A BEAUTIFULLY BUCOLIC BODEGA

PART TWO – THE WINES

Like a number of wineries in Spain, Bodegas Vera de Estenas makes wine under the auspices of two different domains. A long time member of Denominación de Origen Utiel-Requena, following owner, Felix Martinez’, application this leading winery was also elevated to Vino de Pago status.

Readers who caught last week’s article (Part One, obviously!) will know that wineries are granted Vino de Pago status by being able to prove consistently high quality wines coming from particular vineyards within their land.

When we consider that the first Vera de Estenas vineyards were planted in the second half of the 19th Century we can see that there is plenty of history on the side of the application, Plus, of course, I’m not the only one who has recognised that over the years the wines resulting from these vineyards have always been excellent. Promotion the Vino de Pago status was obvious!

Two weeks ago we stayed overnight at their atmospheric, rustic Casa Rural where we really enjoyed (along with 80+ others) a splendid dinner served with three of their flagship DO Utiel-Requena wines, following a tutored tasting of three of the Vino de Pago stars, by owner/winemaker Felix. It was quite a night!

Lidon Chardonnay Fermentado en Barrica 2019 Vino de Pago DO is as fresh as a Chardonnay can be. It’s the latest vintage, brought out specially for this event. The fact that it is fermented in oak with not so long aging in barrel means that you have a lovely combination of crisp lemon fruit with some vanilla oak overtones, plus, when leaving the wine on the palate to warm slightly the taster is rewarded with some fresh paraguyo fruit too. Spanish FB Chardonnay at just about its best! I will be very interested to se how this wine develops over the next 3 and more years.

Martínez Bermell Merlot Vino de Pago DO, is made with 100% Merlot from the 2017 harvest whose malolactic fermentation was in new French oak barrels. Figs and plums do a gentle jig on the palate as some of the toasty vanilla notes come to join the party. There’s a floral, violas, note on the palate too. It’s a balanced wine with fresh acidity making the fruit stand out nicely. On the finish there’s a pleasing note of dried dates to mix with the plum and fig blend. Lovely wine!

The final Vino de Pago DO wine, Vera de Estenas Reserva Bobal 2016 is a limited production wine with a deserved price tag of 40€. The grapes come from the Bobal vineyard first planted in 1882, with these vines being 100 years old – and the wine’s pedigree comes through on the nose and palate. It’s an elegant wine with some power and no doubt longevity too.

On the nose there are black cherries and dark forest fruits, with a little dark chocolate, as if the wrapper has just been taken off the chocolate and the first whiff floats upwards. This dark chocolate develops on the palate into a sensuous, long dark chocolate cherry liqueur note on the finish, to follow a mid palate of dark and lighter cherries. There’s a little earthiness in there too, making this wine a classic, a perfect expression of Bobal!

With dinner we moved onto the DO Utiel Wines, the fist being a little known white variety named Tardana, indigenous to Utiel-Requena. There are a few bodegas in the area giving this variety some support and this is a very good, inexpensive example. It’s been fermented in tinajas, clay amfora, and the resulting wine carries a little of this minerality, in common with all other tinaja wines I’ve tasted. Again it is properly balanced with fresh lemony, green apple acidity, a little blanched almond nuttiness and a mid length finish. Just 7€ btw!

The Casa Don Ángel Bobal DO Utiel-Requena 2016 is drinking perfectly now. The Bobal fruit, picota cherries and bright red cherries too, are really upfront, the aroma hits the nose as you bend towards the glass. As with all the wines we tasted there is always a balanced fresh acidity working perfectly with the intensity of the fruit, with elegance too. Again this wine displays some black chocolate notes to mix with the fruit and there is also a lengthy finish. Well worth its 18€ price tag!

The Estenas Crianza DO Utiel Requena wine is made with Bobal (of course!) and Cabernet Sauvignon – consequently it’s a very dark colour. On the nose there are the oak notes of toast and vanilla with a little cigar box in there too. On the palate the blackberry fruit comes through first with dark cherries following. Acidity and mature tannin give structural support and complexity and there is a good fruity medium-to-long length.

Our dinner wasn’t over yet though. Regular Cork Talk readers will know that Utiel-Requena is also one of the areas outside Cataluña where it is permitted to make cava. Yes – our final wine of the night was a super fresh, palate cleansing and refreshing young Brut Nature cava, with a slight spin! Made with the fresh apple flavoured Macabeo as well as a little slightly oak aged Chardonnay – this wine has a lot more to it than normal young cavas.  (https://veradeestenas.es/)

NB Don’t miss my next Wine Show on Valley FM www.valleyfm.es 12 – 13:00 hrs (CET), Saturday 3rd October – I’ll be tasting and chatting about great wines and playing brilliant music, as always!

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WINES TO DIE FOR!

“Our wines are a blend of the traditional and contemporary and genuinely reflect the outstanding characteristics of their unique and distinct personality.”

I couldn’t have put it better myself!

I’ve said many times in Cork Talks of the last few years that Spain is such a happening place when it comes to winemaking. There is so much going on the Spanish wine scene that it has to be one of the most dynamic winemaking countries in the world – and I’m so grateful that we are right in the middle of it!

The ‘traditional’ part of the quote above refers to the history of winemaking here in Spain. Often this comes as second nature to young winemakers who are now taking over the reins of the family wine business. Parents are happy to bow out (well, mostly, though so many retain the right to still come to work each day, helping by just being there!). The new incumbents, a welcome increasing number of females included, of course, have learned from the parents as they did form theirs and so on, back through generations.

Add to this the fact that this new generation has had the opportunity to study formally at various universities and wine schools, adding great swathes of knowledge to family traditions, and you can see that things are bound to improve. Then bring in the fact that so many have had the wherewithal to travel and therefore learn from others in the industry. Often this has included working vintages in different European wineries, as well as in different countries in, not only the northern hemisphere, the USA for example, but also in the likes of South Africa, South America New Zealand and Australia.

Now, I’m not sure where the folk behind Winery On Bodegas have done their learning and experience gaining, but it’s clear from the quote above (lifted from their website https://www.wineryon.com/en/) that they are making wines in a modern style, using traditional know-how as a solid foundation. As I said in my recent radio programme (you can check it out here, Demuerte being the final wine tasted on the show https://soundcloud.com/user-789233062/valley-vibes-4-july-12-july-wine-show), Classic, the wine I enjoyed so much, is very much a DO Yecla wine, with a modern spin.

Demuerte Classic is one of a small portfolio of, I think, six different wines, all featuring variations on the same label theme. It’s a label that immediately captures the attention of the consumer, designed as it is with the shape of a skull! It certainly tempts you to buy it and, importantly of course, the contents behind the label will make you buy it again too!

It’s made with Monastrell, the staple variety of DO Yecla, and one that I very quickly came to love when I first moved here to South-East Spain so many years ago. However, it’s a blend – Syrah being the bedfellow that is popular in Yecla and perhaps even more so in nearby DO Bullas. There seems to be a certain symbiotic relationship between the two varieties. They fit!

Firstly, you’ll find wonderful plum/damson fruit on the nose as well as the palate. Not very prevalent, but present nevertheless, there’s a faint dark chocolate flavour on the finish. Well, that’s all very Monastrell. The syrah makes its mark by adding some cherry notes to the flavour, with a delightful, though faint, black pepper spiciness and just a whiff of black olive.

It’s not a big blockbuster of a Monastrell with brooding dark fruit and lots of oak – it doesn’t want to be. It has had some ageing in barrel, French for about 9 months as it happens, but it has also elegance. The oak is integrated, hardly noticeable, adding a little flavour and aroma, as well as depth. It has 14.5 abv, but it’s subtle and entirely in keeping with the concept.

I couldn’t wait to try it when it arrived, so opened it that evening. It offered more the next day having fleshed out a little – suggesting once again that wines are better for resting after a journey. I think a little breathing before tasting will also help you to enjoy the full benefits of this wine.

I’ve only tasted Classic, which has made me want to try more. I think readers will feel the same!

colin@colinharknessonwine.com Twitter @colinonwine www.valleyfm.es Facebook Colin Harkness  Instagram colinharkness53

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NB My Wine Show is available the first Saturday of each month – next programme Saturday 5th September from 12:00 hrs – 12:00 hrs (CET). Listen live here www.valleyfm.es