Articles – Page 68 – Colin Harkness on Wine

Marco Real – The Argentinean Connection!

BODEGAS MARCO REAL, GRUPO LA NAVARRA

AND THE ARGENTINEAN CONNECTION!

Scratch the surface of a bottle of the consistently good, entry level wine, Homenaje and it’s surprising what you’ll see behind the emblematic label of one of the Costas’ best loved house style wines!

Bodegas Marco Real’s founder, Antonio Catalan, who started the bodega initially to provide good wines for his hotel chain, NH Hotels, was happy to accept a major shareholding bid from, Juan Ignacio Velasco, owner of Navarra Distillieries – with a view to expanding the wine business. And How!

Bodegas Marco Real is now part of the La Navarra Group which also owns bodegas in DO Toro, DO Rueda and in Mendoza, Argentina. My third article about this iceberg of a ‘bodega’, is all about the super wines produced in the South American arm of the business.

With a view to warming up a chilly evening spent huddled around the log fire I opened Swinto Old Vine Malbec 2009 whose aroma almost burst from the bottle as the cork was pulled! The blackberry and black cherry aromas mingled perfectly with the log-fired atmosphere and I knew straight away that we were about to taste an exceptional wine!

The wine is made from centenarian Malbec vines, planted in 1910, at an altitude of just over 1,000 metres above sea level. Naturally such vines have a very low yield, but the grapes are super-rich, and because of the altitude, and therefore the dramatic change between day and night time temperatures, the resulting wine has perfect acidity and is deeply coloured.

New French, Allier, oak is used for malolactic fermentation and for a further fifteen months of ageing. It’s a multi-layered wine with the oak adding some integrated vanilla and black coffee notes to the rich tannin and opulent, dark fruit. On the palate it’s persistent with a slight dark chocolate liqueur finish. It has power and elegance in equal measure and is an excellent advert for Malbec!

Bodegas Belasco de Baquedano (part of the group) is responsible for crafting this super wine, along with others to follow. They aren’t readily available in Spain, unfortunately, but I’m told that they are in the UK – so next time you’re back . . . !

With the majestic Andes as a gloriously impressive backdrop the vineyards of Luján de Cuyo are perfectly placed at 1020 metres above sea level. And it’s these Malbec vines that provide the grapes for the intensely fragranced Moncagua 2011 with its abundance of juicy fruit. It’s pure Malbec without oak ageing and tells of what the variety has to offer as well as incorporating some of the terroir in which it’s grown.

From the same stable Llama Roble 2012 (with an image of the famous indigenous animal!) is a semi-crianza version of the above. Structured with a brilliant dark red colour the wine is designed to show off Malbec’s rich fruit but underpinned with a slight oak presence, which adds depth of flavour and some complexity. There’s also an earthy herbal element to this wine, with bay leaf and a slight black pepper note mixing harmoniously with the dark red blackberry and blueberry fruit.

Rosa, Bodegas Belasco de Baquedano’s rosado wine is also made with Malbec and has the colour, aroma and flavour of loganberries! It’s fresh, though quite full, very fruity (add raspberry and red currant to the mix!) with a dry finish. Excellent aperitif wine but with sufficient body to accompany light meat, fish and shellfish – would be perfect with paella!

Rosa Brut Nature is a super sparkler, made again with Malbec, but with a less intense rose colour. Cherry, a touch of citrus, and an inkling of pale fleshed plums are the fruity aromas that blend so well with typical patisserie notes common to sparkling wines. Perfectly dry and very refreshing.

The intensity, firstly of aroma and subsequently of flavour when I first sniffed and tasted Rosa Torrontés made be do a double-take. What is this wine? Well there’s not much 100% Torrontés white wine available in Spain, though it’s often used in blends in Galicia for example. But if it were capable of achieving such wonderful aromas and tastes as in this Argentinean example, I’m sure there would be more.

Wonderful apricot fragrance with peach and some distant mango this ever-so dry wine is intensely fruity and guaranteed to please as the promise on the nose is equalled on the palate, with a lasting fruit driven finish that had me reaching for the bottle to top up my paltry tasting sample! Excellent!

Finally, there’s a lot of UK wine media talk about Malbec at the moment, but I’ve not yet read anything about the dessert wine style of late harvest Malbec Ice Wine, as exemplified perfectly by Antracita 2007, whose minimalist back label, simply lets the wine do the talking!

Frozen grapes are harvested late in the cycle. After fermentation of the rich juice the wine is aged for two years in new French oak. The result is, well the best red dessert wine I’ve tasted! You’ll find honeyed figs and raisons with roasted nuts, toffee and deliciously sweet damsons – all with a fresh acidity provided by the altitude of the vineyard. Exquisite!

Marco Real

PAYING HOMMAGE TO BODEGAS MARCO REAL

Regular readers may feel that they’ve seen this title recently in Cork Talk. Well, it’s similar but not the same, though there is a clear link. I wrote in July about Homenaje wines, which are produced by Bodegas Marco Real in DO Navarra, and briefly mentioned that, in fact, this bodega makes a large range of wines including some real stars in Argentina.

The company was started by NH Hotels founder Antonio Catalan in the 1980s. With other investors coming on board they started to expand their influence and their portfolio of wines. Homenaje was one of the original wines made by the company and continues to sell well. Today, though, I’m going to be discussing their Marco Real Pequeñas Producciónes Range along with the Marco Real Crianza and Reserva wines – an award winning group of wines that I have enjoyed very much.

I’m quite often known to bang on about Spanish Syrah – for me it’s a variety that does so well under the Spanish sunshine. Navarra, of course, is in the north of the country and its vineyards are at an altitude but even so it has a far better chance of ripening perfectly here than in its native France. Therefore Spanish Syrah has all the spicy notes typical of French Syrah but with an added juicy fruit element making it a wine to drink with and without food.

As the name of the range, Pequeñas Producciónes, suggests there is a small number of kilos harvested from the vineyards. Only those which pass muster are selected. There’s a long maceration period where colour, flavour and tannins are naturally extracted and when fermented the wine is placed for five months in French Oak – perhaps to make it feel at home!

The result is a black pepper spiced, blackberry and slight blackcurrant mouthful with some autumn leaves notes on the nose. Lovely.

Tempranillo is of course known as the noble variety of Spain and of course a mainstay grape of nearby Rioja. However Tempranillo is just as comfortable growing in the vineyards of DO Navarra, where it has been happily making good wines for as long as those in Rioja – as this Marco Real, DO Navarra, wine proves.

The grapes are harvested and treated largely as above and again the wine ages for some five months in oak. Dark fruit abounds (the whole range is fruit driven) but this time you’ll find a pleasing note of liquorice as well as a slight cinnamon and vanilla from the oak.

The Pequeñas Producciónes Garnacha is the final wine in this range – and it’s a super fruity wine! Look for some very dark cherries, a touch of floral violets on the nose, slight earthiness and some restrained power in there too. It has some complexity and it seems to combine easy drinking with a slightly deeper note that will endear it to meaty foods and some mature Manchego!

Marco Real 2009 Crianza Colección Privada is made with Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Graciano and it’s a super medium+ weighted wine with depth of flavour and a good mature tannic grip that might have been a little overpowering in its youth but which has now mellowed. Fruit filled, the wine is lovely with roast dinners as well as meaty casseroles.

Its dark brambly fruits are underpinned with an earthy aroma and there’s some spice from the new French barrels in which it has spent just over a year. Totally harmonious, all the individual flavour and aroma notes are integrated and the drinker simply sits back and enjoys.

The Reserva de Familia 2007, featured in the well respected Guía Proensa Los Mejores Vinos de España, is made with hand picked 40 year old Tempranillo, Cabernet, Merlot and Graciano vines. It’s fermented on French Oak foudres and then spends another thirty six months in new French barricas, which may seem like a lot of oak, but it’s totally integrated adding depth and complexity.

There is plenty of fruit in this full bodied wine – blackcurrant and mature red berries and you’ll notice some bitter coffee and vanilla notes too. Drinking perfectly now, it’s an elegant and yet powerful wine, which I’ll certainly seek out again!

PS please see the ad on this page for a super wine and sherry orientated Short Break in March 2014 – there are only a few places left!

Contact Colin: colin@colinharknessonwine.com and www.colinharknessonwine.com and you can now follow Colin on Twitter @colinonwine – and keep right up to date with what’s hot and what’s not in Spanish wine!

Bodegas Carreño, DO Bullas

THE RICH WINES OF BODEGAS CARREÑO

DO BULLAS

I’m approaching the end of my discourse on the wines of DO Bullas. It’s been both tasty and interesting and I hope I’ve done a little to publicise this small area of production which is often overshadowed by other DOs in the South East of Spain, but which is deserving of attention too.

Bodegas Carreño was founded in 1930 by the Carreño family and is located in the same, though somewhat modernised, wine cellars that were once home to the local wine of the Kingdom of Murcia in the 18^th Century.

Traditional methods, allied to modern thinking and some investment in stainless steel have upped the ante regarding quality. Wines are made with Monastrell – a variety sometimes overlooked on the international scene, but for me, a grape which should be considered one of the noble varieties of Spain.

There are several ranges of wine produced by this family run bodega which owns its own vineyards but also buys grapes from a number of local growers with whom a mutually respectful relationship has developed over decades of co-operative working. Carreño wines make boxed wine, wine in large 5 litre plastic bottles, in traditional garrafas, screwtops and a bottled young entry level wine, Puntarrón.

For their flagship wines Bodegas Carreño use both American and French oak barrels to add some flavour to the finished product but also depth and complexity. There’s a limited production and a relatively small range of quality wines produced, but the byword here his richness! When a Bodegas Carreño wine hits the mouth it fills it!

Viña Azeniche Roble has a supporting cast of Petit Verdot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah as back-up to the Monastrell (50%) which figures in all their red wines. It depends on the year as to how much time this wine spends in French and American oak, and then in bottle, before it is released on the market. This is encouraging as each harvest presents different levels of ripeness, sugar content, colour, tannin etc, so wine-makers need to adapt their blends and methods of production according the grapes picked [by hand for their top wines] each year.

In the glass the wine is clean and brilliant, suggesting pleasures to come. And this is not false promise. There’s a meatiness to the wine integrated within the intense fruit delivery. Look for mature and rich red fruits, mostly dark hedgerow but with some red currant too. A slight earthy minerality finishes the mouthful and it has s good length too, with the fruit staying with you for quite a while.

Viña Azeniche is the second wine in this range – it’s a younger wine and is made with Monastrell only. Again it’s very fruit driven and fills the mouth with its richness. With a finish a little shorter than the Roble it’s a wine to enjoy with food, sure, but also just to drink with friends and savour the intense Monastrell pulum/damson and dark cherry fruit.

It’s probably Marmallejo Crianza that holds the flag for this bodega which is developing an international market as well as buoyant sales in Spain. It’s made with 60% Monastrell and 40% Petit Verdot. Very dark colours with some earthy mineral notes emanating amidst the damson fruit.

I tasted the 2010 Marmallejo which I really enjoyed. Its 12 months in French and American oak have added depth and complexity as well as some attractive smoky aromas and vanilla toffee flavours. A wine for rich meaty dishes and we thought it excellent with some Manchego Curado as well!

San Isidro

EASY DRINKING WINES FROM BODEGA SAN ISIDRO

MORE WINES FROM DO BULLAS

I taste wines all the time. If it’s not every day it will be thirteen in a fortnight. Unlucky for some? Well, no, I’m happy in my work! Wouldn’t you be?

However it’s not quite that simple – notice that I used the word ‘taste’, not ‘drink’. There’s a big difference. Please don’t misunderstand me – I drink wine too, but only from the second glass onwards. The first glass, which of course is never full (regular readers will know that a wine glass should never be more than a third full) is for tasting.

Wine tasting is of course a major part of wine appreciation and there’s an important technique for tasting. Those readers who’ve attended any of my tastings will have heard me talk about various parts of the technique: the sniff and swirl; vaporising the wine; the olfactory passage; etc.

My first glass of any wine, whether I’m officially tasting, perhaps as a panel member judging, or at home in preparation for a Cork Talk article, or when we are out in a restaurant or at friends’, is always taken seriously. If I’ve tasted the wine before, is it the same as the last vintage, or if it’s the same vintage tasted some months/years later, has it developed in bottle since the last time?

If it’s the first time I’ve tried the wine, what do I detect on the nose and the palate from the first sip? How do those aromas and tastes evolve over the time it takes me to finish the glass? And, if it’s in a restaurant, or perhaps over dinner at home, how different, if at all, is the second glass?

Yes, I can see that I could be a complete nightmare when dining in company! And then when I start to ask others their opinions too – well it may just be too much! And so it is sometimes when Claire and I have dinner!

I’m often waiting impatiently for Claire to comment on the wine I’ve just poured her to accompany (and hopefully improve immeasurably) the meal I’ve just made us! Sometimes her comments just aren’t forthcoming and when probed, the answer comes back that she’s just not in the right mood to dissect the wine – after a hard day she just wants to drink it!

Easy, uncomplicated, pleasant drinking is what a lot of us are after much of the time – and if this applies to you, you may like to try the wines of Bodega San Isidro, DO Bullas.

Although dating from the 19th Century Bodegas San Isidro is now a co-operative, founded in 1950. There are two hundred growers who are member/owners whose holdings total 450 hectares of vineyard. Grapes are therefore sourced from all over the DO Bullas bringing with them the various different characteristics that the consequent variety of vineyard: altitude, aspect to the sun, micro-climate, soil make-up – terroir, impart. All this will impact on the wine, of course, but the Cepas del Zorro (Fox!) is not about close inspection, dissection complexity. Remember we’re talking uncomplicated easy drinking wines here!

The favoured white wine grape variety of Bullas is Macabeo. Known as Viura in other areas of production, La Rioja for example, this variety is one of the triumvirate of traditional grapes that are used to make Cava. Often described as having green apple notes, wines using Macabeo can be quite full, always refreshing with keen, but when handled correctly, no overstated acidity.

Such is Bodega San Isidro Cepas del Zorro Blanco Macabeo 2012. I’m sure that this wine will be available in most of the bars of the area and hotels too as a tasty, uncomplicated white house wine. I enjoyed its freshness as an aperitif but it will also suit green salads and fish dishes, of course.

In the same range their Rosado 2012 is made with Monastrell (to my mind and palate, this is one of the best varieties in Spain) and Garnacha (in fact the most grown variety in the country). The two complement each other – I liked this wine the best of the three samples I was sent.

There’s a typical raspberry nose with a slight red rose petal aroma too. On the palate there are soft red fruits, a lick of acidity and just a slight touch of bitterness on the finish making the wine a good match for paella.

Cepas del Zorro Tinto 2012 is a joven (young) red which is now about a year old. It’s made with Monastrell again, but this time supported by Syrah. It’s light in the mouth with a touch of Syrah spice (I suspect that vineyard supplying these grapes are around 700 – 800 metres above sea level, in other words approaching the highest in the DO).

It’s an easy drinking red wine which still has another year and is one of those wines that needs no discussion – just drink and enjoy!