NORTHERN SPAIN – FROM LEFT TO RIGHT
With the greatest amount of land under vine, and as the third largest producer of wine amongst all countries, Spain has sooooooo much to offer! Though most wine drinkers most-commonly associate the country with red wines, it has plenty to offer in white, fortified, sweet, dry and sparkling styles. This week’s snapshot is admittedly very classically-oriented; iconic regions represented each by iconic producers…
Granbazán, Etiqueta Verde Albariño
Starting in Galicia within view of the Atlantic Ocean, this is ‘green Spain’. Perhaps it should be mentioned that Galicia is not rife with envy, rather this is a very wet area of the country and there’s a great deal of vegetation. Too much rain is not generally as beneficial as one may believe in the vineyard. In fact, it can thin out top soil, encourage mold, mildew and rot, lead to flimsy, unbalanced, particularly acid forward wines, and actually discourage the roots of the vines from digging deeply into the soil. The system chosen to mitigate these perilous scenarios here is either pergola training of the vines (using human-made structures over the vineyard to encourage fruit to grow upwards and stay away from the wet ground) or in the case of our first wine, Parra, as in the case of the 2020 Grandbazán ‘Etiqueta Verde Albariño’, Rias Baixas . At altitudes 100 m. above sea level, in granitic soil, and with healthy solar orientation and deep roots encouraged by greater aeration thanks to the Parra (see above) this is finely tuned, classic Albariño with bright citrus notes, noticeable minerality, hints of underripe pears and a slightly saline character. Easy-drinking at 12% alcohol by volume, as is quite common this VEGAN-FRIENDLY number can be sipped in the sun (or the rain) and is good pals with the typical Galician fare of light, fresh seafood and shellfish. It’s also pretty killer with goat cheese and salt cod croquettas.
Bodegas R. Lopez de Heredia Viña Tondonia, Viña Cubillo Rioja Crianza
Travelling east (that is this week’s theme afterall) we stumble upon the historically significant port town of Haro on the Ebro River. Why is it historically significant? Its port is to thank for successful trade routes to England and said success is to ‘thank’ for that altogether adorable way the British tend to say [REE-OH-KAH]. With three general subzones – Rioja Alta (where Haro is), Rioja Oriental (referred to previously as Rioja Baja) and Rioja Alavesa, there are a number of unique pockets of terroir and sub-cultures and a good deal of high-end producers. One of my personal favorite producers in Rioja is R. Lopez de Heredia, especially their Blancos and their nearly impossible to find, Rosado. Rioja is most typically associated with red wines based on the Tempranillo grape, so-named because it is early-ripening (temprano = early) with smaller proportions of Garnacho/Garnatxa (Grenache), Graciano, and Mazuelo (Carignan). The 2013 R.Lopez de Heredia ‘Viña Cubillo’, Rioja is designated as a ‘Crianza’ which is a term used to indicate the wine has been aged a minimum of three years year, having spent a minimum of one year in oak barrels. However, RLH released their Crianza after NINE YEARS!!! The result is a wine that opens up with an assortment of stewed red and black berries and distinct earthy tones of sweet tobacco and mushrooms. The extended aging in American oak barrels (all sourced from the Appalachian Mountains), gives the wine a slight herbaceous quality found in the expression of dill specifically. Decant this wine and enjoy with tapas of the non-shellfish variety.
Make it stand out
Llicorella…say it with me! [YEE-Ko-Ray-Uh] is what gives Priorat its notoriously sturdy character. These are pretty big wines, generally, that consist traditionally of Garnatxa and Cariñena grown at reasonably high altitude in a soil of black slate and quartz. The expression, “There are always exceptions to rules,” certainly applies to wines furthermore in today’s modern world of innovation and undeniable climate change. The 2019 Celler Mas Doix ‘Les Crestes’, Priorat, is one such exception. Hailing from younger, fruitier vines and a product of a warmer vintage such as 2019 in the region, this wine is seemingly more approachable than others bearing the same geographical and viticultural origin. They have also included a small dose of Syrah at 10% which rounds out the tannins…let’s call them sweet tannins, but rest assured this wine is definitely dry, bold and hails from organically farmed vineyards subject to meticulous care. In the winery, this guy spends just eight months in second-use French oak barrels leading to freshness and fruitiness that is more welcoming in youth than many others that hail from here. Grill a New York Strip, roast some potatoes, sautée some green veggies….enjoy the sabor.
Avinyó, Reserva Brut Rosé
Finally…we’ve reached the east coast!!! We are in Penedès [PEN-uh-desh] in Catalonia. This is Cava country. Like Champagne, Cava is subject to the traditional method which puts a still wine in a bottle along with some unfermented grape must (sugary) and a bit of yeast which then gets a crown cap like a beer bottle to hold in the byproduct of this ‘secondary fermentation’…BUBBLES (and about 1% of alcohol by volume). After varying degrees of time on contact with the wine’s yeast cells or lees, the resulting sparkling wine is submerged just at the neck into solution which freezes the mixture of wine and yeast, the desired sweetness level (if there is any) is adjusted and now we have a cork held under cage. Cava is generally a bit lighter in concentration than Champagne, which is worth noting comes from a very cool growing region that is pretty land-locked with quite different soil and Cava, is definitely NOT Champagne. It is however an exceptional alternative with a great quality to value ratio. The organically-farmed, estate grown 2019 Avinyó, Reserva Brut Rosé is 100% Pinot Noir that sees just 8 hours of skin contact and 18 months of lees contact. It’s fun and soft and has an elegant mouthfeel. It is also incredibly friendly with a wide variety of food or if you want to just pop the cork and enjoy…DO IT!
Please drop by to grab some of these beauties, or just to say hi and see what else we have going on…and bring your puppy!!!!!
Thanks for tuning in to NORTHERN SPAIN – WEST TO EAST! Who knows where we are going next? – no seriously, I haven’t decided yet! (lol)
Cheers,
Todd