One Spanish white grape I’ve written quite a bit about is Godello, a high quality grape from Galicia in northwestern Spain.  My all-time favorite Godello is As Sortes by Rafael Palacios, a wine I’ve rated and written about a couple of times.  Rafael Palacios is very passionate about Godello and determined to make world class wines out of the grape…something he’s already done.  Today’s wine is As Sortes little sister, Louro do Bolo, a delicious Godello that is much more approachable and also half the price!  I love the As Sortes, but it is so intense steely, and complex that it is not the friendliest wine before it gets some air.  The Louro do Bolo is much more round and aromatic from the beginning, albeit less complex.  It offers aromas of lees, pineapple and lemon in the nose, as well as a bit of smokiness and oak spice.  In the mouth it has all those aromas as well as really fresh acidity.  It’s a really great example of Godello at a really friendly price:  12€.  Read on for more details on Lour do Bolo 2007.

One wine region I rave about but never write about is Rueda.  The region is a mainstay in my tastings because I think they are some of the most consistent and best value white wines in the world.  You can get a reliable bottle for between 5 and 8€ retail.  These are unoaked, fresh whites made either from Verdejo or Sauvignon Blanc.  Verdejo is the local variety that has a similar Sauvignon grassiness but with more tropical fruit and some refreshing bitterness in the finish.  Though still not common, oaked versions of Verdejo are coming on….Verdejo handles oak beautifully.   A few of my favorite wineries are José Pariente, Naia, Belondrade y Lurton, and Aura.  It is because of Rueda that cheap white wine is more reliable than cheap red wine in Spain.  It is available by the glass in bars throughout Spain and is usually much better than the corresponding house red….usually a thin Rioja.  When in doubt as to the wines on offer in Spain…order Rueda…you’ll almost always get some at least decent.  The wine today is Groc…what an unfortunate name; the label is very cute and somewhat unusual in the Spanish world of plain Jane wine labels.   The wine is the entry level wine of the winery Ossian, known for its top flight oaked Verdejo…one of the top whites in Spain.  It is made from low-yield old vines.  I really loved this wine, much more austere and focused than many Ruedas…many un-oaked Ruedas have intense grassy and pineapple aromas…sometimes a bit excessive.  It was quite a refreshing alternative, though perhaps it lacks the easy, soft attractiveness these wines typically offer.  Read on for details about the Groc 2007

Taberneros is wine bar I used to visit often, but it somehow dropped off my tapas route.  Plaza Mayor in central Madrid…they have no website (!), but are on google maps.   We visited the other day with some friends and I was pleased to see that the basics were still in place:  great food and good wine.  Part of the reason I had stopped going there was because I felt the quality of the service and food had dropped off a little…the food impressed me anew but the service was still pretty indifferent.  Taberneros is worth a visit though because it offers unique tapas and wine.  It fits in style-wise in between the multitudinous traditional places and the “modern-elaborate” tapas places that have become trendy.  Taberneros puts sophisticated touches to classic Spanish cuisine but without losing that comforting comfort food taste.   We tried the cecina with olive oil and it was as good as ever:  tender cured beef presented as carpaccio with top quality olive oil, lemons, and sea salt.  Most cecina is tough and dry…this is perfect!  We had the creamy scallop gratin, soft tender vegetables topped with slices of scallop and béchamel…served on the shell.  Next up was the fried eggs and potato with shaved black truffle….a cholesterol fest, but so delicious.  The wine list is very complete, a bit pricy, but with some interesting inexpensive alternatives.  There is a smattering of foreign wines, but Spain is the focus.  The by-the-glass list is good and the best surprise is that there are 6 types of dessert wine by the glass.  The highlight of the night was my first taste of the botrytis wine Caligo.  The wine is from coastal vineyards close to Barcelona and is not included in any wine appellation.  This first vintage, 2005, is made from 100% Chardonnay, but there are plans to include Sauvignon Blanc and Albariño in future vintages. Botrytis is a rarity in Spain due to the climate and this is the first Spanish dessert wine with botrytis I have ever tasted.  Their website shows the unique mists in their vineyards that allow the noble rot to flourish.  Fascinating wine which I will revisit soon.  To sum it all up….Taberneros is a great stop on the upscale Madrid tapas route!

Chacolí or Txakolí is the wine produced in three wine appellations in Spanish Basque Country.  It is a slightly sparkling light wine made in all three colors that is commonly served in Basque bars with tapas and pintxos.  It is very similar in style to Portugal’s Vinho Verde.  White Chacolí is the norm and it is generally served with a special spout attached to the bottle high above the glasses…splashing it vigourously encourages the fizzy carbonic to come out.   It is meant to be a light, fresh and fruity wine that refreshes the palate between all the varied pintxos you might eat….the best wines fit that bill perfectly…the worst are bland and bitingly acidic.   I recently saw in a Spanish TV report that over 80% of the Chacolí served in Basque bars is fake…in other words, not from the wine appellation, but rather a table wine made in the style of Chacolí with inferior grape varieties.   I decided to investigate the last time we were in Basque country and sure enough most of the time I was served a vino de mesa most of the time when I ordered Chacolí.  Generally you don’t get your hands on the bottles as it usually served behind the bar by the glass, but in the picture you can see a bottle of a fake one we were served.  The real rip off is that these wines are served at Chacolí prices, 8-10€ a bottle versus their real price value, which would be well below 5€.   So be wary of what you’re being served while enjoying the tapas in San Sebastian…ask for appellation Chacolí (Denominacion in Spain).  Read on for more information on Chacolí and its counterfeit version.

I’m all about Godello…it is a great value alternative to the many under-performing Albariños that abound in Spain.  It is the other fine white grape from Galicia.  It is grown throughout Galicia and parts of Leon.  It is a semi-aromatic grape, usually offering intense fruit (apricot, melon, lime, pear), floral, and mineral notes…it has an attractive fullness and silkiness in the mouth, with generally moderate acidity by Galician standards. Most of them are unoaked, but there are also some great wines with aging over lees or in oak barrels. The wine below is another great, moderately priced Godello that I’ve been drinking lately.

I am quite down on Albariño lately.  It’s a grape I fell in love with over 8 years ago before I came to Spain.  One of my first wine trips when I came to live here was to Rias Baixas in Galicia, the homeland of Albariño.

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! 

Christmas is over, but here in Spain, the holidays are just kicking off!  We still have two more weeks of festivities here!

Many people here in Spain dismiss whites for the holidays, relegating them to the hot days of summer, but actually whites can be the perfect pick for holiday meals.  The best whites for matching with a wide variety of holiday foods are not  oaky Chardonnays or even an intense, green Sauvignon Blancs.  For me the best whites are un-oaked (or little oaked) aromatic varieties such as Riesling or Albariño. 

 One at the best whites in Spain at an amazing price…see my previous article on the changing face of Spanish white wine. 

Wine:  As Sortes
Winery:  Rafael Palacios S.L.
Vintage: 2005
Denominacion de Origen (DO): Valdeorras
Alc: 14% (!)
Grape variety: 100% Godello
Additional factoids:  40-60 year old vines, vines all over 600 meters, micro-oxygenation techniques used
Oak regime:  fermentation and aging in large oak foudres, aged 6-8 months over lees
Price:  20-25 euros in Spain

In my classes, I always stress the huge gap that exists between Spanish red wines and white wines. For several years, I’ve been able to use a fun example to illustrate that point.  The most expensive red wine in Spain is Pingus from Ribera del Duero, which has a theoretical price of 600 euros, but in reality is seems to be much higher. Until recently. the most expensive still white wine in Spain was Chivite Coleccion 125 Barrel-fermented Chardonnay from Navarra at only about 50 euros!   I would venture to say no other country had such a disparity between the colors!