Presenters, Noelle & Bob, enjoy the recommended wines!
FRENCH ONION SOUP
The natural slight sweetness of the onions and the richness of the dish as a whole will mean that red wine, no matrer how young and fruity will clash – to the detriment of the soup rather than ti complement it.
So we are looking for a dry white wine, with a touch of fruit-inspired sweetness, though not a sweet or even an off-dry white. The answer is the beautifully packaged Finca Casa Alarcón Viognier.
The grape variety Viognier, whose spiritual home is in the Rhône valley, is adapting very well to Spanish soils and sunshine. Casa Alarcón’s version does not have the overt apricot notes that its French cousins possess, but it’s the better for that.
Understated white peach plus some herby notes make this a great match!
SQUASH AND SWEET POTATO SOUP
Again, a fairly sweet style of soup, but with the addition of some chilli. It’s a rich and full-flavoured soup and I think we need something to refresh the palate between mouthfulls – cava is the answer!
The sparkling spritz of El Miracle Cava from Bodegas Vicente Gandía Plá is made with Macabeo and Chardonnay. The green apple of Macabeo is tempered by the cava making process finishing with some bready notes, but retaining it’s freshness. The Chardonnay will provide the body necessary to accompany such a soup.
Quite where Pedro Cárcel finds the time to make his own wines, market them and in fact run his winery I’m not really sure. But having tasted them it’s clear that he is able to devote enough time, effort and indeed passion to them, despite his multifarious other interests.
Pedro is the Spanish equivalent of the Flying Winemakers, that multi-national fraternity of winemaking experts who travel, often long distances, to advise others on how to obtain the best out of their vineyards/grapes/barrels/winery. Such luminaries have quietly, almost secretly, made a dramatic improvement to the quality of wines from the Iberian peninsular and should be applauded for so doing.
Pedro does likewise, albeit on a smaller scale as, rather than the winemaking world being his oyster, he operates really only in the Valencia region, with occasional forays into Murcia. Nevertheless his is a telling contribution and if you’ve tasted wines from DO Alicante, DO Utiel-Requena and DO Valencia it’s entirely possible that you’ve tasted his efforts!
The temperatures in the pristine vineyard where we met him near Utiel, off the road from Valencia to Madrid, were furnace-like in July and our water reserves were quickly used up on the journey to HQ, Bodegas Vereda Real, where thankfully the temperature control was to our benefit as much as to that of the wines reposing in barrel.
Barrel, or in Spanish barrica, – a simple self-explanatory word, but at Bodegas Vereda Real a science in itself. Pedro’s premise it seems is that whilst the fruit is of course central to the wine, playing the starring role, oak too can play an Oscar-winning supporting part.
However, there’s oak and there’s oak. Traditional in Spain, French oak and American oak are ubiquitous. Pedro likes to experiment with oaks from different countries. You’ll see wines ageing in French oak (from at least two different areas of France), American, Central Europe and Caucasian oak and he’s very proud of the fact that Bodegas Vereda Real is the first Valencian winery to use native Spanish oak.
Needless to say there is an oak element in most of the wines that come from this bodega but they add complexity, depth and flavour complementing the primary and secondary fruit flavours that are also captured. I tasted a raft of their wines, one presented in a most impressive wooden box embossed with a metal seal, a Vino d’Autor, of top quality!
First a word about Utiel-Requena’s darling, indigenous grape variety, Bobal. A stunning blueberry/purple in youth with a keen minerality, wines made with Bobal age gracefully taking on deeper and darker colours and autumnal, earthy aromas supporting dark fruits like blackberry and blackcurrant, sometimes with figs and dates in there too! It is a super variety and should be sought out.
Top Selling Bobalia, made with darling grape variety Bobal
Bobalia Roble 2006, as the name implies, is made entirely with Bobal, with a short ageing in French and Spanish oak. It has rich dark forest fruits on the nose and palate with that characteristic mineral aroma supported by a slight vanilla from the oak. It’s fresh but with some power too.
Selectto Crianza 2004 has Bobal in the blend, but smoothly rubbing shoulders with Tempranillo, Syrah and Merlot – a Franco-Hispanic wine with an Utiel-Requena spin! Dark cherry in colour there is a touch of that fruit about the flavour too, with balsamic notes, blueberry and ripe blackberry plus a distant a whiff of tobacco, emanating no doubt from its eclectic oak mix (France, Hungary and Spain). Good drinking with and without food.
Ettnos Reserva 2003 is a grown-up wine for the dining table. Cabernet Sauvignon makes an appearance here, along with Bobal and Syrah, giving the wine a deeper and darker colour and added age-ability. A structured wine with complexity and power and yet a delicate fragrance too. There are toasty, smoked notes and rich dark fruits.
There are, I believe, fewer bodegas during these less tranquil times, making Gran Reserva, a style of wine which, if it disappears totally will, in my view, be much lamented. Bodegas Vereda Real’s 1999 wholly Bobal Gran Reserva proves my point with elegance and aplomb. I hope they continue to make this style of wine.
On opening, the aromas waft out of the bottle like the congenial genie from the lamp, enticing all within sniffing distance to stop and linger, as indeed the perfume does. Watch out or there’ll soon be a crowd! It’s had 26 months in a selection of new oak from various different countries and whilst easily identifiable as a part of the whole it is complementary to the overall perfume and taste. There are dark fruits, slatey minerality as well as some liquorice notes – a powerful and yet elegant wine that requires a fine dinner, good company, a long night and more than one bottle!
The aforementioned Vino d’Autor, named rather aptly, Tesoro de Requena 2005, will suit those who prefer a slightly lighter mouthfeel in their wines. For me it is a wine that embodies finesse, grace and elegance with lovely deep fruits, full-on flavour and integral oak nuances. A wine to enjoy and savour with food, between best friends and lovers!
Oh No! Presenters Bob and Noelle share an empty glass!
POT ROAST CHICKEN
As we’ve said before chicken is very wine-friendly and even with the bacon input white wine lovers would still be able to enjoy their tipple, if the white had been fermented, and probably aged, in oak. The tomatoes and anchovies again would also be happy to accommodate white wine – I think a Garnacha Blanca with a maximum of six months in oak would be a good match.
However I feel the best partner would be red wine and I’d suggest that listeners and readers might like to try reds from DO Tarragona. Here you’ll find a host of red wine varieties that are not often seen – the superbly named Ull de Llebre is also known as Tempranillo in most of the rest of Spain and there is Garnacha and Cariñena as well as globetrotter Cabernet Sauvignon.
Combinations of these varieties with a maximum of 12 months in oak, to retain good fruit presence, will suit this dish very nicely thank you! De Muller is a very large producer, but there are others too.
I lived in Southport, Lancashire, when I was a boy (Local Government re-organisation meant it became Merseyside at a later date, much to the chagrin of the locals) so I’m very familiar with this dish!
It’s a meaty stew-style dish with loads of full-flavoured juices emanating from the lamb and kidneys and it needs a wine robust enough to stand up to such full-on tastes and aromas but one that can also add to the whole experience.
It has to be red wineand as it’s Lamb based I’d go for a Rioja Crianza or perhaps a slightly fuller Ribera del Duero. That should to the trick!
