My apologies – technical problems, soon to be overcome (hopefully!), mean that for the moment I am unable to post articles that I have written. This explains why I am, regrettably, woefully behind with the articles from the Costas News etc and why there have been no additions to the Articles Page of my website for too long. I am trying to solve the problem, please be patient. Thanks, Colin
Category: Articles
First published Costa News SL October 2011
PRIMERO
SPAIN’S BEST CARBONIC MACERATION WINE?
You have to hand it to the French. There’s many a maiden who can testify to the power of Gallic charm and persuasiveness, of course. But it’s not just the fair sex which has a history of being taken in by heavily accented French Lotharios.
The wine buying consumers of the 60s/70s were desperate to drink Beaujolais Nouveaux following a Napoleon-scaled (I’m referring to his egotistical expansion plans, not his height!) advertising campaign which saw famous Thespians/Models/Celebs racing to bring back the first bottle direct from the vineyards of Beaujolais in: a vintage Rolls Royce, a Hot-Air Balloon (perhaps inflated by the instigator of the campaign!), an F1 racing car of the era, you name it!
And the quality of the wine? Well, the French didn’t want it – say no more! The stuff that was shipped over to us ill-informed Brits was the dregs of the barrels, made from the last percentage of juice from over crushed grapes which had been ejected at the selection tables where only the finest Gamay grapes were chosen to make the super and at times, excellent, Beaujolais Villages and Beaujolais Cru wines.
But Nouveaux and Cru did have one thing in common – they were made by the Carbonic Maceration method, a way of making wine invented and perfected by the French and producing, for Villages and Cru standard et least, a remarkably fresh, brightly-coloured, light-bodied, fruity style of wine, adored by the French themselves and by those Brits who weren’t taken in by the hype!
Carbonic Maceration is where whole bunches are carefully placed into fermentation tanks so that the skin does not break and release juice. Carbon Dioxide is then pumped into the tank to expel oxygen and provide a different atmosphere in which the grapes macerate and where the still whole berries start to develop ethanol and various attractive flavour compounds. Fermentation then takes place but with the juice and grapes surrounded by Carbon Dioxide instead of oxygen. The result is a distinctive wine as described above.
It’s not just France that uses this method, Spain is doing the same. A number of bodegas intent on keeping their heads above the rising tide of shrinking sales are looking for ways of maintaining, and hopefully expanding, their market share. In these days when lighter bodied, fruit-driven red wines are in vogue, Carbonic Maceration wines are seen as a beneficial addition to the bodegas’ portfolio.
I’ve tasted lots here in Spain, all properly crafted and using grapes of the regions but for me, they mostly don’t reach the same pleasure levels as those made from the Gamay grape back in Beaujolais. Perhaps it’s a personal taste thing (though as an impartial and professional wine taster it shouldn’t be) or maybe it’s that the grape varieties used just are not as happy with the method as Gamay clearly is.
However there are exceptions where winemakers have managed to produce wine in a similar style to good Beaujolais using the same, or maybe slightly adapted Carbonic Maceration method, but with a different spin provided by the variety used. I’ve tasted some good ones too.
For me the best in Spain, by a distance, is Bodegas Fariña’s Primero, from the DO Toro, where Tinta de Toro is the variety used as it too seems content with this ‘foreign’ fermentation method. However, I need to add a rather odd codicil here.
On the back of the Primero label they proudly proclaim that this wine is available in the November following the harvest in September, that’s just two months from vine to glass! It’s quite remarkable I know, but for me this is not the best time to drink Carbonic Maceration wine. I tasted Primero 2010 very early last year, I think in December. I liked it but it didn’t quite seem to be the finished article.
In June this year I tasted another bottle, and wow, it’s lovely! As is said, the best Carbonic Maceration red wine in Spain!
The wine has a combination of red and dark red fruits (loganberry with blackberry) which remain in the mouth long after the wine has been swallowed. This is the mark of a good wine, but usually one that has had some oak influence. This makes Primero all the more remarkable as it has seen no oak. It is simply the evolution in the bottle that gives it this rounded, full-flavoured and yet light-bodied taste, feel and length.
And there’s another clue too – the 2010 vintage was excellent in most wine producing areas of Spain following a year of practically perfect growing and harvesting conditions. Obviously the grapes used for Primero 2010 were as good as it gets!
First Published in Costa News SL September 2011
BARBAROT
VINO D’AUTOR DE LA RIOJA, DE PALACIOS!
Last week’s article (www.costa-news.com click Cork Talk) dealt with Señor Antonio Palacios, my good fortune in befriending such a warm family and first class wine educators, plus of course his excellent MdeT La Rioja wine. I also alluded to the wine made by the next generation of this, the most famous wine-making family of Spain.
Was it destiny that shaped Bárbara Palacios’ life? A typically modest shrug of the shoulders accompanied by her charming smile and the statement that she simply loves making wine, was all the answer I needed. With a wealth of family tradition, knowledge and experience behind her, Bárbara went willingly to Bordeaux to study oenology (including working at Chateau Margaux, et al) and thence to Australia, New Zealand, Italy, Chile, Argentina and California seeking out even more wine-making understanding and methodology. The result is almost an encyclopaedic cognition of wine-crafting!
Not that there is anything nurdy about Bárbara – look for example at the name of her super first wine, Barbarot. Then look at the back label (you must also visit www.barbarot-wines.com) – there’s a charming hand-drawn picture of a little girl holding onto a lovely dog, Golden Retriever actually, with whom we walked the vineyards, and whose name is Merlot. Yes, you guessed it – Barbarot is a combination of her name and that of her adoring dog!
Barbarot is a limited production wine, the small quantities mean that at present it is only sold in the La Rioja region. However, with the acclaim it is receiving it surely cannot be long before distributors are forming an orderly queue (oh no, that’s a British thing!) outside her door asking for pallets of the wine to sell on. Watch this space and then watch your local wine shop!
The vineyards that supply the grapes for Barbarot are located just about as far north that you can go in the DOCa La Rioja. Behind them the Cantabrian mountains (also drawn on the label) rise to touch the sky and in August the sun beats down (mercilessly, even at 6pm when we visited, causing Merlot to seek the shade of the neatly trimmed vines, uncharacteristically ignoring any possibility of a rabbit chase!). About an hour later, almost every night, relief from the grape-ripening sunshine arrives in the form of cooling breezes, covertly adding a touch of acidity to the finished wine.
The limestone soil, similar to that of St. Emilion, plays host mostly to Tempranillo, Prince of La Rioja, but also to, you guessed it again, Merlot. Special dispensation has been given to the Palacios family to use a little of this, Consejo Regulador unapproved, variety in their wines. It’s addition is crucial.
Merlot brings colour, aroma, freshness and finesse but also, from these specific vineyards, it arrives with a lower Ph. and this is significant. Sulphur, used in all wine-making, acts much more powerfully when used with a lower Ph. Therefore, using Merlot in the blend also means that less sulphur is needed, hence an altogether different flavour and nose.
On the back label you will see (you can order via the website above by the way) that the wine is a DOCa La Rioja Cosecha wine. It’s a touch confusing – this is the prosaic, generic term that indicates that the wine is simply a young Rioja wine. As yet the Consejo Regulador hasn’t approved a more pragmatic and informative suggestion that wines such as Barbarot should be called, for example Cosecha Vino D’Autor.
For that’s what Barbarot is – a wine containing the oenologist’s fingerprint as well as the terroir in and under which the Barbarot’s vines grow. It is an expression of all that’s good in La Rioja, all the Palacios know-how plus all the passion of its creator.
12 months in American, Spanish and French oak and a further time in bottle have enabled this intense ruby coloured, well structured and balanced wine to mature into a sensual, silky, fruit driven Rioja with plum and damson jam notes and fresh acidity. It’s drinking perfectly now!
First Published Costa News SL, Sept. 2011
PALACIOS
The name Palacios commands immediate respect and admiration in the Wine World. Not just in Spain, but everywhere in the world where the humble grape, guided by man’s hand, makes the delicious nectar we call wine. However there are some wines that taste as if there has also been some divine intervention along the way.
Witness, if you will, the stratospherically priced L’Ermita from DO Priorat and the, as yet less well known, but also stunning (and thankfully much more accessibly priced) X de T, from Rioja Alta. Each has the Palacios stamp. Each is a nectar fit for the gods! (Witness also Barbarot, DOCa La Rioja – but that’s next week’s article!).
Two of my fellow judges in the recent Albariño Cata-Concurso in Galicia’s DO Rias Baixas (see www.costa-news.com click Cork Talk) were none other than Señor Antonio Palacios, Presidente of the Federacion Española de Asociaciones de Enologos, and his charming daughter Barbara, representing the next generation of gifted Palacios winemakers. Imagine how delighted I was to be able to spend some time with such an esteemed expert in wine making as Señor Palacios. Imagine too, my pleasure in accepting (with considerable alacrity, I can tell you!) his invitation to visit his vineyards, stay in the family house and taste some of his wines!
There surely could not be a better teacher than Antonio Palacios, himself, in his younger days, a student of the fabled Professor Émile Peynaud, the most respected winemaker and wine educator of his generation. Add this to the Palacios family’s wealth of traditional wine-making knowledge and you have one of the best winemakers in the world! The opportunity to tap into this vast pool of learning, whilst also developing a friendship, was irresistible. A pilgrim of a different kind, though equally fervent, I turned right at Santiago de Compostella and headed east along the Camino de Santiago, firstly to Haro, La Rioja.
Then we drove along charming country roads past beautiful coloured stone villages stopping just outside the village of Avalos at what must be the most fascinating and certainly the oldest bodega in Rioja, and probably in Spain. Entering the 16th Century Bodega (the exact date is impossible to determine, there are those who believe it to be 1,000 years old!) is like taking a giant step back into vinous history.
Hewn out of solid rock, the same colour as those all around the area, but darkened with age and centuries of red wine-making, the temperature is naturally kept at a constant 14ºC all year round, perfect for making and storing wine. Two 600 litre Spanish oak barrels, reserved for the small but significant contribution of Merlot, are reposing in the dim light to the left; whilst the centre-piece is the 7,000 litre oak foudre where the Tempranillo that makes the lion’s share of X de T wine, pride of Antonio, will be soon fermenting the 2011 vintage.
The two varieties are fermented separately after a long cold maceration (where the skins remain in contact with the juice to extract flavour, tannin and colour). The Tempranillo is eventually joined by the Merlot in the foudre where further, post-fermentation, maceration takes place. This addition fills the foudre, ridding it of oxygen.
A longer drive took us then to Rioja Baja and the town of Alfaro where we were to stay with the Palacios family after a super dinner cooked by Antonio’s wife, Casilda (whose family, in days gone by owned the village of Avalos) and served with X de T 2004, the first vintage of this superb wine!
X de T (named after the aristocratic owner of the ancient bodega, the Marques de Ximinez de Tejada, is a deeply coloured, perfectly structured and balanced, full and yet elegant red wine. A shining example of what extraordinarily good wine can be produced in the hallowed vineyards of La Rioja. A touch of minerality on the nose is joined by full fruit, mostly dark but with perhaps some soft red fruit nuances and a little spice and vanilla too. Fermented and aged in oak, one might expect the wood to dominate the fruit, but no, it’s a harmonious and perfectly balanced relationship. Mature tannin and a lick of acidity ensure that this wine has time on its side too