Colin – Page 85 – Colin Harkness on Wine

Comment re Telitec Wine of the Month

Great recommendation Colin. I went to pick up a couple of bottles as soon as I had read your mail . . .

First 2016 Telitec Wine of the Month!

The Telitec Wine of the Month – JANUARY 2016

Great recommendation Colin. I went to pick up a couple of bottles as soon as I had read your mail. Eliza and I had the first at home and thoroughly enjoyed it, the second we took to our local restaurant and enjoyed it even more with friends. I have also been a supporter of Campo Viejo (the orange label crianza) but have found it a little boring of late. This has has really spiced things up and we will continue to drink it. Many thanks for the recommendation.

Phil

Spanish Wine’s Men of the Year 2015

. . . . it’s my intention here to honour those who have made, and are making, a significant, beneficial impact on the world of Spanish wine

SPANISH WINE’S MEN/WOMEN/INSTITUTIONS

OF THE YEAR

In another new, annual article (last week’s Review of the Cork Talk Wine Events of the Year was the first) it’s my intention here to honour those who have made, and are making, a significant, beneficial impact on the world of Spanish wine.

And, once again, I’m setting myself a difficult task. The Spanish Wine World is just about as dynamic as can be, therefore there are many prime movers to consider, in terms of individuals and institutions, and in terms of now, and in the future. This year I’m keeping it to just three, though this is mostly because of space restrictions – there should be more people/institutions honoured!

I’m not a great fan of statistics. Like beauty, they are really in the eye of the beholder. So I can’t quote how many bottles of Cava have been sold over the Christmas celebratory period. I know, though, that it will be in the millions! And it’s Cava that is the raison d’etre of one of my ‘Wine People of the Year 2015’ – Señor Pere Bonet, President of the Consejo Regulador DO Cava.

Readers may remember when I interviewed Señor Bonet for Cork Talk in 2014. I’d been invited to visit one of the leading Cava producers, Segura Viudas, whose baronial walls date back to the 11^th Century, but where cava making is 21^st Century cutting edge. The invitation was one of the first moves in a practical and PR riposte to adverse criticism that DO Cava was being subjected to at the time – Like Star Wars, the Empire was striking back! And the force was certainly with my host.

This year, 2015, there has been no slacking. DO Cava, with Señor Bonet at the helm continues to battle stormy seas, but because of his stewardship, the waters are calming. Although there has yet been no Governmental confirmation of the keenly sought new designation (a breaking wine news scoop discussed in this column in 2015, which would enable some cava producers to apply for the epithet Cava de Paraje Calificado) there have nevertheless been further moves, overseen by our Wine Man of the Year 2015.

I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to assist, albeit in a small way – this year I was asked once again to present the Cava Dinner on the Costa Blanca, where my remit was to help Señor Bonet introduce or reintroduce consumers to, what is now being called, Premium Cavas. Essentially those cavas which are classed as Reserva or Gran Reserva are now being referred to by this phrase. They are not the bargain basement supermarket cavas, which are about as representative of cava as the red stuff in supermarket plastic bottles are of Spanish wine!

Señor Bonet continues to be unflinching in his determination to place cava, once again in the same bracket as the other great sparkling wines of the world. Thus, he deserves the title above!

My next award is bestowed upon another grandee of the Spanish wine business, an individual who opened up a hornets nest in the middle of Spain’s most famous wine producing area, DOCa Rioja! Juan Carlos López de Lacalle of Bodegas Artadi, whose Viña el Pisón, at about £400, has the distinction of being one of Spain’s most expensive wines, is another of my ‘Wine People of the Year 2015’.

Over the 19+ years I’ve been writing Cork Talk I’ve not always been full of praise for Rioja wines. Whilst there are producers of wonderful Rioja (I give you my recent article on Bodedgas Marqués de Murrieta, for example, plus another soon on Bodegas Muga) there is also a lot of dross that really does not deserve to be called Rioja.

Winemakers within Rioja who have been striving against being automatically linked to the huge ‘brand’ producers, and therefore having their quality questioned, have finally convinced the Consejo Regulador to act. One man bit the bullet. Early in 2015, the Rioja press was aghast when Señor López de Lacalle announced he would be leaving the DOCa! From the 2014 vintage all Artadi wines will be labelled as Vino de Mesa, and will not carry the Rioja name or official back label stamp.

‘We need different tools to express the thousands of different styles of Rioja,’ De Lacalle said.*

La Rioja is made up of three different zones: Rioja Alavesa; Alta; and Baja. If we consider just one of those zones, it can quickly be seen that there are huge differences within the demarcated area in terms of micro-climate, altitude, soils and so on. Then multiply that by three and it’s so obvious that simply having ‘Rioja’ on the label gives practically no clue as to the nature of the wine within the bottle.

Add to this the fact that Rioja wine can be made from grapes sourced from any, and indeed all three of these sub-zones, and it’s glaringly clear that Rioja wine can suffer something of an identity crisis, where it’s the blender who becomes more important than the vineyard.

The owner of the aforementioned Bodegas Marqués de Murrieta, Vicente Cebrián emphasises the point, ‘The system implies that everything starts when the wine is in barrel or bottle. There’s no emphasis on the vineyard.’

Alvaro Palacios, arguably Spain’s leading winemaker, has added his support to Señor Lopez de Lacalle’s call for change in La Rioja. Palacios succeeded in changing the system in Priorat (where he makes Spain’s equal-most expensive wine, L’Ermita) to accept the different village designations and he’d like the same in DOCa Rioja.

‘We need a pyramid of quality, with country wine at the bottom, then regional, then the villages, then specific plots within the villages.’

I’m told that, soon, in the new year, the Consejo Regulador DOCa Rioja will come up with a plan to keep everyone happy, including, hopefully, we consumers. So, my praise to Señor López de Lacalle, for starting the barrel rolling.

Finally on my list of three ‘Wine People of the Year 2015’ comes Señor Andres Proensa, who is from my own world of the media (more exciting news on this soon?!). Passionate, committed and driven are all words that correctly describe Señor Proensa, though perhaps the most telling would be ‘impartial’.

A Spanish Wine expert and journalist, Señor Proensa is responsible for what are, for me, the best Spanish Wine Guide and the best Spanish Wine Magazine – respectively the Guía Proensa and PlanetAVino. And it’s in both of these publications that the word ‘impartial’ becomes key. I believe Señor Proensa tells it like it is, objectively, with no hidden agenda.

When describing and marking wines he neither talks them up or down, he’s entirely on the level! Plus, in his editorials it can easily be seen that he inhabits the area around the coalface with sharp cutting edge and well informed investigative journalism. Not much gets past Señor Proensa and his team, and he’s not at all afraid to court criticism and blow the whistle (I’m going for the world record in metaphor use here!).

So, here you have it, three of the movers and shakers in the Spanish wine world – my three ‘Wine People of the Year 2015’.

* My thanks to Adam Lechmere of Decanter Magazine for some of the above information.

Contact Colin: colin@colinharknessonwine.com www.colinharknessonwine.com Twitter @colinonwine Facebook Colin Harkness

Cava Video Comment

Many thanks for the excellent description of the Brut Nature Cava Reserva . . .

Many thanks for the excellent description of the Brut Nature Cava Reserva [please see below]. Shame that we don’t know the producer or where to buy some. I was lucky enough to be at the cava dinner you referred to and enjoyed it immensely. Shame about the denim shirt though – I got rid of all mine years ago!

Mick

Monastrell – El Congreso Internacional!

Having received my invitation a couple of months ago, I was lucky enough to be one of the 600+ wine professionals to attend the hugely successful Monastrell Congress organised by D.O. Alicante

CELEBRATING MONASTRELL

@ EL CONGRESO INTERNACIONAL DE MONASTRELL

Having received my invitation a couple of months ago, I was lucky enough to be one of the 600+ wine professionals to attend the hugely successful Monastrell Congress organised by D.O. Alicante and held in the City’s very impressive Auditorio Provincial de Alicante (ADDA).

Wine makers, agricultural experts, university professors, sommeliers, officials of several D.Os., government ministers, journalists and bloggers, all of many different nationalities were there to celebrate, Monastrell. The grape variety indigenous to SE Spain, but in fact grown in many areas of Spain as well as several different countries of both the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. I’m sure I wasn’t the only onlooker to be more than satisfied that at last Monastrell is being given the acknowledgement that it surely deserves.

Readers may remember an article I wrote on my return from Cahors, France, in the Summer. Whilst there I couldn’t help but be enthused by the pride that the locals felt in their prized grape variety, Malbec. Everywhere one went there were references to Malbec in a soft, but determined, ‘sell’ of the variety which makes wine that used to be known as the Black Wines of Cahors! It was infectious!

Now is the time of Monastrell, the fourth most grown variety in Spain. Out of the 90 Denominaciónes de Origen recognised in Spain there are 24 where Monastrell is a permitted variety, including D.O. Cava. Plus there are another 47 officially recognised areas of production where Monastrell is used.

It is most prolific here in the autonomous regions of South East Spain, where Murcia has the largest vineyard area under Monastrell, followed by Castilla la Mancha and then Valencia. D.O. Jumilla grows the most Monastrell, with 68% of its vineyards to Monastrell, then come D.Os., in order: Alicante, Yecla, Bullas, Valencia, Almansa and Manchuela.

Regarding exporting wines made with Monastrell, Yecla leads the way with 68% of its wines going overseas, with Valencia and Jumilla coming 2^nd and third respectively.

But it’s not just Spain where Monastrell is grown, albeit often called by its synonyms: Mourvédre, and Mataró (though there are in fact over 90 more names for this grape variety!). Monastrell is 14^th in terms of worldwide production – with France boasting the second largest (Mourvédre) production, to Spain. In the USA and Australia it’s called Mataró and it’s also grown in Greece, Malta and Cyprus.

Monastrell is a late ripening variety. It’s happy in vineyards at 400 – 850 metres above sea level with dry soils where there is little rain and few nutrients, and in climates where temperatures are high during the growing season. Given the correct climate and soils it is resistant to botrytis as well as to pests, with little ‘vine treatment’ i.e. spraying deemed necessary. Its grapes are highly coloured producing aromatic wines that have high tannin levels, making the wine fit for ageing, as well as being an excellent bedfellow for other varieties (a common blend is GSM, Garnacha, Syrah and Monastrell). You can see why it’s so popular in Southern Spain, where it has adapted perfectly!

In Spain you’ll find that most Monastrell was grown ‘en vaso’, as bush vines. Once called ‘goblet’ vines because of their similar shape to the ‘Paris Goblet’ shaped wine glasses, these are vines that have stood the test of time. Often planted before trellising was thought of in Spain, the vines have adapted to the conditions, with their shape helping the production of good, healthy grapes as it provides some shade in the fierce sun.

Why change a winning team? Well, with the onset of climate change growers are looking at alternatives. Trellising is being used more often with new plantings. This will allow a better circulation of cooling air, with the grape-bearing ‘arms’ of the vine being orientated the way the grower wants (North/South is best), plus the ‘sombra’ (shade) can still be present by careful leaf pruning.

The prediction is that both forms will continue, with maybe trellising being used even more as we approach the mid-point of this century, and beyond.

Regular readers will know that I am a great fan of Monastrell. It’s often included in Cork Talk, either as a mono-varietal or as part of a blend. When judging the wines of D.O. Yecla and D.O. Bullas (and probably D.O. Jumilla as well in 2016) as well as other Spanish wines containing Monastrell in the mix, I never faiol to be delighted by its contribution to the taste and aroma profiles of the wines.

I couldn’t resist tasting some of the Spanish Monastrell wines that I already know (I told you, I like it!) but for research purposes I also tasted others that I do not know very well, or not at all. Plus, I was excited to try Australian Monastrell (Mataró) as well as the rose by another name, the French Mourvédre, the latter in the form of AOC Bandol wines from southern France, whose regulations stipulate that at least 50% of all red wines must be Monastrell!

There’s no space to include my notes on all but . . .

I must admit (though I’m sure my Spanish friends will understand) that I went first for an Australian Monastrell (called Mourvédre in this case). Grown where Philoxera didn’t make it, the Hewitson Old Garden 2012 comes from vines planted – are you ready for this – in 1853! The soils are amongst the oldest on the planet and the Hewitson vineyard is believed to be the oldest Monastrell vineyard in the world!

At 150 AUD (Australian Dollars – you do the maths, I’ve got a bad knee!) you’d expect the wine to be fine, the more so, given its pedigree – and you wouldn’t be wrong! It’s been judicially aged in French oak and has a colour far lighter that the Monastrell wines of Spain. Perfumed, elegant, excellent!

The French AOC Bandol wines were an interesting contrast, though it’s a mite frustrating, as is often the case with French wines, to such scant information on the labels. Bandol wines must have at least 50% Mourvédre in the blend, but it wasn’t clear at all if there were any that were 100% Mouvédre, nor in many cases were any of the varieties mentioned. Sorry, but it’s a failing of French wines, in my opinion – consumers who are becoming increasingly more savvy like to know this information.

I also liked (among many others) DO Almansa’s Bodegas Piqueras Valcanto 100 – a wine to commemorate the bodega’s centenary!