What a superb Wine/Tapas tasting we all enjoyed recently at CAVA, the new Tapas/Wine Bar/Restaurant in Moraira (near the Taxi Rank)! Hosts Debbie and Andrew had prepared tapas with an international flavour and I had the pleasure of presenting wines from the CAVA wine list to accompany them – all with a Christmas Theme! Patrons at the totally full restaurant were charmed with wines and dishes as diverse as Cava paired with Japanese style Smoked Salmon and Wasabi; and Dates stuffed with Blue Cheese alongside homemade mincemeat delicacies with the rich and full liquid Christmas PX Sherry – with another three courses, and wines, in between!
Check out CAVA next time you’re in Moraira – I may well see you there!
I don’t know about you but it’s about this time when my mind starts to consider Christmas presents. In truth that doesn’t always mean that I get around to doing anything about it, but hey, thinking about it is a start, right?!
It’s therefore the time of year when I think about any wine related items that I can recommend Cork Talk readers to buy as Christmas presents for friends and family, and maybe a well deserved wine-orientated Christmas present for yourselves, just in case others don’t come up with the idea! And why not -after all you’re probably the one who has the year-round responsibility of making sure that there’s wine on the table, and particularly for the Christmas period (for Christmas Wine Recommendations + The Costa News Top Ten Wines of the Year, watch this space).
When I was in Barcelona for the Alimentaria Wine Fair last March I was impressed with the array of Wine Accessories displayed on the Pulltex stand. It seemed to me that whatever one needs for wine, short of the actual wine itself, was there to see and , if required, to have demonstrated too. I made a mental note to ‘re-visit’ Pulltex (time was pressing as everything was closing early because of the National Strike, which in fact marooned me several kilometres from my hotel – but that’s another story!).
An e-mail some weeks later resulted in a Press Pack of example accessories for me to road test (must try that with Mercedes sometime!) and a brochure detailing all that this successful international company has to offer the wine enthusiast. Be it happy amateur or dedicated professional – there’s something to offer everyone.
Stylish & Practical - Pulltex Wine Accessories
The utilitarian name ‘sacarcorcho’ here in Spain is known in the UK as ‘The Waiter’s Friend’ – it’s a simple but indispensable part of any wine lover’s armoury. I have one always in my car, my luggage and not just in the kitchen of our house! I’ve trialled a number over the years, some haven’t passed muster and have been unceremoniously dumped – in the correct recycling bin of course!
Pulltex has been making “Wine concepts for wine lovers” for over twenty years is the market leader and makes a range of Waiter’s Friends from the simple, functional and reliable to designer-style, elaborate but equally easy to use.
But that’s not all! In the Press Pack there are bottle stoppers of two different types – both of which are in full time employment in my house! A simple but amazingly efficient stopper that can keep the bubbles in cava/Champagne et al for days – an excellent idea for those of us who like a glass to fizz to perk us up but who don’t want to drink a whole bottle. This is ideal also for the professional wine-taster as a glass of sparkling wine before the onslaught of several wines that need to be tasted is an ideal start as it freshens the palate perfectly.
There’s also an excellent oxygen extractor stopper which again allows one to open a bottle of wine for just a glass a day, for example. Extracting the oxygen ensures that the wine doesn’t spoil if kept in the fridge with this most useful stopper.
There’s a an elegant wine cooler too – which, if kept in the freezer, can be wrapped around a bottle of white wine to keep it cool throughout dinner, but can also be used to quickly chill down a bottle when one isn’t enough and you’ve been caught unawares without a second bottle on the subs bench in the fridge! Etc . . .
But that’s not all either – Pulltex have a large brochure of wine accessories which includes some lovely decanters (an essential piece of equipment for the wine lover, in my view), elegant glasses, sommelier-style aprons (some in a very stylish denim!) and much more – all of which can be seen by visiting www.pulltex.com well before Christmas!
AND A WINE ON WHICH TO PRACTISE PULLTEX?
Well you might like to try the 100% Chardonnay M&Z 2011 Chardonnay 2011 (no, Madam, that’s not M&S!).
Readers may remember two articles of a few months ago which lamented the reluctance of Rioja bodegas to take advantage of the newly approved grape varieties for white wines from this honoured zone of production. One bodega (of two that I could find – I know, it’s baffling why are they so slow on the uptake when there is such great potential to improve white Rioja’s flavours, aromas etc and therefore the bodegas’ cash-flow and profit?!), bucks the trend.
Bodegas Finca Manzanos have a Viura/Chardonnay (25%) blend which elicited the following tasting note in one of those articles:
“Typical warm climate, southern hemisphere Chardonnay notes of exotic fruit are very understated, if in fact present at all. There’s only 25% Chardonnay in the blend and its presence is more of a subtle French style. There’s an added roundness to the wine, a greater depth and a longer finish. On the nose, perhaps the faintest whiff of banana and butter.”
However this bodega also has an outpost in nearby DO Navarra, called Bodegas M&Z. Here there are two wines only, a red and the aforementioned Chardonnay. The 2011 is a joven, young, wine without any oak ageing. The winemaker captures the essence of Chardonnay, which can of course work wonderfully with oak, but which doesn’t have to (unlike Viura from Rioja – oops, there I go
Chardonnay from Navarra
again!).
There are some creamy notes (my guess is that the wine has been kept on its lees before bottling), some mild butter aromas and a slight reference to banana – it’s subtle, Old World Chardonnay, rather than blustery, blousy and big, as can be the case with some Aus and Californian wines using the same variety.
I’m sure Pulltex will cope very well with it, and so will you, if you can find it!
THE LATE JOHN RADFORD
Sad news for the wine world generally and particularly for that of Spain – recently John Radford, world renowned Spanish wine writer, critic and broadcaster passed away. John was the author of several books and hundreds of articles, many specifically about the wines of Spain. He sat as Co-Chair of the Spanish Panel for Decanter Magazine and has worked for many years promoting wines made in the country he loved and visited frequently.
I first met John when he was a guest speaker at the Costa Blanca Wine Society and most recently last year when he co-chaired the Decanter Panel on which I too sat when judging the 2007 vintage from La Rioja in November 2011. In the meantime I’ve read many of his missives re innovation and further developments here in Spain and we’ve corresponded over various wine matters, and not always with the same opinion! Most recently through the Comment Page of Decanter’s Internet News Service, where we disagreed about white Rioja, which Cork Talk readers may remember (see above?).
I didn’t always agree with John’s opinions but I certainly respect the fact that he has been a major luminary regarding the Spanish wine industry. I still use his book ‘The New Spain’ as an excellent reference source and will no doubt continue to quote him, acknowledging all that he has done for Spanish wine.
I remember with some embarrassment the dreadful faux pas I made quite a few years ago, when I visited, with a coach load of people, Bodegas Los Frailes, near Fontanares, inland from Gandía. Standing in the beautiful and tranquil vineyards I was talking to the group about the favoured grape variety of the region and also of Bodegas Los Frailes – Monastrell.
I had just explained (in error, as I was soon to find out!) that Monastrell is the Spanish name for the French variety, Mourvèdre. The hand of Miguel, the owner of the Bodega, whose family had in fact worked the vineyards for generations having bought the estate at auction as far back as 1771, gently but purposefully landed on my shoulder:
“No, Señor Colin – Mouvèdre is the French name for the Spanish grape variety, Monastrell!”.
Of course it didn’t really matter to the group who were probably more interested in tasting the wine than listening to a lengthy discourse on the provenance of the vines which supplied the grapes for that wine. And I have to admit that I smiled in apology to Miguel, thinking – no matter, it’s probably just a parochial disagreement, some friendly(ish!) cross-Pyrenees rivalry!
Well, when I returned to my office I looked into the matter and yes, Miguel was quite correct of course and I thanked him for pointing it out to me.
I thanked him recently too, this time for giving me several of his wines for a tasting to be included under the association banner of Terres dels Alforíns after we had lunched together with the three other founder members of this group of leading DO Valencia winemakers. Regular readers will remember a number of articles I have written about the impressive wines made by members of the group, and the wines of Bodegas Los Frailes are no exception!
The entire production of this bodega is organic. When I asked Miguel all those years ago why it was that he had decided to change to strictly organic production he simply pointed to a photo on his office desk.
“I want the land I leave to my children to be good, clean land. I want to put back into the soil what I take out if it, not with chemicals and fertilizers, but with organic matter. We are all but caretakers of the land with which we work and it is our duty to pass on perfect soils to the next generation.”
Gone are the days when organic wines were drunk solely by tree-hugging, Earth-loving, long-haired, wooly-jumpered Bohemians who accepted anything as long as it was produced organically. The quality of Organic and indeed Bio-dynamic wines is self-evident and, whilst there are wine competitions solely for Organic wines, most of these wines are entered in competitions that are open to all – and they do very well too!
Indeed the wines of Bodegas Los Frailes are of very high quality, full stop!
Blanc Trilogía, which as you might imagine from its name, uses three varieties – Sauvignon for lovely fresh gooseberry, nettle and asparagus notes; Moscatel for grapey, raison perfume; and the indigenous Verdil for extra body.
The grapes undergo a five-day maceration at low temperatures to extract the maximum aromas, then half of the must is fermented French Oak with regular stirring of the lees. After fermentation this portion joins the other 50% which underwent stainless steel fermentation.
You’ll find tropical fruit with citrus too and a touch of vanilla. It has a certain weight in the mouth but with fresh acidity too, and maybe just a passing whiff of wild fennel and thyme.
Trilogíca Tinto (yes, three varieties!), includes Tempranillo with Monastrell (of course) and some Cabernet Sauvignon all of which have enjoyed a long maceration period where colours, mature tannin and deep flavour are extracted. Mature fruit sits on an integrated bedrock of Hungarian oak vanilla aromas and flavour. Super.
Bilogía (yes, you guessed it!) has a 50/50 blend of Monastrell and Tempranillo. It too has had a long maceration followed by 12 months in Hungarian oak to add some vanilla, depth and complexity, though the wine is very pleasant easy drinking.
f (that’s the name, not a disguised swearword!) Monastrell and Cabernet Sauvignon is as dark in the glass as you might imagine from these particularly black grapes. It’s had just 4 months in oak, to mellow the Cabernet and add some extra flavout to finished product. Like it’s stable-mate f Monastrell Monovarietal it’s meant for tasty easy drinking and both serve this purpose very well!
Finally, I was wholly enamoured with Miguel’s Moma 2008 – an excellent wine! It’s made with old vine Monastrell and the superb very new variety, Marselan, which is a man-made cross between Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache, first bred in 1961 and first vinified (used for making wine) as recently as 2002!
It’s painstaking elaboration, using modern and old, traditional methods, including finally a lengthy time in medium toasted French Barricas with its lees and then in bottle in the cellars, this wine is outstanding for its under 20€ price tag. Mature fruit mixes with some spice, dark chocolate and a touch of tobacco and stony mineral notes on a long finish.
An outstanding bodega making a significant contribution to the Terres dels Alforíns group, which is causing something of a stir in the DO Valencia – because of the sheer quality of its autocratic members’ wines!
PS Wednesday 5th December is a date for your diary. I’m presenting five super wines to partner five gourmet tapas at Moraira’s Olive Tree restaurant when we’ll also be enjoying the beautiful music of Dolce Divas throughout the evening! And check out the price – only 25€ for all this!! You can call into the restaurant to reserve; or call me on 629 388 159; or e-mail colin@colinharknessonwine.com It promises to be a special night!
If you’re near a radio on Monday 3rd December you might like to tune in to Heat Gold FM (94.1 FM and 94.4 FM), or a computer (www.heatgold.fm) from 14:00 hrs and listen to my Christmas Wine Recommendations on Eric Taylor’s programme.
There will be some good tips for wines you might want to enjoy over the festive season plus lots of chat about wine stuff with Eric, who loves a glass now and now!
I’m hoping to post here the wines that we’ll be tasting, before the event, so that you will be able to buy them and taste ‘with’ us! So watch this space!
