I will be presenting a wine tasting at Cafe D’Art, Javea Port, on Saturday 25th February. We will be enjoying 4 wines: a white, a rosado and two reds; and there will be aperitif snacks served at the same time. The cost of the tasting is 10€ per person. This will be the third such tasting and experience tells us that they are popular, so please reserve your place early! More details will follow soon. Please call me on 629 388 159 asap!
Author: Colin
FIRST PUBLISHED COSTA NEWS GROUP, JANUARY 2012
RESERVA OR RESVERATROL, SIR?
QUESTIONABLE HEALTH BENEFITS OF DRINKING RED WINE
La Crisis is alive and well in Spain. Fuel, and just about everything else has gone up, whilst wages have remained the same and in some cases have actually dropped. Pharmacies have taken industrial action by closing for three days as they’ve not been paid by Regional Governments. Taxes have increased, the standard of living has fallen along with the Euro.
Spain’s low credit rating dithers. If we had any spare money there’s no point in saving as interest rates are at an all time low. Even the Royal Wedding feel-good factor has dissipated and M&S have reported poor Christmas sales figures!
And, just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, there is now a question mark about possible health benefits from drinking red wine!
It was in 2003 when Dr. William McCrae, of Swindon’s Great Western Hospital, hit the headlines after acknowledging that he had prescribed 2 glasses of red wine a day (in fact Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon!) to 400 cardiac patients. The bandwagon began to roll.
In 2005 an Oregan (USA) winery was given permission to include on their labels that their wines contained antioxidants.
In 2007 Resveratrol, a compound found in grape skins, the more so in those of black grapes, was proven again to be an antioxidant and was added to a pill used to help stop cancer.
In 2008 a US study found that Resveratrol can help fight diabetes and obesity.
In 2009 research, conducted in Spain and published in the journal ‘Heart’, under the authorship of Dr. Larraitz Arriola, found that the risk of coronary heart disease decreases as alcohol consumption increases! Although the team was quick to point out that benefits must be set against the dangers of over-consumption!
In July 2011 Resveratrol was championed as an antidote to the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle, where it was also stressed that the benefits of exercise were undisputed and Resveratrol should not be seen as an alternative, but used by those who, perhaps because of injury or an office-bound lifestyle, were not able to jog, gym and swim!
A month later another study suggested that the same antioxidant, Resveratrol, could be used to treat life-threatening inflammations such as appendicitis and peritonitis.
We loved it didn’t we! Medical practitioners throughout centuries had always used wine as a medicine believing, correctly we learned, that there were health benefits from its consumption. Now we had the proof!
But hold on – in September 2011 a group of Australian scientists challenged previous findings that red wine helps prevent heart disease (I wonder if their next study will research tinnies!). Their report entitled, ‘Myth Busted – red wine no magic remedy for heart disease’, stated that any positive effects of alcohol in reducing cardiovascular disease have been hugely overestimated, concluding that the dangers of alcohol far outweigh any health benefit.
And now it has just been revealed that a doctor at the University of Connecticut (USA) has allegedly fabricated results and falsified data that suggested health benefits from red wine consumption!
Where will it all end? Well for me, in a moment, it will end in a glass of rich, red wine, because I love it (in moderation like everything, of course – our Grannies were right weren’t they?!) and not because I believe it will help fight the cause of my father’s extremely untimely death (at only 48 years of age) and that of two of his three brothers. Yes, you guessed it, heart attacks!
Contact Colin: colin@colinharknessonwine.com or through his unique wine services website: www.colinharknessonwine.com
HOT NEWS – the International Wine and Spirits Competition (IWSC) has appointed me as one of their International Wine Judges!
First Published Grupo Costa News SL, November 2011
DARK WINE FROM THE DARK HORSE
OF THE RECENT ALICANTE GOURMET FAIR ‘LO MEJOR DE LA GASTRONOMIA’
If it wasn’t for my contacts I might have missed the excellent Gourmet Fair in Alicante’s IFA Exhibition Centre. It’s clear that organisers, www.lomejordelagastronomia.com, need to be aware of the huge potential of sales to the English speaking extranjeros in the Alicante Province. I was unaware of any advertising in the English language media (and no press releases to me), which I’m sure accounted for the fact that I only heard two English voices during the whole six hours I was at this Mecca of Gastronomes!
The place was really heaving but there was room for more and I’m sure that readers would have loved it! The fair managed to strike the perfect balance between keeping professionals and consumers entertained, informed and happy – there were live TV cooking demonstrations, chef clothing and the latest ovens for sale as well as very well priced tapas and wine combinations. An outstanding success!
Of course I was there for the wine! Food related stands considerably outnumbered wine stands but there was nevertheless plenty of wine to see and taste. And for me one of the stars of the show came from a small, almost anonymous stand under the generic banner of the DO Alicante. Bodegas Sierra de Cabreras is nestled into the hills of the mountain range Sierra Salinas on the DO border between Yecla and Alicante, and making top class red wine!
Any wine sold in El Corte Inglés Gourmet section has to be worthy of note and at 19€ per bottle, although relatively expensive, it’s very good value for money. Were this same wine made elsewhere in a more famous area I’m sure it would command a price into the top twenties, at least!
They make just one wine (watch this space though, as their fame grows I’m sure their portfolio will too), Carabibas and it’s super! Almost opaque, this very dark red wine is made from 60 years old Monastrell vines with the addition of some Cabernet and Merlot.
The 2010 is fruit driven, but it’s complex too with racy acidity and maturing tannin and is a classic wine in waiting, though drinking very well now. The owners told me that it had only just been bottled following nine months ageing in French oak. I intend to lay down some bottles of this to see how it matures over four or five years.
The 2009 is a different wine and yet made with the same varieties in roughly the same proportions. It’s more subtle on the nose, though its lovely damson fruit is nevertheless to the fore. The gentle, sensitive oak ageing has added an extra dimension over time, and will do so still as the wine evolves over the next, perhaps eight years. I enjoyed this dark horse wine as much as the next!
Muga’s Prado Enea Gran Reserva 2004 is of course from an excellent year and whilst not just tasting the wine but drinking it too I was struck once again by the superb quality that is available in Spain, and in this case in the most famous of Spanish producing areas, La Rioja. I’ve written about this wine and Bodegas Muga several times before so I won’t say anything more, except to repeat the advice that, here you can buy Rioja with total confidence, which cannot be said about all bodegas from this area! They even manage to make a characterful white wine, using Viura – which for me speaks volumes!
Another highlight of the fair was the wine portfolio of Bodegas Francisco Gomez whose organic (all their wines are organic) Sauvignon Blanc was full of fresh
varietal character. Their red Fruto Noble 2006 Crianza made with Cabernet, Monastrell and Syrah is well endowed with ripe fruit plus the backing of 12 months in oak.
Serrata 2006 Reserva is made with Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet and Monastrell and initially reminds me of some of the full flavoured Chilean wine I sampled when last in UK, but with a good length. The fruit hits, slightly disappears on the mid-palate but returns on the finish – I wonder if it might have been a slightly better wine with a few months less oak?
So, if I can persuade the organisers of this fine food and wine fair to give me some advance notice next year I’ll post it here so you can enjoy it for yourself. PS I’ll be discussing some alternative Christmas Day wines on Bay Radio Sunday 18th December, 12:00 – 13:00 hrs – why not tune in or listen on-line (www.bayradio.fm)?