Tag Archives: Spain

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Mourvèdre Monday #4: Juan Gil 2007

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This is the fourth installment of Mourvèdre Monday, VINEgeek’s yearlong deep-dive into the Mourvèdre/Monastrell/Mataro grape. Check out the other posts in the series here.

After I announced that 2010 would be The Year of Mourvedre here at VINEgeek Enterprises, I got lots of great recommendations from my fellow winos. This bottle was suggested by @Sonadora of Wannabe Wino blog.

Producer: Juan Gil

Grapes: 100% Monastrell (the Spanish name for Mourvèdre)

Appellation: Jumilla (say who-ME-ya)

Vintage: 2007

Vineyards: From estate vineyards of 40+ years of age. Soil: “shallow, chalky soils on a bed of limestone and rock”

Winemaking: 12 months in French oak barrels (not sure what % new)

Alcohol: 15%

Price: I paid $12 at Spec’s in Austin.

My tasting notes: Very deep color. On the nose I get dusty red and black fruit accented by a rich, chocolate/mocha note, mint and a spicebox character. There’s also a touch of greenness, as if you could smell the grape stems. In the mouth, it delivers ripe plummy/blackberry fruit, a brighter blueberry note and a touch of earth with chewy, grippy tannins in a full-bodied package. Enough acid on the finish and good, spicy length, though the alcohol can be felt in a sort of cool-mint kind of way. It really opens up with time in the glass and on the second day.

Overall impression: A rich, heady mouthful of flavor that avoids crossing the line into fruit bomb territory, yet delivers “oomph” for a reasonable price. B/B+

Free association: Something about this wine makes me think of Mr. T as B. A. Baracus. According to Wikipedia, in Spain he was known as Mario Baracus. Awesome.

"I pity the fool that don't appreciate Monastrell."

More info:

This wine was scored 90 points by Josh Raynolds, for Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar.

Check out the chalky soil and gnarly vines (note: I don’t know for sure if this photo is of the vineyards used for this bottling or other Juan Gil bottles):

Price: Over 20 bucks, Tasting Notes

Oddball Wine of the Week: Ribeira Sacra

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I only became aware of this Spanish wine region back in July from Eric Asimov’s terrific article in the New York Times. Take a few minutes to click through and read it. Go on. I’ll wait here.

Ok, pretty cool, huh? Remote/undiscovered wine region. Indigenous grapes. Ancient wine-making tradition. Dramatic terrain. Winemakers who care about doing it the “right” way. The line that really got me was the quote from one of the region’s winemakers, who said: “There are two types of winemakers: those who want to make money and those who want to make wine.” Come on. It’s almost too good to be true.

Ever since I read the article, I’ve been on the lookout for one of these wines and I found this one at the Austin Wine Merchant. Let’s see if it lives up to my romanticized expectations.

Viña Caneiro 2007

Producer: D. Ventura

Grapes: 100% Mencía (once thought to be same as Cab Franc, but not so)

Appellation: Ribeira Sacra (DO, Spain)

Vineyard: Vina de Doade. 80+ year old vines on steep terraces above the river Sil. Slate/Losa soils.

Vintage: 2007

Winemaking: Stainless steel fermentation with indigenous yeasts. Unfiltered.

Alcohol: 13%

Price: $26

My tasting notes: The wine serves up minerally, dusty, slightly green aromas on top of red fruit. In the mouth it’s medium-bodied with a silky, polished texture and bright, clear, fresh fruit that’s “sweet” without been candied. There is a strong mineral, smoky and herbal character to the wine that is just a great balance and accent to the juicy fruit. Really nice.

Overall impression: I’d love to split a bottle of this with someone who drinks mostly big, dense, high-alcohol red monster wines and turns their noses up a “lighter” reds. I think this one is pretty seductive. As is the backstory. By all means, try to find this wine and re-read the NYT story while you enjoy it. A-

Maybe that’s a bit high, but I’m digging this wine tonight. Also, it’s not exactly a bargain at $26 …but I’d like to see you farm those terraces.

Free association: As regular readers know, my free associations are usually not very literal; they’re often metaphorical, geeky and/or obscure. Here though, my mind is just stuck on those amazing terraced vineyards and the idyllic story. So…

Photos from RibeiraSacra.org.

More info:

500 cases produced.

Price: 10 bucks or less, Tasting Notes

Mourvedre Monday #3: Casa Castillo 2007

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I’m still sort of tip-toeing into this Mourvèdre Monday series. I’m saving the big guns for later in the year and I’m sticking with a bargain Spanish bottle again this week. This one got 90 points from Parker and Tanzer, so let’s check it out.

Producer: Casa Castillo

Grapes: 100% Monastrell (Mourvèdre)

Appellation: Jumilla (DO, Spain)

Vineyards: From dry-farmed estate vineyards on the valley floor and lower slopes, with sandy clay soils. The vines are relatively young (up to 22 years old) and are bush vines, not trellised (see photos below).

Vintage: 2007

Winemaking: Fermented with natural yeast. The wine spent six months in 3rd-year oak: 80% in 500-liter French oak barrels and 20% in 225-liter American oak barrels. (The latter size are the more common — these days anyway — Bordeaux-style “barriques”, the kind you probably have seen on a winery tour.)

Alcohol: 14%

Price: $9

My tasting notes: On the nose, I get bright berry fruit and spice, but also definite whiffs of horse stable and even body odor (thankfully fleeting). On the palate, the wine is high-toned with vibrant cherry, blueberry and raspberry flavors with a strong herbal edge, a bit of minerality, good acidity, and dry tannins. The herbal, high-acid character of this wine is almost Italianate to me. It really smoothes out nicely by the second glass and becomes almost sexy.

Overall impression: Very nice. I wasn’t sold on the first glass, but the second won me over. This wine is more high-toned and “fresh” than I expect from a Mourvèdre/Monastrell (especially Jumilla), but I really like it. A nice bargain wine, just give it some air. B+

Free association: Lois Lane as a centaur…

More info:

This wine scored 90 points from Parker and Tanzer. Meanwhile Gary V delivered a beatdown to this wine during his NYC week earlier this year, giving it a 68! (I bet it was a pop-n-pour situation.)

Photos of the vineyards that this bottle is sourced from:

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Mourvèdre Monday #1: Barahonda Monastrell 2006

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Just after the New Year, I decided to make 2010 ‘The Year of Mourvèdre‘ for VINEgeek and pledged to institute Mourvèdre Mondays. For this, the first installment, I didn’t want to begin with a top-dog wine (Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape, for example), mostly because I didn’t want the rest of the year to seem like a letdown. I want to ease into this thing. We’ve got 50 weeks to go, dear readers. So I decided to go with an affordable bottle from Spain, where Mourvèdre (or Monastrell as they call it) originated. And fittingly for the first installment, we start with a winery whose “major ambition is to reveal the great potential of wines made with 100% Monastrell.”

Producer: Señorio de Barahonda

Grapes: 100% Monastrell

Appellation: Yecla (DO, Spain). 85% of the grapes grown in this region are Monastrell, according to the Oxford Companion to Wine (2006).

Vineyards: Barahonda owns 840 acres of vineyards in Yecla, with 500 planted to Monastrell. The age of the vines range from 15-120 years. The soils are composed of limestone and chalk topsoil with clay and gravel subsoil.

Winemaking: No oak treatment. (They do a version called Barahonda Barrica which sees time in oak and gets some Cab blended in.)

Alcohol: 15%

Price: I paid $13 at Central Market, but I see it online for $10.

My tasting notes: Rich blackberry jam and earth notes on the nose. More blackberry and maybe cherry flavors on the palate with a sort of meaty, roasted fruit quality. It’s somewhat soft-textured in the mid-palate, but not flabby. There’s a nice little prickle of minerality and acidity at the end. It finishes with a bit of tannic grip and some definite heat from the 15% abv.

Overall impression: A solid start to Mourvèdre Mondays. Tasty dark fruit with some character. If you can get it for around $10, that’s a good value. B-

Free association:

Image credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/drwhimsy/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

More info:

Other reviews at CellarTracker.

Some nice photos from the Barahonda website:

Price: 16-20 bucks, Tasting Notes

Oddball Wine of the Week: Prieto Picudo

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Pardevalles ‘Gamonal’ Prieto Picudo 2006

Pardevalles_Gamonal_2006Producer: Vinedos y Bodega Pardevalles

Grapes: 100% Prieto Picudo – Google Translate converts this to both ‘acacia weevil’ and ‘billfish’. However, the importer’s website says it means “bunched and peaked” for the way the grapes grow in a very tight cluster and the bunches taper sharply at the bottom. I prefer acacia weevil.

Appellation: Tierra de León (DO, Spain)

Vineyards: Gamonal – a 16-hectare (about 40 acres) dry-farmed, hand-harvested vineyard of alluvial and clay soils.

Winemaking: The wine underwent malolactic fermentation in new French and American oak, then spent another 9 months in new oak barrels (50% French Allier and 50% American oak). Unfiltered.

Alcohol: 14%

Price: $19.10

My tasting notes: A dark purple color, though not especially dense. A complex nose with scents of dusty flowers, red berries and (just like it says on the back label) “fallen leaves and freshly turned earth”. It is lively on the palate, with Luden’s-like cherry and blackberry flavors predominating with an herbal and mineral edge. Modest tannins and plenty of acidity, but it maintains a nice, polished mouthfeel. It has good length on the finish. I’m finding this wine is growing on me with each sip.

Overall assessment: Not necessarily a value play at nearly $20, but a very nice wine. B/B+

Free association:

ludens

Photo credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/bessicajach/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

More info:

Only 2000 cases of this wine were produced.

This wine was rated 90 points by Wine & Spirits and Wine Advocate, and 87 by Wine Spectator.

Reviews at CellarTracker and The Spanish Table in Berkeley.

An acacia weevil:

AcaciaWeevil

Price: 10 bucks or less, Tasting Notes

Can Petit Verdot, Tannat and Spain Harmonize?

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There is very little information about this wine online. It’s not even listed on the importer’s website and the winery’s blog doesn’t say much more than what’s on the label. But it got 90+ points from Jay Miller in the Wine Advocate so I guess that’s why it ended up at Costco. When I saw that it was Petit Verdot and Tannat from Spain and it was 10 bucks, I couldn’t resist.

cuveeharmoniebottleChapillon Cuvée Harmonie 2006

Producer: Chapillon

Grapes: 90% Petit Verdot, 10% Tannat

Appellation: “Red Wine from Aragon” (Spain)

Vineyards: No info, but some photos from the winery’s blog are at the bottom of this post.

Winemaking: No info

Alcohol: 14%

Price: About $10 at Costco.

My tasting notes: Good dark color with a vibrant red edge. An enjoyable and interesting nose. Initially, I get loads of black pepper and behind that are pine and dusty violet aromas. On the palate, it is very green/herbal/stemmy and dry, with bright (not rich) raspberry and blueberry flavors and a bit of meatiness. A few times I catch a hint of creamy oakiness, but it’s fleeting. I’d say it leans toward medium-bodied.

Overall impression: Pleasant and interesting, though probably not compelling enough to make me seek it out again. I can’t help but think it might be improved with a healthy dose of something richer in the blend. A decent (and cheap) introduction to varietal Petit Verdot, perhaps. C+/B-

Free association:

GreenViolet-EarHummingbird
The Green Violet-Ear Hummingbird

More info:

The winery’s blog reproduces the 90+ point Wine Advocate/Jay Miller review.

Another wine blogger review at The Caveat Emptyer Wine List.

Mean score at CellarTracker is 88.5 (from 9 ratings).

Signalwriter, an ad blogger, didn’t like this wine, but liked the plastic cork.

Importer is Misa Imports, Inc. (Dallas).

Photos of the vineyard:

ChapillonHarmonie_vineyard_photo2

ChapillonHarmonie_vineyard_photo

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Volteo 2008 Viura + Sauvignon Blanc + Viognier

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volteo_vi-vi-sau_2008I typically look for wines with specificity: a single grape variety, a single vineyard, etc. I like to think I can learn more that way and that I’m getting a truer essence of something or other. But I’m also a sucker for interesting blends. I imagine the best qualities of each grape marrying together into a delicious whole. I’m especially a sucker for Viognier in the blend, as I assume it will add that I-could-sniff-this-all-night floral quality to the nose. So that’s how I ended up picking this bottle up on a recent trip to the wine shop.

Before we jump to the wine itself, a quick interjection on the brand name. Volteo is the Spanish name for the sport of “equestrian vaulting.” What the heck is that, you ask? Well it’s as if some gymnasts got stoned and said “Dude, what if the pommel horse was, like … a real horse.”

Now let’s take a look at this wine.

Producer: Volteo

Grapes: 50% Viura, 35% Sauvignon Blanc and 15% Viognier

Appellation: Castilla-La Mancha (Vino de la Tierra, Spain). This is the largest wine region in Spain, producing half of the nation’s wine.

Vineyards: no info

Winemaking: This wine spent some time on the lees before being bottled.

Alcohol: 12.5%

Package: Screwcap. Temperature-sensitive label. Also, there is a graphic on the top of the screwcap that shows the outline of Spain and the region the producer’s wines are from. Kinda cool.

Volteo_screwcap

Price: $11

My tasting notes: It’s mostly appley and pineappley on nose with a bit of lemon pith and hay. There is a softness to the nose like a very light perfume. It’s creamier on the palate with white peach and nectarine flavors. A little citrus at the end and a medium-long finish.

Overall impression: A nicely balanced wine. It doesn’t command your attention with intensity or draw you in with complexity, but it’s an enjoyable sipper. B-

Free association:

LyceumDonQuixote

More info: Importer’s tech sheet.

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Can Blau 2007 Montsant

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CanBlau07_snapshotOkay, maybe you’re getting tired of me posting about Montsant, but I’m going to keep trying them as long as they keep impressing me. Let’s check this one out.

Producer: Cellers Can Blau.  (This wine also bears the label of Jorge Ordoñez Selection, though Tempranillo Inc. is listed as the importer.)

Grapes: 40% Mazuela, 40% Syrah, 20% Garnacha. (Mazuela is a synonym for Carignan, which I was unaware of until researching this post.)

Appellation: D. O. Montsant (Spain)

Vineyards: The Mazuelo was planted in sandy clay, the Syrah in chalky soils and the Garnacha on slate, known as llicorella [from the label]

Winemaking/aging: no info

Alcohol: 14%

Packaging: Beautiful diamond pattern on the label. Looks like an inlaid marble floor you’d see in a palace or something. Real cork closure.

Price: $14

My tasting notes: Nice dark color. Cedar, beef jerky and blueberry on the nose, with some of the alcohol showing through. On the palate, this wine has an inky, dry, slightly stemmy core laced with ripe mixed berry fruit that disappears quickly. Finishes very dry and tannic. This wine throws quite a bit of sediment as well. (It got a bit rounder and more balanced on day two, so I’d recommend decanting this one for a few hours.)

Overall assessment: Interesting how this blend comes together, you get the tannic backbone of the Mazuelo/Carignan, the cedar and meatiness from the Syrah and the Garnacha delivers some fleshy fruit (though not enough, I think). At least that how I imagine the components working together. In the end though, I didn’t find this as satisfying as I’d like. The hollowness of the mid-palette left me hanging, wanting more depth. B-/C+

Free association: The name Can Blau makes me think of this song from Bob Schneider called Blauu.

More info:

Apparently most people liked this wine more than I did, so maybe you will too. It makes me question myself when I see so many gushing reviews of a wine I think is good but not special. But, hey, I gotta call ’em like I see ’em.

Stephen Tanzer gave it 91 pts and Robert Parker gave it 90 pts.

Other blogger reviews at Serge the Concierge, The Rhone Report, and BlogRoom.

More tasting notes at Corkd and Snooth. More people on CellarTracker shared my thoughts on the hollowness of the wine.

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Naia Verdejo 2007 Rueda

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Naia_snapshot1After having a very nice Rueda Verdejo last week, this bottle caught my eye when I was at the wine shop. I opened it for tonight’s penne with pesto, potatoes and green beans.

Producer: Bodegas Naia

Importer: Jorge Ordonez – If you’re ever stuck at a wine shop and not sure what to get, head to the Spanish section and look for this logo on the back label. (Any wine he imports is worth a shot.)

JorgeOrdonezLogo

Grapes: 100% Verdejo

Appellation: D.O. Rueda, Spain (map). The home of Verdejo.

Vineyards: no info

Winemaking/aging: no info

Alcohol: 13%

Price: $11

My tasting notes: A little waxy on the nose with lemon, faint tropical fruit and a little metallic twang. On the palate, I get more lemon, unripe peach and a little spice. Good mouthfeel, it finishes with nice acidity without being tart.

Overall assessment: Not bad at all. It’s a good crisp white wine that’ll go well with lots of food. (It was nice with the pesto pasta dish). If you’re looking for a Rueda Verdejo, though, I like the Valdelainos better. B-

Free association:

More info:

Gary V. tasted this wine on WLTV. Also, check out the episode with Jorge Ordonez.

Wine Enthusiast gave this wine an 88.

23 tasting notes at CellarTracker and 3 at Corkd.

Price: 11-15 bucks, Tasting Notes

Montsant: My New Favorite Spanish Appellation

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After really enjoying the last Montsant wine I tried, I have been on the lookout for more. I saw this one for about $11 and had to give it a try.

Falset 2006 Montsant

Falset06_snapshot2Producer: Falset Marçà

Grapes: 50% Garnacha, 30% Cariñena, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon

Appellation: Montsant (D.O., Spain)

MontsantDO

Vineyards: Vineyards are at 1240 feet with soils of slate, granite, sand, limestone and clay.

Winemaking/aging: Aged in stainless steel.

Alcohol: 13.5%

Package: A rather plain label, but I like that they use the D.O. Montsant logo on the front (appellation pride – woot!)

Price: $10.95

My tasting notes: Not the deepest color. Nose is very mineral-driven: iron and rock dust. Blackberries, too. Cherries, plums and more blackberries on the palate, which manages to feel rich while maintaining a strong core of minerality and acid.

Overall assessment: A very nice, complex, balanced wine. Like the last Montsant wine I reviewed, I love the minerality and complexity you get for a very reasonable price. B

Free association:

ironman_no1

More info: The importer’s winery profile.