A lot of cava is aggressively bubbly and quite bitter but this cava shows Spain can give France a run for its money in sparkling wine.  Cava is the Spanish sparkling wine made in the champenoise method in Cataluña and some other regions in Spain.  The traditional grapes are Macabeo, Parellada and Xarel-lo, but increasingly Chardonnay is being used in the blend.   Unfortunately many Spaniards and foreigners are only exposed to the cheapest of cavas, the under 8€ crowd from big producers.  Few of these are any good and most are frankly, quite bad.  Cava is a good value, if very different alternative to champagne, but I don’t understand how anyone thinks it should be that cheap.  The great cavas are between 12 and 25 euros…above 25 euros I find small producer champagnes better for the money….few of the really high end cavas really impress me either.  My favorite cava producers are medium or smaller outfits, my all time favorites are any cavas from Gramona, Raventos I Blanc and Sumarroca.  One of the frustrations of living in Madrid is that many smaller Catalan producers don’t have good distribution here…internal Spanish political tensions affecting the wine market.  Just today, I had one of my top picks…this is the cava I drink the most….it’s a top quality wine, good value and readily available in Madrid.  The Gramona Brut Imperial is a steal at about 15€. It‘s a wonderful, mellow, wine-like cava, where apply fruit mixes with leesy, toasted aromas.  The mouth is round, fresh and the carbonic is terrific, super integrated and not at all aggressive.  The finish is very persistent with a very slight, pleasant bitterness.  This wine is a great example of the quality Gramona offers…this Penedés-based company also makes great still wines, dry and sweet.  Read on for more information on the Gramona Brut Imperial. 

This is a top notch red from the southeastern Utiel region of Spain.  I recently rated this winery’s bargain wine Mestizaje and more recently tasted the Finca Terrerazo wine, which is their intermediate wine at about 25€.  The winery also has a top cru called Quincha Corral.    As I mentioned in the previous article, these wines are released under a Vino de la Tierra Category, in theory table wine, and are based upon the local grape Bobal.  Bobal is a mediocre grape when over cropped, but can make some unique, top quality wines with a lot of care.  The Ficna Terrerazo 2005 is a Bobal blend, with Cabernet Sauvignon and Tempranillo.  Very complex nose, with tobacco, menthol and black fruit.  The mouth has all those elements plus surprisingly fresh acidity and big, smooth tannins.  I tasted the wine a day later and it was even better…smoother and more in balance.  It has a whopping 19 months in new French oak, but the intensity of the wine allows for it.  Shows what Bobal can do…this is a good value wine, considered the complexity it gives you.  Read on for more details on Finca Terrerazo 2005.

Another great red wine from the Montsant area of Spain.  In recent articles, I’ve rated Finca L’Argatá and Brunus.  Montsant is the great value area that surrounds the cult wine area of Priorat.  Many of the vineyard sites in Montsant offer similar great terroir as those in Priorat but at a fraction of the price.  But, it’s best to know your producers….there are still some fairly rustic wines out there.  The Acústic 2007 is my favorite kind a Montsant:  super mineral, intense black fruit, huge but smooth tannins.    Admittedly it’s a bit closed at first, but it’s a 2007 and needs some air and even some time in bottle.  Acústic has that distinct Montsant character that gives it real originality.  Also interesting in this wine is the use of Samsó, an obscure regional variety that is coming back into favor lately.  It is an intense, structured grape that really plays well with the old vine Garnacha so typical of the area.  Acústic Celler also makes a higher end wine called Braó, that retails for about 22€ and is more a more typical Montsant blend of old vine Garnacha and Cariñena.  Read on for more information on Acústic 2007.

Caliza is the value wine in the Marques de Griñon Dominio de Valdepusa line.  Dominio de Valdepusa is the estate wine appellation or vino de pago located in Toledo province to the southwest of Madrid.  The estate specializes in very ripe, big wines from mostly French varieties, though they are starting to work with Graciano, a Rioja grape.  The estate has been very important in the evolution of Spanish wines over the last 25 years, and has been innovating in terms of grape varieties and technologies in the vineyard.  I’ve previously written posts about the wines and the winery, but the Caliza was not part of the line-up back then.  Previously, the estates wines started at about 19€, topping out at about 45€. I’ve always loved these wines but often found them a little pricy.  Now the winery has come out with a lower end wine, the Caliza, that is much more reasonably priced at 12€.  The Caliza, made from Syrah and Petit Verdot, is soft and full, with wonderful black fruit.  It is not super complex, but has surprising freshness for such a hot weather wine and has quite a long finish, with very ripe tannins.  I really think it is a lot of wine for a good price….and it’s perfect to drink this year.  I don’t love the label though…it looks like a bland version of Didier Dagueneau’s original Silex label…also the shape of the stone looks a little like the outline of Africa.  Read on for more info on Caliza 2005.

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

In a recent article I compared two great Garnachas from France and Spain:  Atteca and a Cairanne Côte du Rhône.  I’ve since wrote about many great Garnacha’s from around Spain.  Today’s wine is an old vine Garnacha, from Calatayud, the same region in north-eastern Spain that the Atteca comes from.  This region, though still rustic, is producing an amazing array of old-vine Garnacha wines that are great value.  An interesting thing about Calatayud is that the cooperatives are producing some of the top wines.  Cooperatives in many regions produce pretty ordinary stuff, but here they can excel.  The Baltasar Gracian 2006 is from one such cooperative…San Alejandro…their whole range of inexpensive old-vine wines are really worth trying.  This wine is easy-drinking, but offers exuberant, attractive fruit, some spiciness and some good intensity and decent complexity.  For about 5-6€, it’s a steal!  Read on for more details on the wine. 

I recently rated the Brunus 2006 from Montsant…it wasn’t my favorite, but it seems to be garnering high points from all the critics.  As I mentioned in that post, Montsant is a great value alternative to Priorat but can be very hit or miss.  One of the good ones is Finca L’Argatá…it’s been a favorite of mine since the 2002 vintage.  Recently I tried the 2004 for the first time and loved it.  If the Brunus was lacking that intense black fruit that I associate with the region, the Finca L’Argatá has it in spades!  It also has those original, wild aromas that the best Montsants and Priorats have.  It’s a bit of stone and slate with what in Spanish we call “bajo monte” and in French “garrigue.”  The English translation always comes out a little poor but wild herbs, herbes de Provence are similar.  When you walk through dry and scrubby areas of southern France or the Med you get those wonderful smells of all the wild herbs such as rosemary and them, but it is mixed in with an earthiness as well.  Love it!  The 2004 is perfect to drink now…the sometimes tough tannins have really smoothed out and it has a really long liqueur black fruit finish.  The only criticism I could make is that the alcohol is a bit notable in the finish.  The best part is that the price is really reasonable at 13€ retail.  This is what’s best about Montsant!  Read on for more details on Finca L’Argatá.  

I have been meaning to try this Rioja wine for some time and in the last week I have tried it in two vintages.  Both were impressive, but the 2007 could use a little more time in bottle to achieve a better balance.  Predicador is the inexpensive wine that Benjamin Romeo brought onto the market in 2005.  Benjamin Rome is a cult winemaker in Rioja and is responsible for such amazing wines as Contador, La Cueva de Contador, La Viña de Andrés, all priced 80 euros or higher.  Benjamin Romeo also offers one of Spain’s most unique whites, Que Bonito Cacareaba, which retails for about 35€.  The story behind the name is funny…it translates as “How wonderfully it crowed.”  Seems strange but originally it was called Gallo canto or “Cock crows”, but obviously Gallo in Spanish is spelled the same as the famous winery Gallo.  Need I say more….so Benjamin killed off the Gallo and in memoriam named the wine Que Bonito Cacareaba!  Love it and love the wine.  The Predicador is less intense and simpler than it’s pricy big brother, but it offers a lot of bang for the buck at only about 19€.   It is an intense, sweet fruit, fresh modern Rioja with great oak integration and a long finish.  The 2006 has the edge for me right now…much smoother.  The 2007 is delicious, but the tannins are a bit tight still.     It really a pleasure to drink a good value wine from this unique and creative winemaker.  Read on for more details on Predicador.  

In the last two days I’ve had two different vintages of this juicy, big wine from the southern Spanish region of Utiel…the 2006, which is still widely available, and the 2007, which was just released about a month ago.  The 2006, which sis months ago was a little rough, was really delicious.  The 2007 is better at this point than the 2006, but needs more time in bottle to round out.  Mestizaje is the basic wine of the winery Mustiguillo, one of the pioneers in fine wine in their region.  The wines are released under the appellation Vino de la Tierra El Terrerazo, which is located in Utiel Requena in the southeastern region of Valencia.  The Mestizaje is great value at about 10€ and their two prestige blends, Finca el Terrerazo and Quincha Corral are spectacular.  The wines are blends, but based on the local grape variety Bobal.  Bobal is a unique grape variety that is widespread in the area and parts of La Mancha.  It is largely used for low quality, bulk wines, but with a lot of care, can make some really top quality wines.  It is a grape that is very high in acidity and retains its freshness in hot weather.  Though not as aromatic as some grapes it does have attractive aromas of red fruit and can sometimes have a meaty quality.   Bobal has a problem with uneven ripening and has very vigorous shoot growth….so careful selection and controlled yields are necessary to make a top quality wine.  The climate in the area is also challenging….the heat can be extreme.  Mestizaje from Bodegas Mustiguillo really shows what Bobal is capable of in a blend.  Read on for more details on the wine.  

Dominio de Atauta is a really unique wine from the Spanish wine region of Ribera del Duero.  As mentioned in my ratings of Ferratus, I’m a bit down on the region.  The inexpensive wines from the region are often hollow and thin on fruit, the more expensive can often be over-oaked.  Also many of the wines, though perfect technically, seem to be lacking a lot of character. I feel that many Ribera wineries have lost touch with the terroir of the region in order to attain the perfect model for an “international” wine.  I’m convinced that it would be very hard to pick some Ribera wines out of a lineup of blockbuster-style reds from around the world….many of these wines lack a sense of place…and they can also be exhausting to drink.  The wines of the Dominio de Atauta winery are the opposite of international…they are firmly rooted in the terroir that the wine-maker tries to reflect in his wines.  The winemaker; Bernard Sourdais is from the Loire Valley, but has been working in Spain for over a decade.  He brings a real French sensibility to the idea of terroir, a concept that is just catching on in a real way here in Spain.   The vineyards are very special; they are located at the far eastern end of the Denominacion, in the province of Soria.  The altitude is higher than most of Ribera, 950 meters and the vines are very old.  The youngest vines the winery uses are 60 years old, the oldest, 160!  The winery also practices biodynamic wine-making and the winery is built in a manner so as to blend into the landscape.  These are all facts that lead to the uniqueness of these wines…but a word of warning…these are not always easy wines.  These are not the big, sweet, juicy Riberas we have become used to.  When I first tasted the 2005, it was delightful in the nose, but the tannins were still quite rough in the mouth.  The wine has since come into a much better balance and is one of the most original and satisfying Riberas on the market…and also good value at 25€..    Even more spectacular are the single-vineyard wines, Llanos del Almendro, La Mala and Valdegatiles that range between 75 and 100€.  Read on for more details on the basic Dominio de Atauta red.  

Megoba 2007 is a very trendy red wine from Bierzo made from the outstanding Mencía grape.  It is so trendy that its price seems to have gone up 25% in its first year of release!  It’s a wine made by Gregory Pérez, the well known enologist that is behind the Luna Beberide winery.   He originally from Bordeaux but of Spanish descent and has settled into making wines in the Bierzo area.  I love the Luna Beberide wines…they are really some of the most elegant Mencías around.  This wine is at the other end of the spectrum.  It really shows the intensity and concentration that Mencía can give.  It is from 80 year old vines with really low yields…one of those great sites that offer such unique terroir.  I have to say that in the mouth, I found the tannins a little too intense.  I loved the nose and I loved the fruit in the mouth…but the tannins were really tough, closing down the finish. We were drinking it with friends so there was no time to let it open up.  It is a 2007 and hopefully the tannins will be tamed by a little more time in bottle.  I’d like to try the wine again in a several months.  I’m also anxious to try Megoba’s white wine made from one of my favorite white Spanish grapes:  Godello.   Read on for more details on this wine. Also check out my post about the Mencía grape and about the Tierras de Luna wine from Luna Beberide.

Another slightly high end wine….but the Mauro 2005 is totally worth its 22€ price tag.  Mauro was one of the pioneers in making top quality wine outside the traditional wine appellation areas.  Its category is Vino de la Tierra, in theory a table wine category, but also producing some of the best and best value wines in Spain.  Mauro was founded in 1980 in the Ribera del Duero area.  Outside the wine appellation has given the winery more flexibility in grape varieties, which include Tempranillo, Garnacha and Syrah.  In the mid to late 90’s Mauro changed wine styles along with many area wineries, seeking fresher fruit and more intensity.  Mariano Garcia, the famed winemaker from Vega Sicilia took over and the result was one of the hottest wines in Spain…it really put the category of Vino de la Tierra de Castilla Leon on the map.  Even the casual wine-drinker has heard of this winery.   I used to drink a lot of this wine, but had ignored it in the past few vintages.  I’ve rediscovered the wine in the very good 2005 vintage…an intense, yet attractive wine with a perfect oak balance…something sadly lacking in many Ribera del Duero wines. It’s great to revisit a pioneer and find it still deserves its reputation.  For more information on the Vino de la Tierra Category of wine see my blog post on the unconventional wine categories in Spain.  Read on for more details on the wine.

Roda Reserva 2004 from Rioja is the wine I have consumed most over the past year.  I love to change the wines I put in my tastings constantly….otherwise I get bored!  The Roda, however, has been the exception…it is the consistently the favorite wine in my line-ups of eight wines from all over Spain.  The 2004 vintage, which is really structured, has only been getting better over the months…I’m dreading the day they come out with the 2005…it’s a very nice wine, but it will take a year to get to where the 2004 is now.  This wine is a firmly modern Rioja with only 16 months in new French oak.  The special thing about it is that perfect balance it has between sweet red fruit, fresh Rioja acidity, perfectly integrated oak and firm, yet ripe tannins.  It is so youthful, with many years ahead, but so easy to drink now.  It is really good value at 20-22€ retail in Madrid. It is the all round wine, a wine that please all types and nationalities of wine drinkers.  I serve it so much I do get burned out on Roda but I can’t stop serving it!  Read on for more details on the wine.

I’ve been complaining a bit about the over-oaked state of many Spanish wines lately and probably the worst region for it is Ribera del Duero.  There’s no denying that some of Spain’s best reds come from the area….reds from a robust variant of Tempranillo called Tinto Fino.  Tinto Fino gives wines of great body and structure that do well in new oak.  Many wine-makers have taken that favorable characteristic and taken it too far.  Many top Riberas have way too much oak despite their great fruit and structure….many of my clients have been disappointed by tastings of top Riberas lately.  Inexpensive Riberas are often tough and hollow…lacking in fruit.  It’s not an inexpensive region by Spanish standards….I have found few Riberas below 20€ that I have really liked.  I tasted an Emilio Moro Crianza the other day…it used to be one of my favorites…it’s good value for Ribera at 17€, but the 2005 I tasted the other day was overly oaky.  One of my favorite wineries in Ribera is Dominio de Atauta…they make a range of blends and single vineyards wines that really stand apart from other Riberas…they really focus on terroir.  They are very intense and focused with lean, elegant fruit and great acidity…most importantly they are very carefully and moderately oaked.  Ferratus, the wine I’m rating below, is a new winery (2003) that has garnered some great ratings from Spanish critics.  I am not so impressed.  Read on for my detailed rating.

Vinos de Madrid is an improving but still little known wine appellation within the province of Madrid, the small region surrounding the city of Madrid.  Traditionally it was known for joven or “young” red wines without any oak, wines that were often served in the bars in the capital.  There has been a tremendous effort to improve the wines and the area has become quite trendy here in Madrid.  Unfortunately the best wines have become so popular that they can be quite pricy.  There are three major sub-zones in the area, each with very differing soils and climates:  Arganda to the southeast, San Martín to the west and Navalcarero to the southwest.  The climate is generally very hot continental, similar to La Mancha.  Grape varieties allowed are numerous:  the most common ones are Tempranillo and Garnacha, though Syrah is catching on.  Some of the most well known wineries are Tagonius, Qubel and Regajal…I find their wines very good but quite pricy.  Probably my favorite wine form the area, though it is not an appellation wine but rather a Vino de la Tierra is Montazo, a wonderful wine made by the famous enologist Telmo Rodriguez.   The winery Nueve Valverde is in the zone of St Martin and makes two very interesting reds.  They also represent quite good quality compared to many.

Bierzo is a great wine area that I’ve written about several times.  It is home to the very high quality red grape Mencía as well as the excellent white grape Godello.  Mencía has become quite trendy and it’s harder to find good value these days.  Also I’ve noticed an interesting trend in my wine-tasting groups…Mencía seems to have a love/hate effect on them.  A minority loves it and the majority hates it!  I think this has something to do with the grapes strong personality.  It is often intensely mineral and structured, with a lot of acidity and tannin.  There is also a wonderful, aromatic, floral, red fruit side to the wines, but sometimes that can be a bit lost in the intensity of the structure.  Also Bierzos frequently come in 2 styles than do not make fans.  The first is a joven or “young”  wine with no or very little oak, with exuberant young fruit…at its best this style can showcase the Mencía fruit, but is at its worst it has too much of that candy-like carbonic maceration fruit…aromas of banana and sweets.  The second style is the other extreme….over-oaked, a style that makes people more comfortable, but doesn’t make Mencía stand out.  The ideal is somewhere in between.  Unfortunately for every great Bierzo, there are a handful of indifferent or poor ones….and the trendiness of Mencía is only exacerbating the situation.  Mencía is top flight grape, but it is a difficult grape to get right….it is hard to tame its intensity and preserve its delicate floral aromas.  It is not the easiest grape to drink but when it’s just right it has given me some of my best Spanish wine experiences.  The wine I’m rating today is considered Bierzo’s top joven-style Mencía.

The Ciudad Real area of La Mancha produces some interesting wines; in particular there are some really interesting Syrahs and Tempranillos.  Many times the wines are really good value though prices are rising.  Typically these wines are easy drinking, glugable reds….high alcohol but with gobs of sweet attractive fruit.  The best can have some complexity and subtlety, with better equilibrium between fruit, alcohol, oak, and acidity.  The worse are out of balance:  too much alcohol, often over-ripe fruit and lacking acidity….or even worse over sharp acidity from enthusiastic acid rectification.   The wines of La Mancha are hot weather wines, big wines that often resemble new world wines from similarly hot regions.  They are big wines, even the most complex and elegant wines, and many of my Spanish wine tasters find them overwhelming.  On the other hand, many of my foreign groups love them!  I tend to drink them chilled with barbecues in the summer….when I first came to Spain I drank them more frequently at home, but I got a bit burned out and lately I’ve used them solely in tasting.  Always a region to re-visit as change and improvement is constant. 

Montsant is an interesting region to try for those legions of folks who love Priorat but find the prices a little steep!  Montsant is the region that surrounds Priorat and many parts of it share the similar licorella soils that make Priorat wines so unique.  Montsant is relatively new Denominacion de Origen (wine appellation) as previously it was known as Falset district of the large and variable wine region Tarragona.  Montsant is a very good value alternative to Priorat…the best ones are quite similar.  The problem with Montsant is that it is much more variable in quality than Priorat, especially as there are some sites and soils that are not as good.  Also some Montsant wineries make a more rustic-style wine.  The good news is you can try a lot of Montsants to find the good ones without breaking the bank! 

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’ve been writing about Grenache in its various forms over the past month…for me some of the most exciting wines in Spain have Grenache in the mix.  Whether it is is an intense, mineral Priorat based in a Grenache blend or a soft, sweet fruit, old-vine Grenache from Aragon….the variety is endless!  I wanted to talk today about two more of my favorite Grenache’s that are so interesting because they are about as different as two wines can be.  They both show the great results that the grape variety can give when a lot of care is taken in the vineyard and the winery.  Beautiful wines at great prices!

When I arrived in Spain over 6 years ago, Robert Parker and his team were just starting to pay attention to the wines in a big way.  Since then I have seen awareness of him take off in the wine sector…frequently these days, winery professionals talk about the ratings they’ve received from the Wine Advocate.  I often ask my groups of wine tasters if they’ve heard of Robert Parker, and though many of the foreigners have, very few of the Spanish groups have. The concept of wine ratings still hasn’t really filtered down to the typical Spanish wine consumer…he or she still rely on the recommendations of family, friends, or their local wine merchant.  There are quite a few wine guides and magazines in Spain that rate wines, but ratings are a tool that is just starting to be used as a marketing tool by wineries, distributors and wine merchants. 

This wine was the best of a few Spanish Cabernet Sauvignon-based wines we tried recently.  I liked it so much I bought a case for home use.  Many Spanish Cabernets have green fruit and/or over-ripe fruit…sometimes it has both at the same time!  It’s a challenge in some of the hotter areas to achieve tannic ripeness before the fruit aromas become over-ripe. 

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 wines that have given some of the most hedonistic drinking pleasure lately have been Garnachas from northern Spain.  Not just any old Garnachas but old vine Garnachas that retain the grape’s softness and approachability, but that also offer a unique concentration of intense fruit and fresh acidity.  They are wines that offer sufficient complexity for the wine lover yet also are so easy to drink that they are the perfect reds to convert novice wine drinkers with!