THERE’S NOTHING RUSTY ABOUT THE CAVA MAKING AT ROVELLATS!

 

The name “Rovellats” dates back to the 10th century, to an adjective in Latin, robiculu (in English “rust”), probably as a result of the estate being surrounded by the meandering river Foix and with a consequent high degree of humidity.

 

It’s probable that the Romans who were here, initially pillaging and . . .  err, well you know, and then displacing the indigenous Iberians might have become rather tired of continually having to clean their chariots and equipment, and sharpen their weapons for fear of them become rusty and useless.

 

It’s probable, in fact highly likely, that they also made wine here. The Roman army needed plenty of alcoholic refreshment and they, of course, had the knowledge and expertise as well as a plentiful supply of workers to work the land and tend the vines. Thus, wines have been made in this part of Cataluña for centuries.

 

Cavas Rovellats, founded by, Josep Vallés Rovira in the early 20^th Century (the same family that runs the business today) has a somewhat shorter history. Nevertheless they too are playing their part in terms of safeguarding the land for the generations that follow, this, the third generation who are now the incumbents.

 

I first came across this winery when I received the results of the International Wine & Spirits Competition (IWSC) for which I judge, on the Spanish Panel, every year. Indeed it is possible (though I wouldn’t know it, as judging is blind, of course) that I was one of those whose scores ensured that one of the extremely impressive Rovellats Cavas, won, not just Gold, but the Gold Outstanding Medal!

 

And just to position that correctly, let me advise that this year the IWSC (the oldest, and one of the three most prestigious international wine competitions) awarded only eight Gold Outstnading Medals in the Spanish Wine Section – that’s wines that have achieved 95+ marks out of 100!

 

In fact three of their wines earned distinction in this year’s competition, two silvers and the Gold Outstanding. Plus, if you look at their website (www.cavasrovellats.com/en) you’ll see that they have a list of medal success, plaudits and eulogies as long as both of your arms! And, I’m not at all surprised – these are excellent Cavas. Not just excellent, for Cava (as some, never me, might say, but really top drawer for all Sparkling Wines – and that certainly includes Champagne! Indeed, I Tweeted (@colinonwine) and ‘Facebooked’ about tasting a Champagne against one of the Rovellats Cavas recently, the latter winning hands down!

 

I might have surreptitiously claimed some success in the above comment re judging at the IWSC, above, however, I’m going to temper that now, by adding that I may also have been one of the judges on the panel who agreed to a Silver Medal for GRAN RESERVA MASIA S.XV BRUT NATURE 2008. For me, this wine is solid Gold! It’s the wine that I tasted against the Champagne above, and it has made a big impression on me.

It’s elegant, first and foremost, with brioche and patisserie notes with a hint of toasty smokiness, and, after a huge seven years(!) ‘en rima’ (inverted in bottle resting on its lees in the cellars) it is as vibrant as a puppy – large breed, because this is also a powerful wine. We all delighted in this wine at a recent dinner, initially tasting it first on its own, and then with a baked filo pastry, spinach, cream cheese and feta starter, with which it was outstanding! Honestly, if you see this wine, buy it!

Rovellats Col.Lecció is pale gold in colour, coming probably from the 30% Chardonnay in its blend, with 40% Xarel-lo and the rest Parellada. It’s had 4 years (a youngster really!!) en rima in the cellars located 15 meters underground. You’ll find a little peach fruit with some citrus notes too with a slight reference to orange zest. There are freshly baked brown bread notes on the nose with a little bitter almond and it has a long finish with a faint toffee flavour, though not at all sweet.

The Gran Reserva Brut Nature 2011, winner of the Gold Outstanding Medal is a wonderful wine! The free run juice of the Macabeo, Xarel-lo and Parellada varieties are fermented for the base wine in stainless steel. The second fermentation, in bottle, of course takes place way below ground in the cellars, where the wine stays en rima for 60 months, five years.

Again this aged wine comes out of the bottle with youthful pride – it’s exuberant, delighted to delight the taster, and it does just that! There is elegance, the mark of a truly classy Cava, along with good weight on the palate.

On the nose there is the scent of almond blossom which follows through to blanched almonds, to confirm first impressions! There’s a little smokiness too, with toasty patisserie fragrance and lots of presence in the mouth. A complex wine, with an abundance of flavour and an exceptionally long finish.

I recommend these Cavas to you without any reservation – excellence needs to be acknowledged!

WINE MERCHANTS OR SUPERMARKETS?

 

My final epistle from the UK before our return to the sunshine is largely a reflection on my wine buying experiences here in the UK, but it is still relevant to readers in Spain – in fact, readers all over the world where there are choices regarding where to buy your wine.

 

Put simply, though I’ll expand on this shortly – I don’t just ‘highly recommend’, in fact I implore you to buy your wines from wine merchants whenever you have the opportunity, and if you don’t have it, please make it!

 

I once went to a splendid, celebrated Country House Hotel in the Lake District of the UK some 25 years ago. At dinner I was amazed, and rather disappointed to see that, of the 24 or so white wines listed, about 20 of them were Chardonnay! Variety? Balance?

 

I accepted of course that business was business, and Chardonnay produces were surfing their own products all across Britain in those days – many readers will remember this, I’m sure. Hotels and restaurants had to pander to the demands of the market, but, for me, this was ridiculous.

 

Fast forward a quarter of a century, and yesterday, as indeed it was every time I walked into a supermarket, when I approached the white wine shelves I was confronted with a veritable army of Sauvignon Blanc bottles. Sauvignon Blanc full stop! If looking for variety, there were, I admit, examples of Sauvignon Blanc from several different countries, but it’s still SB (as we heard it referred to a number of times!).

 

So, the grape variety has changed from Chard (I can abbreviate too you know!) to SB, but the principle is the same. There is far too little choice in supermarkets!

 

TBH (To Be Honest – ok, I’ll stop now!), I’m not sure who is driving whom – is it the distributors or the wine commentators who are responsible for this homogenous glut? My wine writing colleagues here in the UK are invited to all of the various press//trade tastings, mostly by the UK based distributors acting on behalf of the producers with whom they work all over the world.

 

I would like to think that most of these trade tastings offer many, or at least, several different wine styles, grape varieties etc, so there should be a variety of articles born of each writer’s own preferences. However, at such tastings, the supermarket buyers will also be present. Enter the dreaded ‘price point’. It is not just the buyer’s palate that makes the decision as to which to buy, it’s all about the base, profit!

 

The waters muddy, and I can’t see through them, except to say that the result is somehow that supermarket shelves are full of whatever the distributors/writers want us to drink – and like lambs to the SB, we do what we are told. And, of course, consumers ‘get a taste’ for Sauvigning, and so the cycle continues.

 

Well, it didn’t with me, anyway!

 

I boldly went to find the lamentably lonely, deserted bottles of: Chenin Blanc, Viognier, Albariño, Godello (I was delighted to see this Spanish variety available in a quiet corner!), etc, albeit occasionally akin to ‘mission impossible’! But, supermarkets please note, these ‘weird’ varieties were invariably well received!

 

On just one occasion in the UK (in fact the town where I grew up, and even more nostalgically, in Majestic Wine Merchants which now occupies the site where my father worked, Tottey’s Garage, 60+ years ago) I was able to enter the Aladin’s Cave of a wine merchant.

 

It’s true, I did see Sauvignon Blanc (and Chardonnay) – but what a wealth of other grape varieties and blends of! It was a pleasure to roam the aisles and select from such a vast variety. Wine Merchants offer true consumer choice – supermarkets don’t. I rest my case!

WHAT’S NOT TO LIKE ABOUT SHERRY?

 

Known as ‘Sack’ in Shakespeare’s time and, for reasons of balance (Shakespeare wasn’t the only great writer of his time, and you know that journalists are always strictly impartial!), as Xeres in that of the Bard’s contemporary, Cervantes, Sherry (itself an English corruption of the Arabic name for Jerez, Xeres) was a staple drink in much of the known world.

 

It isn’t today – but it should be!

 

Efforts are being made to put Sherry back to where it was, and where it should be, in terms of market share of the wine world. Although, personally, I shy away from Sherry Cocktails, designed to enfranchise the youth of today and thus dispel once and for all the misconception that Sherry is a drink for Granny and Aunt Maude, I understand the reasoning behind this promotional push.

 

I feel the same about Champagne and Cava Cocktails – for me it’s all wine abuse! Let’s drink Sherry and enjoy it for what it is, a perfectly palatable drink on its own without dressing it up in pretense!

 

Whilst some have deserted Sherry, in favour of more hip drinks, I’ve never left it – there’s always some in my fridge and in my wine cooler. I’m a big fan of Amontillado and Oloroso, which, in their natural state are dry and not sweetened for the so-called British palate, and I very often prepare dinner with a glass of Fino on the go!

 

However, whilst I still really enjoy Fino, that very dry, super-fresh, slightly salty, fortified wine which is the colour of water (be careful, don’t down it in one by mistake!), in the last couple of years it has been taken to the next level! Enter Gonzalez Byass Tío Pepe Fino En Rama’!

 

Translating, roughly, to ‘raw’, ‘En Rama’ is Fino without all the clarification and filtration to which regular sherries are subjected. Extracted from the barrels directly, from between the ‘flor’ (the yeast that forms a thin layer on top of the wine as it ages in cask) and any sediment at the bottom of the barrel, En Rama is bottled almost without filtration at all. Hence En Rama Sherry is in its most natural state, and with a wholly different, soft golden colour!

 

If asked to identify this wine simply by sight, if it were pored into a white wine glass, you’d be forgiven for thinking it to be, perhaps Chardonnay! Take a whiff though, and wow – it’s so good! You’ll find some yeasty, almost patisserie notes, along with a slight whiff of sea breeze, and then some blanched almond aromas and flavour. Hold the wine on your palate and let it work its magic!

 

My friends at Gonzalez Byass also sent me two other bottles of sherry, each absolutely exemplary of their style – Amontillado and Oloroso.

 

Viña AB (in fact the AB are linked together, as in the photo, but my  computer won’t let me do that!) Amontillado is named after Andrés Botaina, the original owner of the vineyard that supplied the grapes for this wonderful sherry.

 

Darker than the above, as it has spent twice as much time in barrel (about 10 years) being slowly oxidized, giving the colour as well as the wholly different aromas and flavours. Traditionalists will tell you that this wine is perfectly paired with ‘Ave’, fowl, in all its forms, and I’d go along with that, but I’d add to it as well. Enjoy this wine with Comté cheese (and others), with artichokes (now that’s unusual!), mushroom risotto, (with a drizzle of truffle oil, even better!) and asparagus.

 

There are hazelnuts on the nose and the palate, plus a smoky yeasty presence too, with dry-fried almonds and under-ripe (and therefore not sweet) figs. It’s lovely, really lovely!

 

Finally (though there is a large range of Sherry at Gonzalez Byass, of course) I just loved their Oloroso – which translates to fragrant, and that’s exactly how you’d describe Gonzalez Byass Alfonso Dry Oloroso! It’s nutty, on the nose, with caramalised notes, endearing it immediately to almonds, fried in a very little olive oil and lightly sprinkled with sea salt – roasted chestnuts too. Also, Jamon Serrano, in all its different styles, is just about perfect with this wine!

 

Sherry rocks!

 

(My thanks to SherryNotes whom I used for research).

ENGLISH SPARKLING WINE – THE JAVEA CONNECTION!

 

Javea, that three-part harmony of a town, on the Costa Blanca, which nestles between the, historically, more famous, Denia, and the ever more chic, Moraira, is famous for the sum of its parts.

 

El Pueblo, affectionately referred to by the Brits as, the Old Town, sits atop a hill, whose crowning glory is its blue and white tiled church dome overseeing: the indoor market, the tranquil plaza and a labyrinth of donkey-wide, sloping, atmospheric streets; El Puerto, with its tide-smoothed pebble beach, lovely marine walk and cool shops; plus, of course, La Playa Arenal, whose golden sands and palm trees look out onto the fabulous turquoise coloured bay.

 

However, Javea can also lay claim, in part at least, to have had a hand in the rise, and rise of English Sparkling Wine! A past, long time resident of Javea, Anton Massel, now located in Germany, I think, was actually instrumental in starting the now burgeoning English (and Welsh) Sparkling Wine industry!

 

Anton, a friend, colleague and business partner of mine some 15 years ago is well known amongst wine types on the Costa Blanca as the founder of the Costa Blanca Wine Society. A renowned, oft published wine writer, and wine-maker and consultant of his time, he also had a fine reputation in Germany and other western European countries. Plus, although I didn’t know it until I walked into the head offices of the International Wine & Spirits Competition several years ago, for my first appearance on the judging panel, Anton Masel was also the founder of the IWSC, still one of the three most prestigious international wine competitions!

 

English Sparkling Wine was first produced in about 1955 – the history is murky. Wine production in the UK, historically the preserve of monasteries and noblemen, had virtually died out between the two World Wars, certainly on a commercial scale, and there were only a few who had the wherewithal and the courage to restart. Most wines were made with German varieties, considered hardy enough to withstand the British climate, albeit in the south of England, and Wales. And almost invariably they were still wines.

 

Fast forward a couple of decades and enter our hero Anton Massel who was working as wine consultant and wine-maker for Sir Guy Salisbury-Jones who had readily agreed to Anton’s suggestion that they make a traditional method Sparkling Wine using the Champagne variety, Chardonnay, of which Sir Guy had some modest plantings. The experiment was a success and others took note, though it wasn’t until the late 80s that a new generation of winemakers began to eschew the hardy Muller Thurgau, Reichensteiner and La Seyval varieties in favour of Chardonnay (following Anton’s pioneering work), Pinot Noir and Pinot Meurnier.

 

There followed a number of successes in wine competitions and especially at the IWSC in 1992 and again in 1998.

 

Readers will perhaps have heard of, and sampled(?), Nytember the English Sparkling Wine that started to win glory at blind international fizz tastings, competing against Champagne and top Cava, in the 2000s. Nowadays, Chapel Down, Furleigh, Ridge View, Langham and many others are up there competing for the gongs.

 

Indeed, Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, turned over part of her Great Windsor Estate to the planting of vines in 2011, the resulting sparkling wines were made available at the start of 2017. The 3,000 bottle only production was put on the market by Laithwaites, in fact in a three-bottle presentation case priced at only 75 pounds – which, as you might imagine, sold out immediately!

 

English Sparkling Wine is served on BA First Class flights and a recent directive to all the British Embassies across the world stated that English Sparkling Wine must be served to visiting dignitaries!

 

So cheers to Anton, and cheers to Javea too!