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Subject: Spanish wine primer

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Carl

Grape Fermenter
Posts:462

02/05/2004 10:29 AM
Further to the threadageworthy Rioja, can we start a Spanish wines primer? Here's what I know (not much but trying to learn). The main regions people get excited about are Rioja, Ribero del Duero and Priorato. 1. Rioja Rioja is made largely from Tempranillio grape. The region is divided into Rioja Alta (the best - the Pauillac of the region?), Rioja Alavesa (ligher, more aromatic - the Margaux of the region?) and Rioja Baja (more rustic, tannic - the St. Estephe?). Historically, Rioja is aged for years (sometime 10+) in oak barrels. Wines were blended from across the three regions, and even from different years! According to the Hugh Johnson pocket wine guide, some very old wines are still drinking well, e.g. the 1925, 1952, 1964. The most prestigeous old producers are Castillo de Ygay and Marques de Murrietta. At some point, they seem to have merged (?). Top newcomers include Contino, Finca Allende, Marques de Vargas, Bodegas Roda, etc. They make single estate vintages, some of which are very expensive, e.g. Allende's "Aurus" which goes for EUR 200+ a bottle. 2. Ribero del Duero This is the home of one of the best Spanish wines, Vega Sicillia. It was founded in the 1860s as a rival to Bordeaux estates and is supposedly the favorite wine of Winston Churchill (?). They blend Cab and Merlot into their traditional Spanish grapes. The 1953, 1960, 1962, 1964, etc are all still drinking well. The big newcomer is Pesquera. Robert Parker loves these wines. Other exciting new players are Mauro and Alion. Dominio de Pingus, made by Dane Peter Sisseck, is often Spain's most expensive wine. Abadia Rutuerta, owned by the drug company Aventis (!), also makes top wines, e.g. El Palomar. They are partially outside the D.O. boundaries so don't get labelled as Ribero del Duero. 3. Priorato This wine region did not exist (or at least in its current form) before 1989. Then Rene Barbier showed up and started making the spanish equivalent of Super Tuscans (?). Grapes from very old Corinena and Garnacha vines were mixed with Cab, Syrah and Merlot with excellent results. Barbier formed a co-op of five producers, which soon split into five independent wines: Clos Erasmus, Clos Mogador, Clos Martinet, Clos de l'Obac and Clos Dofi. They are thick, rich wines that Parker loves. They are in the $60-80 price range usually. Some of the producers make red dessert wines too. And that's all I know!

ChangeMe

Grape Puncher
Posts:986

02/05/2004 12:20 PM
Up and coming areas in Spain (and hotbeds for values) include Toro and Jumilla.

ChangeMe

Grape Stomper
Posts:152

02/05/2004 2:23 PM
As a matter of fact, Toro isn't really up and coming anymore, its firmly on the map. Jumilla would probably provide more obscurity and thus better prices. Personally I'm waiting for serious investments into Estremadura, that could be interesting.

ChangeMe

Grape Stomper
Posts:152

02/05/2004 3:22 PM
WARNING! THIS ONE IS LONG! Well here goes, I couldn't resist. This is a quick translation of a primer on Rioja that I wrote for the Swedish Wikipedia half a year ago. It has been largely untouched since then, probably more because of lack of readers than lack of mistakes. As I have translated the original article much of the info is obivous, but it was meant for people who didn't know too much about wine. RIOJA PRIMER Rioja (Prounounced Ree-aw-ha) is the most famous wine region of Spain, and only in the last 10 years has it become forced to fight for that position. Today many feel that both Ribera del Duero and Priorato have surpassed the oldtimer qualitywise. Up until the year 2000 Rioja was also the only wine region to enjoy the coveted DOC status (Denominación de Orígen Calificada). Since that year, Priorato has enjoyed this status as well. Rioja has some 18.000 ha under vine. Rioja and the geographical region of La Rioja are largely the same, but not entirely. Parts of Rioja Alavesa lie in the Basque country (País Vasco) outside the geographical La Rioja. Because of this closeness to the basque, many winehouses (bodega in spanish) have basque names that look very un-spanish. (Bodegas Azabache comes to mind.) The capital of La Rioja is Logroño, but the true capital of wine is the little town of Haro which lies less than an hour west-north-west from Logroño by train. The name Rioja probably stems from a name of a secondary river of the river Ebro, the river Oja. The name has probably once been Río Oja. The vinous history of the region probably begins in Burgundy from where monks on pilgrimage to Santiago de Compostela arrived with knowledge of winemaking and possibly vines. Riojan wines of quality saw the daylight in the 18th century and when phylloxera raged in Europe, rioja suenly became a wine of export. The region has had notable contacts with Bordeaux. The Wines Red riojanos are almost without exception blens of several different grapes. Tempranillo, Garnacha and at a smaller scale even Graciano and Mazuela. White wines are dominated by Viura but you’ll also find wines made on Malvasia. Rioja conscists of three different sub-regions: Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Baja. (Rioja Baja is today also called Rioja Oriental, but you won’t find that in any winebooks yet.) Rioja Alavesa with its yellow muddy soil is considered to give the best conditions for ripening for Tempranillo and is by many considered to be the region that holds the highest quality. Rioja Alta, high rioja, yields heavier wines. Rioja Oriental, eastern rioja, is the hottest region, as the atlantic winds that cool of the other two regions don’t reach this region. The heat gives ideal ripening conditions for Garnacha, which ripens to high levels of sugar that convert to alcohol during fermentation. Graciano used to claim much higher acreage, but unfortunately has given way for Tempranillo. This is a shame, as indeed Graciano, not Tempranillo produces the most multi-dimensional of all the wines in Rioja. Tempranillo tends to be somewhat plump and fruity. The wines of rioja often see long time in barrel which means that the type and quality of the barrels gain a great influence on the final taste of the wine. Traditionally the barrels employed are american with a relatively low level of toast. Thus the wines receive a vanilla-like character which goes very well with the blackberry of the Tempranillo. (Tempranillo generally stands for roughly 75% of the wine.) Classifications in Rioja Riojan wines are made in four distinct styles. Originally these styles were supposed to be levels of quality, and are generally understood as such, but most experts have long since remarked on the fact that these styles don’t guarantee any inherent quality between the styles, but rather simply are distinct styles of wine. The styles of red wines are the following: - Cosecha or Vino Jóven: wine from the last harvest that have not been aged in barrels. This is a very fruity style that is made for immediate consumption. You’ll find these wines have the most primary, grapespecific flavours. They are dark red, bluish in color. - Crianza: wines that have aged on barrels at least 12 months and which cannot be released to the market before the beginning of the third year after the harvest. That is, a crianza that is harvested in October 2003 won’t be released before spring 2006. This is the most fruity style of the wines that taste typically Rioja, that is with flavours of barrel ageing. Many consider this style to be the easiest to like. - Reserva: wines that have been aged for at least three years before they are released, at least one of them in barrel. Cannot be released before the fourth year after harvest. These wines are less powerful and fruity than Crianzas, butn with more complex flavours. - Gran Reserva: wines that have aged two years in barrel and three years in bottle or the other way around, and that won’t be released until the sixth year after harvest. These wines have to be made by the highest quality grapes in order to survive the ageing. These wines are very evolved, in the case of better examples very complex and nuanced and generally don’t have as much fruit as the other styles. As Rioja long was the leader of the pack in Spain, many wineregions have copied these classifications, but it is good to keep in mind that the classifications don’t necessarily carry the same meaning as those in Rioja. White wine used to be aged for long periods in Rioja, but today only a handful of producers are willing to offer the time and money required to produce this disappearing style as modern wine drinkers aren’t very pleased by the walnutty taste of these wines. Most riojan whites are aged only for a short period of time, if at all, or are barrelfermented in order to retain the fresh, fruity taste. Some classical whites still remain, though, and the styles are as follows: - Crianza – white wines that have been barrel aged for at least 6 months. - Reserva – white wines that have been barrel aged for at least 6 months and are released no earlier than 2 years after the harvest. The character of the wines The reds have a very distinct taste of vanilla, citrus and sometimes parsley which is reinforced by blackberries (many say strawberry) with very soft tannin and high acidity which makes these wines easy to pair with a wide selection of food. The older styles tend to be more oxidised while the newer styles tend to be more upfront fruity. Other syles At the end of the 1990ies a new generation of winemakers began to set the pace in Rioja, with a new styleo wines, the so called Vinos de alta espreción, wines of high expresion. (An example would be Viña Artadi.) These wines are modern, fruity and more in a style that goes well with Robert Parker. The winemakers have taken their lessons from the supertoscans, which means that the winemakers often forego the old labels and classificaitons and produce a luxury wine that is labeled as basic table wine. The can be marked with the simple Vino Tintoor with special labels such as Reserva Especial. Many of these New Stylers claim that their style is the original rioja style, and that the current, dominant style of wines only tries to imitate the grand old wines of Rioja.

JonesWineNo1 User is Offline

Sommelier
Posts:8568

02/05/2004 4:27 PM
Think Bierzo.

DJ Hombre

Napa Valley, California

Barrel Filler
Posts:1355

02/05/2004 4:47 PM
Do we have any Verdejo specialists who can contribute to this as well?

jaimetown

DC area

Wine Bottler
Posts:3370

02/05/2004 5:04 PM
The only Verdejo I've had that I can heartily recommend is Belondrade y Lurton - the best wine I've had from Reuda. It's got some new oak so give it a year from the release date and it'll drink very well. And Jones beat me to it - Bierzo will be hot. Also Monsant and Tarragona-Falset should get some more play as they are adjacent to Priorat and have similar soils and wines, but at a lower cost.

Pool Boy

Laurl, MD (DC suburb)

Master of Wine
Posts:13626

02/06/2004 5:35 PM
Quote: The only Verdejo I've had that I can heartily recommend is Belondrade y Lurton - the best wine I've had from Reuda. It's got some new oak so give it a year from the release date and it'll drink very well. And Jones beat me to it - Bierzo will be hot. Also Monsant and Tarragona-Falset should get some more play as they are adjacent to Priorat and have similar soils and wines, but at a lower cost. Any Bierzo producers of note (I assume that Bierzo is a region, yes?)?

www.roguefood.com -- www.cellartracker.com

JonesWineNo1 User is Offline

Sommelier
Posts:8568

02/06/2004 5:41 PM
Its a region. Look for the Palacios wines. The next Oeno-File will have a fair amount of Bierzos rated in it.

Pool Boy

Laurl, MD (DC suburb)

Master of Wine
Posts:13626

02/06/2004 5:48 PM
Quote: Its a region. Look for the Palacios wines. The next Oeno-File will have a fair amount of Bierzos rated in it. Ooooogoodiegoodie. When, pray tell, can we expect it?

www.roguefood.com -- www.cellartracker.com

JonesWineNo1 User is Offline

Sommelier
Posts:8568

02/06/2004 5:56 PM
Soon

Joseph Bembry User is Offline

Wine Lover
Posts:4832

02/06/2004 7:34 PM
Vina Clavidor makes an outstanding Rueda from 100% Verdejo grapes. It costs about $10-11. Just had the regular Bierzo for Descientes de J. Palacios. That stuff rocks! jb

JonesWineNo1 User is Offline

Sommelier
Posts:8568

02/06/2004 9:58 PM
The Palacios wines are pretty sweet. I have been trying to hold off on my "Pharoah"s but I just might have to succumb.

ChangeMe

Grape Fermenter
Posts:442

02/11/2004 12:46 PM
"La Faraona" is virtually sold out in Spain, and it costed a fortune anyway. "Valtuille" "Bembibre" and "Paixar" rank highest among the last Bierzos I've tried. Very different styles and somehow I don't know to what extent they are worth the difference from the basic cuvées of Dominio de Tares, for example, which retail at about $12 (here). Dominio de Tares have just released a certain "P3" that I'll be trying with the owner late this month. I see a few things above that may demand clarification, but I'm in a pretty awful moment concerning work right now. I'll download the thread and try to produce something for monday...

JonesWineNo1 User is Offline

Sommelier
Posts:8568

02/11/2004 2:00 PM
I ended up succumbing to temptation and had one of the La Faraonas (i.e. Pharoah or Ultimate). For drinking now I prefer the Las Lamas but perhaps in time the Pharoah will pull away. Must buys imo and at $110 or so a bottle you could easily spend more and get less.

Winetex

Austin, Texas

Master of Wine
Posts:10356

02/11/2004 8:20 PM
Gastronauta - it is good to see you back here. Don't be a stranger. All - Thanks for the good Spanish wine info.

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