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
TN –Château Hostens-Picant, Sainte-Foy Bordeaux, 2004
The combination of merlot (70%), cabernet franc (30%) and cabernet sauvignon (10%) brings a refined spiciness in the glass. Next to this some reminiscents of the barrel aging expressed by notes of mocha and espresso poured over by a sauce of black currants, strawberries and raspberries.
Okay, so the barrel aging is present but I never got that sensation of overwooded wine. Hell no, the fruit is omnipresent, luscious and a lust for the nose. Hey, if I’m ever sick, pretty please with sugar on top bring me a basket with such sexy fruit and I guess I’ll be out of my bed in no time.
So, as you could guess I couldn’t wait a moment longer to sip this wine and let it rock and roll in my mouth. The first thing I noticed was “finesse”. And oh boy, do I just love elegance in wine. Healthy tannins, present but like a good butler in the background, a refreshing acidity and an overall great balance. Again, the sensual fruit is lingering in the mouth with a softness and roundness that is exquisite. Great and exciting finish!
Stéphane Derononcourt is the consultant behind this wine. Voices whisper that this is the new school Michel Rolland. This self made man has entered and conquered big part of the Bordeaux scene without any diploma in his pocket. He just digs sensual wines loaded with fruit. I guess the wine above is one of his scholar examples.
One conclusion, I’m going to grab me some more wines with the stamp of Stéphane Derononcourt.
Wine: Château Hostens-Picant, Sainte-Foy Bordeaux, 2004
Bought at: Pin’art (Belgium - Mechelen)
Price: around 15 EUR (around 20 USD).
Have a nice and sensual wine today!
Bart
3 secrets for a 100% score at blind tastings
The other night I attended a blind tasting. Well, actually it was a so called semi-blind tasting. This implies that you get the name of the grapes and/or the region where the wine is produced.
In this particular case, a flight of nine wines were to be tasted, and this is the information we received:
Pinotage – South Africa (3 wines)
Pinot noir (1 wine)
Cahors (1 wine)
Zweigelt – Austria (1 wine)
Zinfandel (3 wines)
And guess what, I got them all nine correct: a 100% score. Great, isn’t. Was their luck involved? Well, I guess so since I had some doubts over a couple of wines and switching just one of these couples would imply already a penalty of two and then I would have ended up with 7 out of 9.
But that is not so important, the most important thing is how to approach such a blind tasting. Well, let me kick of with the first well kept secret:
Just an example, one of the wines had a low intensity in color. A type of color through which you could easily read your newspaper. Just on the basis of color I could easily exclude Cahors, which produces in general heavy colored wines. So this one I could easily exclude. Also wines on the basis of the pinotage grape are in general more colored. But I played it on the safe side and did not immediately eliminate these ones.
So my list would be as follows:
Pinotage – South Africa
Pinot noir
Cahors
Zweigelt – Austria
Zinfandel
Then the nose, a not so intense nose dominated by fruit, mainly cherries which were even a bit like candy. Next to this there was some nice spiciness whirling.
What decisions did I base on the aromas? Well, this in combination with the color, now I was certain that pinotage could be excluded. In my opinion pinotage has a certain element which can be best described as vegetal, although burnt rubber would be also a nice denominator. Also some big doubts aroused about zinfandel, these types of wines are normally more expressive. Also zweigelt is in general more expressive but could have this type of fruit. So, again I was risk averse and only excluded pinotage.
This was my list up till then:
Pinotage – South Africa
Pinot noir
Cahors
Zweigelt – Austria
Zinfandel
Then I sipped a bit of the wine and instantly I noticed loads of acidity and rather low alcohol degree. Furthermore, also tannins were very low. And there was this slight sweetness, just a bit of dry.
These impressions confirmed my earlier decisions (pffft) and lead me again a bit further on the path of elimination. High acidity and low alcohol, better forget zinfandel.
So now it was a grape-to-grape fight: zweigelt versus pinot noir. It lacked that typical Beaujolais fruitiness for a zweigelt, zweigelts are often also a bit darker in color and, finally, it had that off dry sensation. Austria is a so-called old world country and there wines are mainly made in a dry style. So reasons enough to exclude zweigelt.
So I ended up by elimination with pinot noir. Easy, no?
This brings me right to the second secret when blind tasting.
Again elimination, but now on a macro-level. Once I had eliminated one grape only eight more were left and each time the elimination would be easier. In this case, indeed the pinot noir was the easiest grape to start with and it made my blind tasting live already a lot easier later on.
Third and last secret and for the people who have intensely read the example above no longer a secret:
I often see people decide on the basis of the nose, the aromas. No, do not do this, a blind tasting is not a quickie, you will need some foreplay and after play. So crawl your way through all these different elements, eye, nose and mouth, just as I did above in the example. Combine this with your elimination technique and you’ll get your home run…or at least you’ll reach the first base.
Have a nice blind tasting today!
Bart
PS If you have other secrets for a blind tasting, just share them in the comments section.
Wine Blogging Wednesday
I just recently learned about this great initiative started by Lenn Thompson of Lenndevours: Wine Blogging Wednesday.
The set-up is as follows. Monthly a theme is announced and then on a predetermined Wednesday all bloggers and wine lovers are invited to blog or send a mail to the Wine Blogging Wednesday host about the wines they have tasted.
The last one (WBW#34) was about Washington State Cabernet Sauvignon. The round up can be found at Through The Walla Walla Grape Vine blog.
The next Wine Blogging Wednesday has just been announced and will deal with Passionate Spain, Spanish wines below the 10 USD. Well, since I’m living in EURO country I will try to fetch some below the 10 EUR (a bit more than 10 USD, but I guess I will not be punished for this). This will be my maiden trip and I’m already anxious to figure out which wine(s) I will comment upon.
Have a nice passionate Spanish wine today!
Bart
TN - Ravishing carignan: a Belgian with a Plan
Ever had a race car in a bottle? I just did:
Dirk Vermeersch, a former race driver and Maserati dealer (okay, he was also involved in dealing Volvo’s and Lancia, but these cars are not so sexy) sold all his belongings and went with his family to the Southern Rhône pursuing his dream.
There he started up a winery and damn does he make good wines. Just (re)tasted (well, sipped with loads of enthusiasm) his GT-C wine. Nope, no Gran Turismo but Grand Terroir Carignan. Monovarietal carignan are few and far between, I can assure you. This grape is often declared as being too dull to do a solo.
But boy, theory can be so wrong. Dirk, mister 100%, makes 100% right choices: low yields (around an astonishing 25 hl/ha), green harvest, old vines (on average around 40 years), etc. Result: what vibrancy on the nose. Peppery at first, subsequently liquorice and tons of black and red fruit are fighting for your attention. Talking about a concentrated nose… Then a sip and you can almost feel the sunny South on the tip of your tongue. Warm fruit, tannins that belong rather to the softies’ category, lean but no so mean acidity. In one word balance. This is a carignan I dig!
Oh, by the way, on the label it reads “powered by nature”. I’m really happy that nature can make such smooth running turbo engines.
In Belgium you can find this wine at (among others) Pin’art (Mechelen), and in the UK Vignerons de France (BN3 3JJ HOVE) are taking care of distribution.
Wine: LePlan Vermeersch, GT-C, Vin de Pays de la Drôme, 2005
Price: 8,20 EUR at Pin’Art (Belgium-Mechelen)
A concentrated nose
Kaat showed me a nice blogpost about a concentrated nose of blackberries, coffee and violets. If you understand Dutch (yes, that obscure language spoken in, among others, Belgium and the Netherlands), then I would kindly invite you to read the post, which can be found at Edward van de Vendel Blog.
If this blogpost would have been a wine, then it would be a supple, full bodied and easygoing wine. One of these that just beg for a second glass…(and third and …). In short, recommended reading.
This great written piece got me thinking about denominators for wine. Actually a “concentrated nose” is quite a common one when spending some time under winelovers. When I dig into my memory, a lot of more particular denominators pop up.
What do you think for example about:
- the air of an inner tube,
- crushed ants,
- a hair dried labrador,
- ballet shoes of a young female ballerina (yes, not an old lady and not a male ballerina, these shoes smell quite differently),
- a plastic bag filled with used diapers?
Do you have preferred denominators for wine? Or do you have encountered some pretty strange ones? If so, I would kindly invite you to post a comment…
Have a nice wine with a concentrated nose today!
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