Free Wine Tastings at La Vinoteca, Calpe!

That's Cecilia, in the middle, on Radio OCI!

Two super wine tastings are planned at Calpe’s excellent wine shop, La Vinoteca. Owner Cecilia is hosting a wine tasting of Bodegas Vicente Gandía Plá (DO Utiel-Requena and DO Valencia) on Tuesday 20th July; and then another on Friday 23rd July presenting the wines of Bodegas Vivanza (DO Alicante).

Places are limited and therefore have to be by reservation – it’s simple though, just call Cecilia on 96 587 5490. Please also tell her that you received the information via this website!

Both start at 20:30 hrs. See you there!

Bay Radio On-Air Wine Tasting

Sunday Brunch Presenters, Noelle and Bob, enjoy the recommended wine!

Gazpacho: that lovely Andalucian chilled soup, such a refreshing and tasty starter – I love it! We could have a choice of different white wines to match this dish, ones with an acidy to make a mark on the various vegetables used as well as the garlic. Whites from DO Penedés or DO Alella would go well. But I often find that a wine/food colour match works well too.

 
The tomatoes will give the dish its main colour so I’m going to go with a Rosado, which in colour should be quite a nice match but also because Bodegas Sierra Salinas’ Mo Rosado 2009 has the necessary acidity as well as a complementary fruit flavour too.
 
Aunty Noelle’s Weird Salad: wow, this is a hard task! Smoked Bacon and Chicken are very different flavours in the first place but add fruit to the brew as well as Balsamic vinegar and a touch of bitterness from the rocket and you have a challenge for wine.
 
However I think I have the answer – a completely new style wine and indeed a new wine from La Rioja. Bodegas Luis Alegre has made an exceptionally fruity wine from very young vines whose grapes have been treated rather specially. Koden 2008 is a new release from this modern, forward thinking bodega and I’m sure it will be really good with this ‘wierd salad’!
 
Salud!

First Published Costa News Group, June 2010

Randall Wallace on his was West!

CALIFORNIA, THAT’S THE PLACE

YOU OUGHTA BE . . . . . . . .

 . . . . .  So they loaded up the trucks and went to, well El Paso Robles actually! Ah the Beverly Hillbillies, remember the series? Well it’s wine and not Black Gold or Texas Tea that have brought it back to my mind as I’ve been engaged recently in an interesting project – shipping Spanish wines to California!

 Californians Randy and Marianne Wallace have been living in Moraira for about four years but have now decided to return to their roots to set up an e-shopping business, Spanish Tienda, selling authentic, quality Spanish products to fellow Hispanofiles in the Golden State. I think they are onto a winner – all things Spanish are of great interest to American citizens, with Spanish now being the second language of the country.

 Randy and Marianne have been researching for some considerable time and have now left to tie up the loose ends, Stateside, and finally to launch this new enterprise. Pivotal to their business will be their Spanish wine list, short but well chosen initially, and no doubt building as time goes on. I’ve been acting as consultant and it’s my job to handle the Spanish wine side in their absence. As you can imagine we had to taste several wines!

 For the moment we have settled on two bodegas – well known to Cork Talk readers: Bodegas Dominio de la Vega and Bodegas Vicente Gandía Plá, which, coincidentally are quite close to each other inland from Valencia.

 Whilst the priority requirement was of course the good quality of the wines there are other factors that have to be considered too. Clearly the price point is crucial, there are many hidden expenses to add to the price of the actual wine – transport, of course, but also duty, tax, temperature controlled warehousing etc. However we have also been considering the style of wine and the grape varieties used.

 Like anyone else, Californians like to celebrate – and what better way to do just than by popping the cork of some top quality Cava. So Spanish sparklers had to be on the list, white and rosado. Also, whilst California is awash with Chardonnay, Cabernet Sauvignon and, to a perhaps lesser extent, Merlot, they are often of a similar, big and oaky style. Spanish Tienda would like to offer the same varieties but with a difference.

 Clearly the super Spanish grape variety, Tempranillo, really should be showcased across the pond but also we believe it’s time to spread the word about Utiel-Requena’s jewel in the crown, the indigenous Bobal, whose soft and silky, fragrant red wines are quite unique.

 There’s also a place we believe for some Sauvignon Blanc based wine and why not one with the be-loved Chardonnay as well as super, aromatic Spanish Moscatel in the blend? We have one, and it’s lovely!

Let's Seal the Deal - with Wine, of course!

Having done the hunting and gathering it was time just before they left to invite Randy and Marianne to dinner to tasted the wines on trial to taste both without and with food – there’s no point in being anything other than rigorous in our selection, the success of the wine side of the business depends on it!

 Dominio de la Vega delivered a host of wines from which to choose – we started, naturally with the fizz. I’ve always been a great believer in their Brut cava, for the price I honestly believe you cannot find better. At a blind tasting you’d expect this wine to be at least 10-15 Euros, it retails for about 5! Their Brut Reserva with that elegant bottle, is justifiably touted as a cava with Champagne beating qualities and the excellent retail price tag of approximately 14 Euros – another way that it beats Champagne, hands down.

 Dominio de la Vega’s Pinot Noir Rosado Cava’s label speaks of what is to come – lovely pink flower petals on the nose with good Pinot fruit and the added value of finesse and elegance. A new wine to me, their Sauvignon Blanc/Chardonnay/Moscatel is such an aromatic wine that the heady perfume leaps from the bottle the moment the cork is pulled. On the palate it there is a fruit cocktail mix of gooseberry, pineapple, banana, peach and raisons – all derived from the varieties used, but also a refreshing acidity with floral and green notes too.

 In the same shaped bottle with the same label their 100% Bobal 2009, blew us all away (good American expression, huh?). It’s had six months in oak adding depth to the super, dark brambly fruit, slight caramel and violet notes. There’s a touch of cinnamon with added spice of sweet paprika and even a passing fragrance of creamy Danish pastry!

 Their Madurado en Barrica 2008 is made with Bobal, Cabernet and Syrah and has dark plum skin and blackcurrant on the nose and a rounded integrated oak note from it’s four months in French wood. We opted for the 2006 Crianza, Bobal Cabernet and Syrah again, but with more time in oak. It’s a developing wine that will last – not that we expect it to stay on the shop shelves for long! Finally the 2004 Reserva swaps Syrah for Tempranillo and is a super example of why it is so good living in Spain!

 Bodegas Vicente Gandía Plá offered us their full, new Fina del Mar range. These 2009 vintage wines are incredibly well priced. The Tempranillo is deep and dark coloured with tinned strawberries joining hands with blackberry fruit and a touch of oak. The Merlot has black pepper and floral notes and the Blackcurrant and Green Peppered Cabernet Sauvignon is perfectly approachable for such a young wine – a virtue emanating from fruit picked at optimum ripeness. Their Chardonnay is light, easy drinking and will contrat well with the blockbusters of California!

First Published Costa News Group June 2010

BODEGAS MIGUEL TORRES

A WELCOME RETURN TO THE WINES OF ONE OF SPAIN’S MOST PRESTIGIOUS BODEGAS!

I haven’t written about the wines of Bodega Miguel Torres for a couple of years now. I promise you this is not a knee-jerk reaction to the criticism I received once accusing me of being in the pay of Señor Torres, so complimentary was I about his wines. A serious wine critic must be impartial and I know that I am, and was being so when I was heaping praise on this bodega which in some ways may be considered more of a Spanish Institution rather than just a winery.

Bodegas Miguel Torres survived the dreadful troubles of the Spanish War (including heartbreaking vandalism of the building and the barricas which housed its super wines) and the subsequent depression here in Spain, whilst establishing a practically unheard of export trade, particularly in the USA.

Bodegas Miguel Torres is a shining example of how big can be beautiful – and this bodega isn’t just large, it’s huge! It now makes wines in several different areas of Spain, not only in its own backyard of Penedés, as well as in other countries, including Chile and the USA, where the current Miguel’s sister, Marimar Torres makes world class wines, specialising in Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

You can imagine my delight therefore, when I was in Barcelona earlier this year, to be able to enjoy a tasting with Mireia Torres, Miguel’s daughter! This elegant, erudite, almost aristocratic and yet very charming young lady – certainly knows her wines and indeed, understandably has an unshakeable belief in them. Mireia has not only grown up with Torres wines but has of course studied wine too. Like many in the Torres wine portfolio, it’s an unbeatable blend!

Manso de Velasco 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon is their best wine from Chile. The vineyard from which the grapes were handpicked is 100 years old, the must (juice) has a lengthy maceration and stainless steel fermentation is followed by a year in French Oak. It’s a wine that speaks of super-mature, opulent fruit, subtle oak and bags of sunshine tempered by adequate acidity gained from higher altitude. NB as it’s from Southern Hemisphere Chile it’s roughly 6 months more advanced in its development than a European wine of the same vintage.

Perpetual 2007 is from Priorat and again is their flagship offering from this wonderful wine area where the steep mountainsides which are home to the vineyards are difficult to work but are so well drained. Also whilst the soils contain little nutritious material to feed the vines they are nevertheless full of minerals that make such an impact on the wines.

The vines for Perpetual are an average of 55 years of age. It’s a small production and the wines have a marked minerality with very dark fruit combining with spices, liquorice and some black pepper and for me just the faintest hint of the spray one might sniff when cutting a dark green pepper. It’s a big wine in the mouth (15·5% abv) and enough fruit, acidity and tannin to develop for 10 more years!

The high alcohol content surprised me. Torres is not known for abundance of alcohol (except maybe in their brandies!) and yet this is an unusually high abv (alcohol by volume). Mireia explained that over the last years all their wines are coming in with a higher abv – a natural result of climate change. There is more sunshine, higher temperatures and this results in more sugar in the grape – it’s the sugar that is converted to alcohol!

It’s a problem that is occurring to such an extent in Australia that some areas can no longer make good wine as the phenolic development of the skins (a crucial part of winemaking) is not keeping apace with the sugar development of the juice. Typically, for such a broad thinking bodega, Miguel Torres boffins are on the case with plans to make sure that this does not happen here.

For example their blends will be changing with more of the naturally lower alcohol varieties being in used to lower the overall abv. Plantings will be at higher altitudes, more leaf coverage will be encouraged and different rootstocks will be considered.

Mas Borras 2007 is 100% Pinot Noir – a notoriously difficult variety to perfect, but one that will reward the grower’s patience with some masterly wines. Grown in Penedés at about 500 meters above sea level in a specific vineyard whose soils and aspect to the sun have been carefully considered for this variety, the wine has acidity and tannin aplenty at the moment but with a lovely rich depth of fruit, again some liquorice and minerality too. Nine months in one and two year old oak and time in bottle in the cellar finish the wine. It’s a Torres classic!

Finally, for this tasting at least, we tried the wine that perhaps made Miguel Torres famous – Mas La Plana. The 2006 vintage is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon, there was a dreadful downpour during the normal harvest time, but these grapes were harvested afterwards when drying winds had done a perfect job in making sure that the grapes arrived at the winery in perfect shape.

The juice was in contact with the skins for 4 weeks to extract all the colour, flavour and tannin that are required to build a wine to last of perhaps 20 years! At the moment dark fruits come from the depths of this wine, with noticeable tannin and some minerality but it is not the finished product. This wine is one to buy now and bury in your cellar for say another 5 years and then to taste and plan when you will imbibe the rest of the case. It’s going to be a wonderful wine!