Passionate Spain - WBW#35 Round up
41 bloggers coming from Australia, Spain, Belgium, Hong Kong, Canada, the US, and Great Britain made this Wine Blogging Wednesday a great succes! Taking into account that a lot of bloggers reviewed 2, 3 or even more wines and you can imagine that there is a treasure of information for people who want to shop for good value Spanish wines (in general below 10 USD).
So kudos to My Wine Education for coming up with this great subject.
The round up of WBW#35 can be found here.
I want to mention one blog, Château Brys. A fellow Belgian blogger with whom I got into contact thanks to WBW. He had set his eye upon a wine from Telmo Rodriguez, a passionate driving wine maker.
Have a nice Spanish wine today!
bart
Barolo in Serralunga d’Alba
Just back from a trip to Italy: from Gavi to Valpolicella.
Great wheater over there. This combined with great wines, fantastic food and a fire in the woods we were able to extinguish and you can imagine that this was another unforgettable excursion to funky Italy.
More about this trip later, but I just want to give a short round up of some wines we had. Place of crime: Centro Storico in Serralunga d’Alba. A great winebar run by Alessio who is a passionate wine lover and huge fan of…Champagne. Not really a wine you would expect in the beating heart of Barolo. And he has a great selection.
We were there together with Franco Massolino, the wine maker and fun guy of Vigna Rionda di Massolino. This is one of the wine makers in our portfolio.
Just a brief look at the Barolos we tasted that afternoon (yes, we tasted a lot of other wines also).
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1. Cavallotto, Barolo Riserva, Bricco Boschis Vigna San Giuseppe 1999 - This is one of these wow wines and one of the preferred of Franco Massolino.
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2. Bruno Giacosa, Barolo Riserva Le Rocche del Falletto, 1999 - This is Serralunga d’Alba terroir, reknown for making the strongest and most longliving Barolos. And again wow and a big smile on my face.
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3. Massolino, Margheria, 2002 - 2002 is known as being a difficult year but with this wine Franco has proven the critics wrong. Great power and still so refreshing young. And to make this fist after Cavalotto and Bruno Giacosa you must have good pedigree. Huge smile on my face, my smiling muscles nearly were teared a part!
Have a great Barolo today!
bart
Speed drinking
Some blogs I enjoyed reading.
A nice round-up about The World’s Top 10 Wine Soils.
Although one major flaw, they forgot Piemonte Barolo (and, okay, Barbaresco). Maybe a slight review of their top 10 should be considered?
“Wine experts are not like us”. And you, are you a wine expert? Some great thoughts at Winelovers’ page, give it a read.
Ever been to a wine expo. No? Yes? In any case read at Dr. Vino the “highlights” of Vinexpo 2007: Vinexpo, odds ‘n ends, edition 2007 and recognize some of the better and worse things happening at a wine expo.
Have a nice wine today (preferably a Barolo)!
bart
Wine is so much more than wine…
I was browsing a bit through a book that I received as a present from Franco Massolino (ZANFI, A., “Piemonte…noblewoman of wine“), when I reached the part which describes himself and his winery, Vigna Rionda di Massolino.
And here I just got touched by this small paragraph that for me explains that wine is so much more than wine. Read it, preferably with a glass Barolo at your side, and let it sink through.
“When I’m in the vineyards and have finished “resetting” my ideas, it’s with a feeling of satisfaction that that I let myself be carried away with the thought that this land I’m walking on is the same land my father walked on all his life, like his own father before him. This sense of belonging regenerates and stimulates me. I often wonder how many times this land has been turned up, the land which I myself have turned up, and just how much it has occupied the men and women of my family, each one of whom certainly thought of making a contribution, with their own work, to maintaining the land for future generations.”
Have a nice moment with your wine today!
bart
WBW#35–Poema Garnacha old vine
After a cava and a verdejo, it’s time for some red.
This wine is not to be trifled with. Just take a look at the label and you know this is one of the though guys: 14.5% alcohol, Garnacha old vine and 75cl (oeps, this last one is quite common for a bottle of wine).
A low intense colour, well that is that kind of colour through which you can read your newspaper.
Initially, not super expressive on the nose, but taking into account its alcoholic muscles I chilled it a bit. It starts with a whiff of alcoholic sweetness combined with some animal features, just imagine a visit to a well-kept zoo (yes, indeed, the famous one of Antwerp). After a swirl or two, the fruit is bouncing out of the glass, black currants, black berries and cherries.
In the mouth, this is really a fruit scud, an explosion of black fruits. And wow, this wine has a lot more body than the colour would promise, but hey I know and you know that this wine has trained alcohol muscles…Round and velvety in the mouth, some tannins and peppery in the finale. Also some nice acidity which balances a bit the alcohol. Nevertheless, the alcohol is taking the leading part. Ok, this wine lacks a bit finesse, but it is never a body builder, let’s say it’s a well trained athlete. And a well trained athlete I like have once and a while…in my glass.
Conclusion: Good price value, nice presentation but be aware of the alcohol monster. Chill this wine down to a 16 degrees Celsius and be sure that your hammock is ready so you can take a nap after a couple of glasses of this though guy.
Just one strange fact about this wine: it is made by a Scottish woman and flying winemaker, Pamela Geddes. Yeah, it is not all whisky in Scotland…
Wine: Bodegas Virgen del Mar y de la Cuesta, Poema Garnacha Old Vine, DO Calatayud, 2005
Get it: Mondovino (Belgium – Wijnegem)
Pay it: 5.74 EUR (7.84 USD)
Have a nice Spanish wine today!
bart
WBW#35-Viña Mocen Verdejo Special Selection
This is one juicy beast! A lot of citrus notes, lemon candies, a whiff of aniseed and, on second plan, some herbaceous touches in the nose. Ever rubbed a buxus and then smelled your hand, it is this kind of herbaceous smell I sniff. A fresh and funky nose, that’s for me a pole position start.
In the mouth I get a tingly acidity, very clean and neat and a fattiness that shows good balance combined with the acidity. Again zesty lemon and grapefruit notes and that jazzy buxus feel mixed with some aniseed. This is clearly a “WYSIWYG” wine, what you smell is what you get. Nicy, nicy.
Heavily recommended with some good weather. And after a refreshing glass of Cava…
Conclusion: good bang for the buck! Gimme another glass and quick!
I must confess, I dig verdejo [VER-DE-GÓ]. As of the first time I tasted this grape it put a smile on my face. Actually, this great white grape was on its own responsible for putting the DO (“Denominación de Origin”) Rueda on the wine map. Rueda is located in Castilla y Léon, the northwest of Spain. Just head for Valladolid and around this town you will find the most important appellations, such as Ribera del Duero, Toro and the one on which we focus here, Rueda.
The rise of verdejo all started in the seventies, when Bodegas Marqués de Riscal, a Rioja based winery, was looking to expand towards white wines. Paco Hurtado de Amazaga, owner of the winery, didn’t like much the white viura variety of the Rioja. Too dull in his opinion. Therefore, he was looking into other possibilities. And here he did a great move. He invited his professor and friend, Emile Peynaud
Marqués de Riscal started soon to build a winery in Rueda and was the first to introduce over there steel vats. The result: a crispy aromatic white that soon was going to conquer the world.
Nowadays, you can find a lot of interesting to outstanding verdejo wines. The ones I have tasted and enjoyed are, of course, Marqués de Riscal, Mantel Blanco by Álvarez y Díez, José Pariente of Dos Victorias, Palacio de Bornos, and many others.
Worth noting is that region is also responsible for some great sauvignon blanc wines.
Wine: Bodegas Antaño, Viña Mocen Verdejo Special Selection, DO Rueda, 2006
Shop: Mondovino (Belgium – Wijnegem)
Price: 8.26 EUR (11.26 USD)
Have a nice verdejo today!
bart
WBW#35-Sumarocca, Cava Brut Reserva 2005
My maiden trip for Wine Blogging Wednesday and the subject is Passionate Spain. Well this is going to be my first post for this project, so, I thought by myself, let’s kick of with the first type of wine when having a dinner. Yes, the aperitif, the mouth cleanser and the hungry-maker.
If you want to go for an aperitif, stick to these three ones, in my opinion no others allowed:
- Sparkling wine
- Beer (yes, I’m a Belgian and it is great to be a Belgian)
- Sherry, that is the dry one (manzanillo, fino)
Why that is…that’s food for another post, just take this one -for now- for granted.
So, being in Spain and writing about wine that leaves me two options. And I took the first option, a refreshing bubbly cava. The D.O. (”Denominación de Origin”) Cava is mainly located in Catalunia (for about 95% of the production), the northeast of Spain. I guess you all heard about Barcelona, well, that’s the capital of Catalunia.
Cava is without any doubt the Spanish answer to Champagne. Main difference is the varieties used. The most used grapes are macabeo, xarel.lo and parellada. These three white grapes, each chosen for its particularities, make up the majority of Cava. Macabeo, also known as viura, is late budding and therefore unlikely to being under the attack of spring frosts. This is what they call an “insurance grape”. Even with spring frosts, which can happen often in this region, the wine producer will still have grapes to make his favourite bubbles. To provide backbone and give some alcoholic power as well as flavour xarel.lo is your man. On the other hand, elegance, delicacy and a refreshing acidity are all qualities which can be found in parellada.
Next to this native grapes, a bunch of other grapes may be blended in. Of course there is also chardonnay in white. As red grapes, the following may appear on the Cava stage: garnacha tinta and monastrell (only for Cava Rosé), malvasia riojana, the obscure trepat and, oh yes, pinot noir is recently also permitted (do I smell here some Champagne influences…).
In the bubbles at my side, Sumarroca Brut Reserva, also the three main white grapes confirmed presence completed with just a whiff of chardonnay. The blend is composed as follows: parellada 42% - xarel.lo 24 % - macabeo 27 % - chardonnay 7%.
Just as in Champagne, a second fermentation takes place in the bottle. This fermentation is the one that produces bubbles in sparkling wines. And in the Sumarocca those bubbles are quite delicate, I could just loose hours watching the chain of bubbles play in the glass.
Wandering up to my nose are some great yeasty scents, just think about the perfume when entering a bakery where the fresh made pastry is lying still warm on the shelfs. These are followed by some lemon and white peach impressions. After waltzing a bit (but hold your horses here, just a bit so not to loose those refreshing bubbles) with the glass, also some almonds, you know the roasted ones covered with some salt, aromas are jumping out of the glass.
In the mouth you get instantly that razor-sharp acidity, just imagine a needle with adrenaline directly in your heart. That’s how you feel after a sip of these bubbles, ready, ready for anything, but surely ready for another sip and that lavish dinner.
The mousse has a creamy texture and is the perfect counterbalance for the acidity. I guess you know it by now, I love this type of drink. In addition, Cava in general is giving great quality for the buck.
Wine: Sumarroca Brut Reserva, Cava, 2005
Website: www.sumarroca.es
Shop: Puerta del Sol (Belgium - Deurne)
Price: 8.69 EUR (11.77 USD)
Have a nice Cava today!
bart
Bodybuilder wines
I’ve got it. I’m fed up with it. I’m going to stop wine drinking. This was an awful tasting week. I do not know what happened but I guess the Law of Murphy roared its ugly head.
So what happened. Well, this was one of these tasting weeks where all bodybuilder wines lined up together and I wasn’t aware that there was a bodybuilder contest.
Most of the wines I tasted this week were just overoaked, overdone. Too much, too many. Ever tried of putting a V12 Ferrari engine in a Lada? Would not be a damn pretty sight, he. This was just what all these winemakers have done with their wines: loads of power, concentration and oak but no finesse, no elegance at all.
Do you like to watch a bodybuilder woman? I for one do not! Too much power, too little elegance. Same goes with these wines. When power is not backed up by elegance it gets soooo boring, so plump, so heavy on your palate. Maybe you drink one glass, and with a tour de force a second, but then you are more than satisfied, read: fed up.
Bad news is that the wines I tasted came from all around Europe, France, Portugal, Spain,…
So dear winemakers there is for me one simple rule to follow:
the truth of a wine is in the second half of the bottle.
If you finish the bottle with a smile on your face you have a hit! Just remind me about that dinner I had a couple of weeks ago where we enjoyed some great pasta dishes with an outstanding bottle of Casale dello Sparviero, Chianti Classico 2004 at the restaurant Camogli in Mechelen (Belgium). And with a big smile we asked for a second. That is a great bottle of wine and what an exceptional year for Chianti, this 2004. So typical sangiovese, dried tea leafs, sour cherries and great structure where elegance is the keyword. When I think about it, the saliva just pops up in my mouth. Yummy!
So to all you winemakers, pretty please with sugar, ice-cream and cherries on top, stop with these overdone, overconcentrated, overoaked wines and instead think about elegance, finesse! Well, that is if you want me to finish your bottle.
Have an elegant wine today!
bart
Exquisite wine and food combination
In my previous post I mentioned a post written by Spittoon on a wine and food combination from which you need to steer away. That got me thinking and of course it is good to know what to avoid, but come on is it not better to find these perfect marriages? I have something in store for you.
Do you like cheese? Hell, I for one do and a lot. Ever heard about blue cheeses? Does gorgonzola maybe rings a bell? This ravishing salty and creamy at the same time delight. Okay, if you do not love these cheeses you could rub it in my face that these are just some bacteria inflicted smelling…euh…things. But boy do I love this type of bacteria.
And now for that perfect marriage: couple this blue cheese with a Recioto di Soave. I had this divine experience with a Recioto di Soave of Tamellini (Veneto-Italy) and a piece of gorgonzola picante and just a moment I enjoyed perfect happiness. The salty creaminess of the cheese and that luscious dried fruit, honey blossoms and sweetness of the wine just lifted each other to a whole new dimension.
Want to know more about Recioto di Soave? Just send me a piece of gorgonzola and maybe just maybe I will open a bottle of this exquisite but so addictive stuff and tell you more about this wine…
Have a perfect marriage today!
bart
Speed drinking
Some blogs I enjoyed reading with my daily glass of wine. And remember a glass a day keeps the doctor away!
At The Pour I was delighted to read “A Plea for Finesse”. I love finesse in wine and I think there is a, maybe still a bit underground, movement towards finesse and subtlety.
Just one quote I couldn’t hold back:
“To put it another way, a marching band will always outblast a piano trio, and if you are accustomed only to marching bands, you may not appreciate the trio.”
That food and wine pairing is not a laid back and easy thing to do, is proven by Spittoon where a short piece is written about a matching to avoid: Food and Wine Matching – a Pairing to Avoid. Always good to know what type of pairings you really must stay away from. And if you do not believe the author, well just test for yourself!
The blog On the Wine Trail in Italy of Alfonso Cevola really delivers each time little pearls of stories. The one about The Sound of One Nose Smelling is just great reading. Here he gives you his own focus on our most important sense when trying wine, the nose.
One final number, ever heard about little test-tubes? I just know of these small pharmacists bottles that are used for whisky samples. Well, now you have also test-tubes for wine. Jamie Goode writes about it on his blog and gives his view on it: Test-tube wines.
Have a nice wine with your reading today!
bart
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