which were restored respecting the original architecture of the Cortijo; the elegant main house is mostly a vacation home for the family but also houses the administrative offices and a beautiful tasting space.  The winemaking area is housed in a much more functional building with a shallow lake on the roof to help with cooling the barrel room.  The young enologist, Bibi García, is very dynamic and she is striving to make a very different style wine than is typical in the area.  She gained experience working in Rioja, Priorat and Chile.  The owner is greatly influenced by the wines of Burgundy and Bibi is trying to create elegant, aromatic wines that seem to defy the sometimes extreme heat of the region.  These wines do in fact have an earthy complexity reminiscent of Burgundy and are surprisingly light in alcohol. 

Rioja Vino de Autor in Two Vintages:  San Vicente 2003 and 2004

Vintage Variation in Spain is not as extreme as it is in more northern climates, but it obviously still has a very real impact.  I was fortunate to try one of my favourite Vinos de Autor in two very different vintages. 

San Vicente was one of the original Vinos de Autor in Rioja, leading the way to the modern starting in 1991.  This was the first vine de terruño or terroir…a single vineyard wine made from the “ideal” vineyard as envisioned by the winemakers, the Eguren family.  As such it has become an icon and remaisn so today, despite the multiple vinos de autor that have proliferated recently.

The Gran Reserva is almost exclusively a classic style in Rioja….most of these wines have over 30 months in oak, many as much as 48 months!   National wine law in Spain has changed…the minimum oak aging for a gran reserva is 18 months, though the total time before release remains 5 years.  But many of the regional authorities have left the minimum oak aging period at 24 months.  In any case the typical aging periods far exceed the minimum. 

Now we move on to the Reservas, both in the 18 euro price range.  Once again I picked a true classic bodega, La Rioja Alta and a fully modern one; Palacios Remondo. 

At the crianza level there is usually enough fruit in both classic and modern to satisfy the majority of palates, but at the reserva level the disparity in styles becomes more acute. 

The next pair of wines in my Rioja class was two crianzas, one in a classic style and one in a modern style, both in the 10-12 euro range. 

The Rioja style issue is a favourite theme for me to bring out in my tastings.  Many typical wine-drinkers are unaware of the stylistic differences that lie hidden in Rioja.  These comparisons of different Rioja style are some of the most revelatory tastings I hold…some clients are astonished at the difference.

I’ve been doing a course with a great group…looking more in depth at Spanish red wines.  Our first week was Rioja and we made some interesting discoveries.  It was a great opportunity to further explore the fascinating topic of classic and modern Rioja styles.

The most unique and fascinating wine was probably the 1955 Paternina Reserva…a wine that had no information on the label at all.  I had done some research and found some recent tasting notes on the 1955 from a vertical Paternina tasting.  The most fascinating piece of information I could discover was that in the early 50’s the Paternina wines had a metallic taste to them that was caused by the use of copper pipes in the winery.  These were changed out in 1956!

Happy New Year!  We’re in the final stretch of the holidays…only Reyes (Epiphany) to go on 6 Jan.  At least two more lamb and seafood feasts to go! 

When I am trying to select a red for a holiday meal I try to stay clear of the big, extracted, oaky wines that seem to dominate in the Spanish market these days.  When asked for a suggestion, I often steer people towards Rioja…though modern Riojas styles are more and more extracted…they still largely retain a freshness of fruit and acidity that complements many foods.

The Denominacion de Origen (DO) Manchuela, or wine appellation, is located in eastern La Mancha, close to the beautiful town of Cuenca.  This is one of the newest DOs in Spain, formed from the natural break-up of huge La Mancha into more coherent appellations.  Much of the production is still mediocre, but there are more interesting wines being made these days. 
One of the pioneers in the area is Finca Sandoval, a winery which makes consistently excellent wines in a challengingly hot climate. The winery was founded in 1998 and is the personal project of a well known Spanish wine critic, Victor de la Serna.  There search for quality includes traditional open-top fermentation vats with manual punch down…the wines are neither fined nor filtered.  Most of the grapes are local:  Bobal, Monastrell, and Garnacha, but they also have some great Syrah, using clones from Chateauneuf-du-Pape.  There are only two wines:  Salia is a great entry-level option at only about 12 euros. See below for my comments on their top wine:  Finca Sandoval. 

This is a subject that I can’t avoid….Rioja and its various styles…I love it! I’ve had a few comments saying that I’ve been unfair to classic Rioja and perhaps I have. Some have said that long barrel aging does not kill fruit flavors, but enhances them…this I have to disagree with. Classic Riojas are not fruit-driven wines…they have many characteristics that make them attractive but the fruit is often oxidized and faded. The bottom line for me is that I appreciate all the various styles that Rioja has to offer today, but I think it is a disservice to the consumer that you have no idea of what style you might get…especially at the reserva level….maybe style should be indicated on the label. I think having so many styles that are not indicated on the label is also a disservice to Rioja as well…it’s hard to project a coherent wine image.

As mentioned in my article below on Navarra Wine Country, we recently had the chance to visit an impressive new winery project near Estella in Navarra: Pago de Larrainzar.

The project is the vision of Miguel Canalejo Larrainzar, the former president of Alcatel in Spain. It is a real family project: a couple of his children are involved full-time in the winery.

At the winery, we got to taste the whole range of wines, all from 2003. These are some of Spain top-rated wines…for more information on the winery, see the article below.

These are really impressive wines! With careful and high tech viticulture this winery is able to produce balanced wines in an extremely hot area of Spain. The problem in hot weather is that by the time the tannins are ripe the fruit is over-ripe and the acid levels are quite low. These wine all retained a freshness, despite being big intense wines. An outstanding series of wines!

This is a great example of some of the great value, high quality wines coming out of La Mancha at the moment. Ezekiel Sánchez-Mateos, owner of the great little wine store, Reserva y Cata, makes this wine. He has a wonderful personalized selection of wines in his store and on the days he is there, he can guide you really well, and he can also help you in English! Ezekiel runs one of the few stores in town, where each wine is individually selected with care. Check out the website at: http://www.reservaycata.com/

We recently returned to La Cumbre, a great tavern in Pozuelo, that has all sorts of traditional food. My favourite thing there are the torreznos, which is freshly fried pork rinds. Calling them pork rinds is not doing them justice. They are juicy, thick bits of pork skin, with bits of sea salt…crunchy, moist, salty, and greasy all at once. Who knew something so disgusting in theory good be so sublime in your mouth!

They have a nice wine list in La Cumbre and we had a coupe of great bottles. A wonderful Ribera del Duero that we have often: Emilio Moro. Also the great wine that follows: Esporao Reserva.

I have a great new tasting group: all of them are studying for the WSET Diploma or Master of Wine exams. Technically I am not…I have finished the WSET, but I don’t plan on trying for the Master of Wine for a couple more years. It’s so great to find a group that knows so much and who wants to do some serious tasting!

Lots of tastings this week…so hopefully I’ll get a few interesting posts up!
This was a very interesting and original wine I tried last week. Prieto Picudo is a little known indigenous variety from Leon that is becoming fashionable among winemakers. It is not allowed in Denominacion de Origen (DO) Wines, but is sometimes blended with the more well-known Mencía in lower category wines. I’ve only tried it twice so far, but both wines had a lot of similarities in aromas and flavors. The grape certainly has a very strong and unique aromatic profile. Some winemakers consider it the next, great grape of Spain…the two I’ve tried, though extremely interesting, have not completely convinced me of that.

We usually bring the wine when we go to Miguel’s family’s house. This time we brought a Gran Elias Mora, a blockbuster wine from Toro. While it was aerating in the decanter, Uncle Constancio offered up an older Rioja. We cleaned out a bunch of old Riojas at Christmas…most of them were way gone…so naturally I was a little dubious.
However this wine is a top end single-vineyard wine from a bodega I know well. It’s also from 1996, not as old at the over-the-hill 92s I was drinking over the holidays.
A pet peeve of mine is that people often keep their wines too long…it seems the word reserve on the label encourages it. The beauty of the traditional reserva system in Spain is that the winery doesn’t release the wine for many years. It is already ready to drink upon release…yes you can keep a reserve for many more years….but it is only the absolute top wines that are drinking well ten years on.
This wine was still drinking well ten years on! It was fading a little, but still ahd lots of elegant, delicate fruit left. It was a pleasant surprise….

An exciting week: I attended a very interesting tasting and presentation at Madrid Fusion on Biodynamic wines. 50 biodynamic wineries from around Europe attended and presented their wines. Nicolas Joly, one of the most passionate proponents of biodynamics, presented his ideas on the matter. It was a fascinating presentation and very timely as the concept is really growing here in Spain. The tasting was fascinating…some really interesting wines, some surprising dispointments too! I hope to post a full report this weekend!

This winery, Finca La Estacada, has often impressed me with their extremely inexpensive, easy drinking wines. The winery is in La Mancha, but is not in the Denominacion de Origen (DO) area and therefore makes wine under Vino de La Tierra (VdT) de Castilla. The category of VdT is quite trendy at the moment and excellent wines are made under it, especially in Castilla Leon and Castilla La Mancha. Under European law, therefore Spanish law, Vdt is not considered quality wine, but rather falls under table wine. It is equivalent to Vin Pays under the French system. VdT guarantees origin but the wines are subject to much less restrictive regulations with regards to yields, aging, and grape variety etc. VdT is being used by wineries outside the officially designated DO areas, but also by winemakers who want more flexibility in making their wines.

Before Xmas, we visited the wine region of Toro, NW of Madrid. This is a region that is famous for its potent red wines made from Tinta de Toro, a local variety of Tempranillo. The region has seen a lot of change over the last 5 years…the quality of the wines has improved dramatically, as have the prices! It can still represent good value, especially compared to its neighbour to the east Ribera del Duero! I hope to do a more in depth trip report to post at a later date.

Ribera del Duero produces some of Spain stop red wines, but at a price. By Spanish standard, the region is one of the most expensive. I’m always looking out for a wine that represents quality for price…fairly tricky!

This wine is quite good value:

Wine: Montecastro 2004

Winery: Bodegas y Viñedos Montecastro
Denominacion de Origen (DO): Ribera del Duero
Alc: 14.5%
Grape variety: 100% Tinto Fino (local variety of Tempranillo)
Oak regime: 18 months in oak (50% 1st year, 50% 2nd year)
70% French, 25% American, 5% Lithuanian
Price: Around 12 euros in SpainI tasted the 2003 of this wine a few weeks ago and found it a little flat in terms of over-ripe fruit and an excess of tannins. The 2004 much better (in line with the better vintage)…it has just been released, so look for it.