November, Wednesday 21st! My advice is to put it in your diary right now, and give me a call 629 388 159 or e-mail colin@colinharknessonwine.com to reserve your seats – be quick though, we are already half full!
I have discovered a bodega near Moixent, inland from Gandia, that makes excellent quality wine, amongst the best not just in the DO Valencia but in the whole of Spain, according to Peñin Guide marks (and my own!!), nestled in fact under the mountains atop of which lie the foundations of the ancient village of La Bastida de Alcusses, an Iberian Village which was inexplicably deserted some time over 2,300 years ago!
We’ll visit this ancient settlement with a guided tour of the village and the ‘house’ adjacent which has been built in modern times but using the same methods and materials that would have been used all that time ago to give us a further insight into how the Iberian people will have lived.
Then we visit the bodega, Celler del Roure, with our guide, Pablo, the owner whose family have owned the site for many years. We’ll tour, and taste of course – including a visit to the underground cellar (easy access though) where the earthenware tinaja fermentation vessels are stored, dating back hundreds of years. Please see attached photo.
Then it’s off to lunch at the rather splendid Restaurante Mas de Monserrat, with wine – claro!
We have a maximum of 30 seats available!
All the above for just 40€! It should be a splendid, fascinating and extremely tasty day out!
Please contact me by e-mail or call 629 388 159 to reserve your seats!
Perhaps you’ve heard me at one of my wine tastings explaining to those who don’t know, how rosado wine is made? It’s not, as many will know, made by mixing a bottle of red wine with a bottle of white wine. Although there are still rosados made by using black grape must (juice) mixed with white grape must, the white dumbing down, in terms of colour, the dark red, and of course adding freshness, acidity and aroma to the finished, rosé coloured brew.
However the vast majority of rosé wines are made by using black skinned grapes. Yes, the same varieties that make the full bodied, richly coloured red wines that we love: Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo, Merlot et al. But how can this be?
Well, the next time you buy some grapes, black and green, just for a second take the time to cut one of each type in half and study the centre of the grape. You’ll find that the flesh of the grape at its centre and going outwards towards the skin, is in fact the same colour for black and green grapes.
The juice of both types of grape would be the same if it weren’t for the skins which are pressed in order to release the juice. The black grapes also release some of their colour and when the grape is further pressed and then the must is left in contact with the skins the colour of the juice changes to a much darker red as more colour leaks from the skins. The results is the black grape must which will next be fermented ending up with a red wine.
However if the colour leaking process is interrupted part way through – the colour of the must will be less than red, more of a pinky colour, really – rosé. Hence, while a red wine is red by virtue of the time its must spends in contact with the black skins, a rosado wine is rosé coloured because it spends less time with those skins.
Ergo it must be possible to make a white wine from black grapes by keeping the juice and the skins separate. It can’t be totally white as the pressing, albeit very gentle, is bound to release a little of the colour contained in the skin, but in order to limit this colouring as much as possible the must is whisked away from skins in double quick time!
What’s left is a juice, and ultimately a wine that has the palest of pink hues, or sometimes a little similar to onion skin colour, in fact just like the Monastrell Blanc.the wine to be described in a moment, from Bodegas Antonio Arráez.
But why do it, one may ask? We already have: white wine, rosado, red, as well as many different styles within those colours. Do we need another type of wine?
Well, for sure, such wines have a novelty value – there aren’t many produced (Blanc Monastrell is a limited production of just 2,400 bottles) and their rarity is of interest to those keen on tasting different wines. This wine will be a sell-out, if it hasn’t already. However, given the chance next year to buy the same wine – will people do so again, having tasted the first, initially just to try it, to see what it’s like?
Blanc de Noir wines (white from black) are made to satisfy a demand, albeit small at the moment (but definitely increasing) for wines that combine the freshness of a crisp white wine with the rich, depth of flavour of a red. They also satisfy a winemaker’s desire to make something different, something special.
I think it goes without saying (but that’s never stopped me before!) that such wines will always have enjoyed the winemaker’s loving attention – it’s unusual, something of a vino d’autor, and will thus be his or her ‘baby’ causing her/him to pay perhaps even more attention to it than others from the same stable.
White Wine Made From Black Grapes - Blanc de Noir!
I’m certain that those of us who have tasted Bodegas Antonio Arráez’s Monastrell Blanc 2011, will return to it next year, and so on!
The colour, pink-hued pale onion skin, is unusual but pleasant in the glass and when pouring one is treated to a burst of floral, red rose aroma with at first unidentified fruit, including citrus, lingering in the air and seemingly clinging to the sides of the glass.
Raise that glass and on the palate and the treat expands with both dark and light red fruit (blackberry, Victoria plum, loganberry) notes as well as some grapefruit abounding but with a gentle herby aroma allied to the faintest whiff of cranberry too!
It has a mid-length, dry finish which leaves the palate with a richness but freshness too. Super wine – let’s have more!
Contact Colin: colin@colinharknessonwine.com and through his unique wine services website – want to know how to obtain more from your wine, how to choose wines in a restaurant; visit a bodega; hold a wine tasting for your friends; match wines and food; etc – then visit www.colinharknessonwine.com
The next Dolce Divas Concert, sponsored by The Lions Club, will be at La Senieta, Moraira, on Friday 23rd November – and promises to be another sell-out!
Claire Post, Soprano and Flute, and Kirsty Glen, Piano and Vocals, will be performing their own unique blend of Classical Music along with Contemporary Chill Out Music and some favourites from the shows.
Plus there will be guest appearances from: Des McGillicuddy, Acoustic Guitar and Vocals; and Miguel-Ángel Buigues, Trumpet – adding even great variety to an already hugely enjoyable programme!
Further details will be posted here soon – and my advice is to reserve your places asap as La Senieta is expected to be full once again!
What a lovely evening – excellent place with good, attentive staff; nice audience (some old friends plus we made some new friends); super wines and, of course, your entertaining and informative chat. Well worth the effort and good value too. Many thanks. We enjoyed the evening enormously.
See you Sunday, [at the Olive Tree Restaurant, Moraira for Sunday Lunch with Dolce Divas],
