July 2012 – Page 3 – Colin Harkness on Wine

First Published Costa News Group, June 2012

BODEGAS PIQUERAS, DO ALMANSA

PART TWO -THE WINES

Last week I believe I introduced many of you to Bodegas Piquera, and indeed to the Denominación de Origen Almansa under whose auspices they make their economically priced, flavour-filled wines. DO Almansa is not a Spanish area of wine production that immediately comes to mind and yet, if you know what to buy you can find some exceptional value for money.

Although Bodegas Piqueras’ White, Castillo de Almansa Colección 2011, made with Verdejo and Sauvignon Blanc is a fresh, light and clean wine which displays varietal characterisitics; and their refreshing Rosado, Castillo de Almansa, has some rosehip aromas with a touch of Syrah spice on the palate, for me their real strength is in their red wines.

I tasted two lines – the Valcanto portfolio, attractively bottled and labelled, which concentrates on mono-varietal wines and which I guess is selling like hot cakes in emerging Asian markets; and the Castillo de Almansa which often blends different indigenous varieties with adaptable ‘foreigners’. For me both ranges are successful, the more so when you learn the extremely approachable prices!

Valcanto Syrah 2010 has a touch of integrated oak. It’s juicy and rounded with sweet tannins and no trace of harshness. It’s fruit driven with a touch of spice and black olive and I thought it a good pairing for the BBQ Beef recipe on Bay Radio’s monthly wine/food pairing show. (www.bayradio.fm Listen Live Sunday Brunch Programme).

Valcanto Monastrell 2010 was also fruit orientated, but perhaps a touch more serious! A deeply coloured grown-up wine with a sturdy backbone of tannin and acidity which is in balance with some damson and fig notes and slightly more noticeable oak. A wine for the dining table.

Castillo de Almansa Colección 2011 is in fact a single-varietal showcasing the enigmatic Garnacha Tintorera, the variety with the almost unique pink coloured flesh, which makes rich and deeply coloured wines. This is a young wine whose super purple colour attracts the eye. There are wild berry flavours, sweet tannin and a faint minerality. It’s big on fruit but with balancing acidity which, linked also with its 14% alcohol will help it age for a few years too. A pleasing light bitterness on the finish makes it a good food wine too.

The Crianza 2009 (Monastrell, Garnacha Tintorera and Cabernet) from the same range delighted my tasting partner particularly with its good fruit presence and extra oak-inspired depth. For me Crfianza wines these days are only built to last for about five years, this one may exceed that by a year and will I think be drinking at its best in twelve months time.

The Reserva 2008 (Tempranillo, Monastrell and Garnacha Tintorera) is drinking perfectly right now. I’m sure that the grapes harvested for this wine were at their ripest when it made it from the furnace-like heat of the vineyard into the cool sanctuary of the bodega. There’s a touch of burnt wood on the nose and palate which integrates well with the forward fruit. It’s rounded with some pleasing mid-palate depth and a fruit laden, very slight bitter chocolate finish.

The final wine I tasted was the oldest, the Colección 2007, whose initial up front fruit fades a little after the first mouth hit, only to return on the finish with tannin and acidity and a slight oak effect. Another food wine that will not disappoint.

There are two further lines that I hope to be able to try in the future as I have enjoyed these wines which exemplify modern Almansa. Bodegas Piqueras will no doubt continue to fly the flag for the DO and indeed for Spanish wines in general, representing as they do, very good value for money in these dark financial times!

If you cannot find these wines, which is likely as the vast majority are sold abroad, you can order from the winery – go to www.bodegaspiqueras.es and check out prices and delivery terms.

Contact Colin: colin@colinharknessonwine.com and through his unique wine services website: www.colinharknessonwine.com

BAY RADIO – LIVE WINE TASTING!!

July – Another month means another live wine tasting on Bay Radio’s Sunday Brunch Programme – and you can be a part of it! Simply tune in to Bay Radio and/or listen by internet (www.bayradio.fm click Listen Live) 12:00 hrs – 13:00 hrs on Sunday 8th July and have some wine fun!

I’ll be recommending two wines to go with the two recipes that Noelle provides from her extensive list of tasty and easy to make meals. This week, I’m told it’s two different types of curry – just what the doctor ordered! But what about wines to match spice-laden meals? Well listen in and you’ll find out!

You can call/e-mail/text the studio whilst we are on-air adding your suggestions and comments and asking any questions you may have!

It’s always fun and informative – please join us!

First Published Costa News Group June 2012

BODEGAS PIQUERAS

DO ALMANSA

Denominación de Origen Almansa – heard of it?! Tasted any of their wines? Some readers will be able to answer ‘Yes’ to both questions, no doubt, but I guess that there will be many who have a quizzical expression right now! DO where? Al who?

Well it’s not surprising that many of us know little about this relatively small area of production, geographically placed between Alicante and Albacete. There are just five bodegas featured in the tiny section allotted to DO Almansa in Spain’s most famous wine guide, Guía Peñin, compared with over thirty in nearby DO Alicante.

Add to this the fact that, of the overall production of DO Almansa wine, only 25% is sold in Spain, and it becomes clear why it is that many of us have not tasted offerings from this, one of the harshest wine growing climates in Spain. However, as regular Cork Talk readers will know, it is often such climates, also with soils dramatically lacking in organic matter, that can, in the hands of dedicated, forward thinking winemakers, produce some really good wines.

Witness again the Peñin Guide whose top Almansa wines have gained an outstanding 92 points in this year’s edition. However, the family owned Bodegas Piqueras, subject of this and next week’s Cork Talk, is not the bodega that makes these high pointers. Why? Well, largely because they preferred not to send their wines to Peñin – if you’re not in it, you can’t win it?

Or can you? Well, it seems that Bodegas Piqueras is doing very nicely without the Peñin Guide thank you! A remarkable 95% of the wines from this, the largest and longest established winery in DO Almansa, are sold in a thriving and expanding export market which counts 25+ countries where its wines are proudly sold.

For example, my contact at the winery, Pieter Whaley, the Export Director, sent answers to my seemingly unending queries (poor guy!) from countries as far apart as, South Korea, mostly in Seoul; and the USA, including stops in Atlanta, Chicago and New York!

The bodega was founded in 1915 by Mario Bonete, father of the current Manager and Head winemaker, Juan Pablo Bonete. Piqueras wines in those days were sold firstly to a slowly expanding local customer base, but also, from the 50s, in bulk to other wine producing areas of Spain, for example Rioja, which didn’t enjoy such consistent grape ripening sunshine.

Nowadays this is completely out of the question – illegal in fact and anathema to those who have sought, and succeeded, in tying the hands of winemakers with red tape rules that, I believe, at times suffocate innovation. But that’s another gripe for a future Cork Talk!

One advantage of the DO system is that it has ensured the survival of indigenous grape varieties so that we are not all drowning in oceans of Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. The ABC Club (Anything But Cabernet/Chardonnay) has been a powerful pressure group, with which, in this case I have some sympathy.

The indigenous varieties championed of DO Almansa, for red wines, are: Monastrell – a favourite of mine, and also grown with considerable success in nearby Jumilla and Yecla, as well as Valencia; and the enigmatic Garnacha Tintorera – note the last word. This is not Garnacha, as we know it Jim. A different variety and one of the very few in the world whose flesh has a pink hue to it giving rise, after skin and juice maceration, to some gloriously deeply coloured red wines.

Deeply flavoured too! Garnacha Tintorera, which I first came across in DO Alicante, has a rich damson flavour laced with some blackcurrant aromas too. In the correct soils it can develop a pleasing minerality as well. And, those wines that are well made have a long finish, and in the case of Almansa, where temperatures are extremely high with many long sunshine hours, high alcohol levels also develop. But at 700 meters above sea level, with considerable differences between day and night time temperatures, careful winemakers can also produce wines with enough acidity to match the high alcohol and therefore wines with elegance also.

Bodegas Piqueras is a leading light of the DO and when I received a raft of their wines recently I took my time tasting them to see how the area has developed from the disappointing, dusty and over extracted wines that I tasted a decade and more ago. I’m delighted to say that there has been considerable progress and when this is linked with exceptional value for money, as it is with this particular bodega – well the future looks rosy. Rather like the flesh of their darling variety Garnacha Tintorera!

Next week the full SP!

Contact Colin: colin@colinharknessonwine.co and through his unique wine services website: www.colinharknessonwine.com