Chilling Out

23-Dec-11 - I've been to Rioja four times this year and have been reminded about the way cafés and bars serve the house red - typically a joven but occasionally crianza. It's quite normal for the wine to be kept in the fridge and served chilled, and delicious it is, too. I had thought that chilling for red wines was only suitable for young wines or those with little tannin (lower temperatures tend to coagulate the tannins and overshadow the fruit). I was also reminded that my mother told me when I was in my teens: she preferred red wine chilled, which I thought at the time was rather odd.

At The Eversley we keep wines for immediate consumption in the 'outhouse' as we call it (actually a utility room), which has no heating, and as the colder weather started to gather this past autumn I would habitually take a bottle out in the morning and put it on the kitchen table to warm up to room temperature. On one occasion I forgot to do this, and so opened a bottle for dinner straight from the outhouse.The temperature in the kitchen is usually around 21-24ºC, and the temperature in the outhouse abut 5º cooler. To our surprise, both Jill and I actually preferred the wine at this temperature: it seemed to have a brighter fruit and a crisp freshness - and this was Rioja reserva of 2005. Since then we've tried several other wines at a similar temperature, including a 2001 Priorat, and enjoyed them all.

Perhaps it's time to rethink our attitude to what constitutes the best temperature for red wines. Everybody knows that the phrase 'room temperature' was coined at a time before central heating when rooms were rather cooler than they are now, and it's certainly been an eye-opener for us. I'm not suggesting that we should put our 2008 Barolo in the fridge (tannins probably too heavy at the moment), but part of the joy of the wine world is that there's always something new with which to experiment. Give it a try if you haven't done so already: you may be as pleasantly surprised as we were.

Veni, Sancte Spiritus

19-Dec-11 - Imagine the scene: the great guru sits in the centre of a semicircle of genuflecting acolytes and beautiful women, all worshipping silently. Suddenly, he speaks, and the assembled company cranes forward to catch every golden word as it falls from his sacred lips. He is creating, out of some ethereal or astral ectoplasm, a new perfection.

"Juniper from Tuscany and India, Cassia bark from China, Angelica from France and Iris from Florence, and cold, cold Icelandic water which has been filtered through ancient obsidian for millennia..." This continues for several pages of a lavishly-illustrated book filled with photographs of, er, well, beautiful women, and the guru himself. Eventually, we get to the most important picture: it's a bottle of gin.

I had always thought that I was the King of the Bullshitters, but I see now that I am a mere mortal in these matters. The guru is Martin Miller, he of Antiques Price Guide and Residence fame, and no expense has been spared on the opulent book, photography, grandiloquence and, apparently, the gin itself. It's made with all the botanicals listed above, and shipped off to Iceland for blending, and this creates, in the words of the guru himself "the most enchanting of gins."

My wife Jill is the gin aficionado at The Eversley, and her pecking order starts with Tanqueray, with Gordon's and Beefeater next along. She doesn't like Bombay Sapphire ("too floral") or Plymouth ("not dry enough") and shudders in horror if she even sniffs a bottle of supermarket cold-compound gin ("always look for the word 'distilled' on the label") so what would she make of this?

Pic.: www.drinkhacker.com

I tried it myself and it certainly seemed very complex, full-flavoured and aromatic with subtle floral aromas and a good 'wheaty' grain spirit base. I am, however, not a gin drinker, so I passed the tasting task over to Jill. Any good? Well, she mixed it as she always does with a slice of fresh lime and Schweppes tonic ("it really deserves Fever Tree but we haven't got any at the moment") with ice-cubes made from filtered water... And then raved about it, claiming that she could taste every individual botanical, it was perfectly dry and lingered elegantly on the palate: "probably the best gin and tonic I've had for a very long time".

I have nothing to add to that, except to say that the retail price of Martin Miller's Gin hovers around the £20 mark (+/-), according to www.wine-searcher.com. It probably would have tasted just as good without the bullshit. Just don't ask about the air-miles!

More Tastings - Rather a Mixed Bag

15-Nov-11 - Finally catching up with the samples people have sent, for which many thanks. A real mixed bag here with some old favourites and a few new surprises. Where pics are not credited they are from the producer's website.

ITALY

2009 Cantine Rosa del Golfo, IGT Salento - Negroamaro/Malvasía 90/10 - 12.5% abv
Rose pink; light, fresh, 'twangy' nose with some fresh rose-hip hints; lovely fresh fruit, crisp, fresh acidity on mid, hint of leather, light, fruity, delicious on the finish. 16/20

2009 Primitivo, Rosa del Golfo, IGT Salento - 13.5% abv
Red/garnet; mature, dried rose-petal on the nose with that Italian 'twang'; lovely balance, clean fruit, crisp acidity, a hint of liquorice on the palate, long, soft finish with a hint of almonds. Drinking well. 17/20

FRANCE

Pic.: Liberty Wine

2010 Château Beaulieu Cuvée Alexandre, Coteaux d'Aix-en-Provence - Grenache/Cabernet-Sauvignon/Syrah - 12% abv - Decanter bronze medal - £10
Gris; delicate, floral scents on the nose; soft fruit on the foretaste with a little bit of weight on the mid, very pleasant, lingering finish. Delicious. 16/20

Château Gassier, Cuvée Loubiero, Côtes de Provence - Syrah/Cinsaut/Grenache - 13% abv - £11.50
Gris; warm, summer flowers, honeysuckle on the nose; a big mouthful of fruit on the foretaste, then a hint of austerity on the mid before the flowers return on the finish. Hint of almonds right at the end. 17/20

SCOTLAND

This was a gift from Berry Bros. & Rudd, who had arranged a trip to Rioja to meet four of their suppliers (details in RIOJA REVISITED 2011 - Amazon.co.uk). On the last night we were given dinner at Finca Allende, and at the end of the meal Miguel Ángel de Gregorio came round with a wrapped up bottle which he described as a 'special dessert wine'. We were not expecting the alcohol! His was the 1987 distillation, which is now out of stock, but the 1998 is well-developed and, of course, spirits don't develop once they're in the bottle.

1998 The Glenrothes Single Malt Speyside - 43% abv - distilled 17-Dec-98, bottled 11-Feb-09 - £42
Light amber; acorns, walnuts, hint of Sherry on the nose; fresh fruit, hint of citrus on the palate with a 'meaty', peaty finish, long and ultimately nutty. Fab. 19/20

ARGENTINA

I visited this winery in Feb-2008 - posted on this blog when I got back, repeated here: A similarly spectacular view [of the Andes] was on offer at Bodega Séptima, which belongs to the Codorníu Cava group. This magnificent winery has a top-floor dining room with outside decking and yet another fabulous view of the Andes to the west. They were holding a 'Master of Food and Wine Lunch', and the main course was scallops. Sadly, I'm allergic to bivalves but the chef volunteered to rustle up a steak, Argentinian style (i.e. big and well-grilled). The wines were Syrah, Tempranillo and, of course, Malbec, and we tasted through the range after lunch. This is the latest vintage:

2010 Séptima Malbec, Codorníu Argentina, Uco Valley - 14% abv - six months in American oak - £8
Purple; dark fruit but some bright freshness and warmth; big, mouthfilling concentrated fruit, tannins kick in on the mid, buit the fruit rises abve it, not terribly complex, but rich/austere on the finish. Pity it's not the barbecue season... 17/20

SPAIN

At the Williams & Humbert bodega in Jerez they have a 'library' of wines going back to 1921, and on a visit some years ago I was lucky enough to taste many of them. They're tasted and reclassified by the Capataz periodically, and I discovered that they just got better and better as I went back through the years until about the early 1960s, when the acetaldehyde started to dominate. These are seriously underrated and superb value wines.

Williams & Humbert Collection 12-year-old Oloroso - 19% abv - £8 (half bottle)
Amber; nutty, dates, wax polish on old oak; lovely rounded, mellow, nutty, rich without being sweet, classic Oloroso style, bone dry on the finish. Wonderful. 18/20

 

2005 Legaris, Codorníu, DO Ribera del Duero - Tinta Fina - 14.5% abv - £20
Purple, ruby at rim; lovely, dark, rich cherry/damson fruit; crisp fruit on the foretaste, still fresh acidity, good fruit on the mid - damson/plum, tannins apparent on the finish but this should go. 18/20

Note: as I mentioned above I was on a trip with Codorníu in June of this year and tasted through all the Cavas, Legaris, Scala Dei and Rioja Bilbaínas. I plan to do a detailed post about the trip in due course.

CHILE

Casillero del Diablo Chardonnay Brut, Concha y Toro, Limari Valley - 12% abv - £9
Pale straw, good mousse; nice crisp Chardonnay style with none of that 'new world' blowsiness; very clean on the palate, nice richness on the mid with a hint of hint of biscuit developing, bone dry finish. 17/20

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SO WHAT EXACTLY IS A PAGO?

13-Nov-11 With the news that the regional government of Valencia has ratified its first (and Spain's tenth) Vino de Pago - Finca Terrerazo - perhaps it's time to clear up the confusion about what a 'pago' really is.

First, the word itself.  Pago is the first person singular of the verb pagar ('to pay')  and so means 'I pay': pago la cuenta - I pay the bill. By extension, this becomes a noun, simply meaning 'payment': he recibido su pago - I have received your payment. So how did the word also come to represent a vineyard?

In mediæval times payments, especially between the nobility and the monasteries which they helped support, were often in land rather than cash, and so pago came to represent a piece of land, usually farmland and often vineyard. In later years, individual parcels of vineyard land were labelled pagos to distinguish them from large-scale plantations, theoretically offering a more individual terroir. A good example is Jerez, which has around 125 pagos, the most famous of which are probably Macharnudo and Miraflores.

Inevitably, wine producers who wanted to emphasise the fact that they were making wines from grapes grown on their own individual estates registered trademarks using the term pago: examples include Pago de los Capellanes in Ribera del Duero and Pago de Tharsys in Utiel-Requena. These are simply brand-names and, whilst they may very well denote a single-vineyard estate, they have no meaning in law apart from the name of the DOP region to which they belong.

The waters were further muddied in 2000 when the Marqués de Griñón, Carlos Falcó, established a voluntary association called Grandes Pagos de Castilla. This was open to independent, family-owned estates in Castilla-La Mancha and Castilla y León which made wine solely from the grapes of their own estates. With the new Spanish wine law of 2003, the organisation changed its name to Grandes Pagos de España, thereby opening up membership to any single-estate wine in the entire country, but these were still legally only classified according to their DO, Vino de la Tierra or, in some cases just Vino de Mesa from unclassified areas.

What the 2003 wine law also did was to create a new, official echelon of wines called Vinos de Pago (VP): single estates of international reputation which were lifted out of the DO system to stand on their own feet as individual, prestigious vineyards, independent of the regional system. A parallel equivalent in France, for example, would be to allow such as Château Lafite-Rothschild to have its own Appellation, and no longer be subject to the controls of the AOC Pauillac.

Because each individual regional government has to ratify this legislation locally, takeup has been slow. Castilla-La Mancha was an enthusiastic first in 2003 (now with six VPs), Navarra followed suit in 2007 with three, and Valencia in 2011 with its first. The other 14 regional governments have not ratified the legislation and, it seems, many of the Consejos Reguladores won't want to lose control over their most prestigious wines: imagine a VP Vega Sicilia or a VP Marqués de Murrieta for instance. What would that do to the reputation of their respective regions? And how many other single estates would secede from their DO and become independent? And what would that leave behind?

The VP is frequently touted as the highest appellation for wines in Spain, but this is not true. VP wines are, undoubtedly, amongst the very best of their individual regions, but until every region of Spain allows its finest estates to become independent it will be impossible to generalise, and this is most unlikely to happen.

In the meantime, look for the label which says 'Vino de Pago' and nothing else (i.e no DO/DOP or VdlT/IGP name) in terms of the wine's origin. The ten pioneers are these (name, province, region, date):

VP Dominio de Valdepusa (Marqués de Griñón), Toledo, Castilla-La Mancha - 2003
VP Finca Élez (Manuel Manzaneque), Albacete, Castilla-La Mancha - 2003
VP Pago Guijoso, Albacete, Castilla-La Mancha - 2004
VP Dehesa del Carrizal, Ciudad Real, Castilla-La Mancha - 2006
VP Señorío de Arínzano, Navarra, Navarra - 2007
VP Prado Irache, Navarra, Navarra - 2008
VP Otazu, Navarra, Navarra - 2008
VP Campo de La Guardia, Toledo, Castilla-La Mancha  - 2009
VP Pago Florentino, Ciudad Real, Castilla-La Mancha - 2009
VP Casa del Blanco, Ciudad Real, Castilla-La Mancha - 2010
VP Finca Terrerazo, Valencia, Valencia - 2011

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Hotel Viura, Rioja: Boxing Clever

13-Nov-11 - I mentioned in an earlier post that I'd been in Rioja as a guests of Berry Bros and Rudd, but didn't mention where we'd stayed, and it's worth a post. The Hotel Viura opened in the village of Villabuena de Álava in April, 2010 and is a quite remarkable place. The village is tiny (pop. about 360) and in typical golden local stone. Next door to the village church, the hotel rises like a hotchpotch of shoeboxes piled one upon another. The architects were Joseba and Xabier Aramburu, who are famous for their avant-garde designs, and despite the building's completely different style from its surroundings, somehow it works.

Hotel Viura - from the website

Inside it's part industrial chic, part modern art gallery, with rustic wooden tables, barrels suspended from the ceiling of the restaurant, a charming small garden with an outside terrace and large, very comfortable rooms. The hotel has been built against a low cliff-face and, beguilingly, the back wall of Reception is the raw rock of the cliff itself. The rooms have their own little terrace overlooking the village, a very large work-desk (free wifi, and it works), an enormous flat-screen TV with 40-odd channels (several in English) and a king-size bed. Shower room is small but has all the necessary bits, some toiletries and bathrobes. Minibar has free water and fruit juices, plus (pay-for) beer and wine, chocolates and crisps and proper, big glasses. Despite the fact that the new head chef only started two weeks before my visit, the food in the restaurant was excellent - you might describe it as classic Rioja food with a modern twist (all right, fillet steak is not particularly exotic but it was cooked to perfection with sweet piquillo peppers and a timbale of potatoes - €21). The staff are excellent, friendly and helpful (although sometimes a bit limited in English) and it's worth a visit here for the building alone.

 The Restaurant - from the website

The village of Villabuena is home to three of Rioja's top bodegas - Izadi, Valserrano and Luís Cañas - and whilst it's very charming there isn't a lot going on in terms of shops and bars... Well, virtually nothing. The hotel has free loan of bicycles for the energetic but if you're wanting to explore you will need a car: the walled city of Laguardia is only 13 km away, Haro is 20 km and Logroño is 30 km, so if you want restaurants, bars and shops there's not far to travel. It's not particularly cheap (rooms start at €135) but it is an experience.

Acknowledgement: I flew from London to Bilbao by courtesy of Vueling Airlines. Indeed, I've flown with them quite a few times (three times this year) and their service is good, especially given that my creaking joints require a bit more care than those of athletic passengers. The fares are reasonable, the staff very pleasant and the whisky is Chivas Regal (€4). There's never enough legroom on aircraft for me, but I suppose that's what helps to keep the fares down, and it's only a two-hour flight. My only beef is that the Bilbao flight goes from LHR which, from where I live, is virtually inaccessible except by (very expensive) taxi. Oh well...

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La Rioja Alta and Artadi 'Outreach'

12-Nov-11 - Last month I spent four days in Rioja as a guest of Berry Bros and Rudd, visiting four of their agencies, all of which I know very well, but it was a great opportunity to see what developments had taken place in the bodegas, and to taste the latest vintages. They were López de Heredia, Finca Allende, Artadi and La Rioja Alta. Leaving aside the improvements to the buildings and equipment (details in RIOJA REVISITED 2011), La Rioja Alta also showed wines from their other wineries, having expanded into Rías Baixas and also Ribera del Duero. Lagar de Cervera was established in 1982, and was bought by La Rioja Alta in 1988, at which point they discontinued their Viña Ardanza Reserva Blanco which I found a great disappointment, as it was always one of my favourites. The boss, Guillermo Aranzábal, told me that they felt that having two white wines would only make them compete one with another and, indeed, Lagar de Cervera is excellent, but I still miss that mellow old white Rioja. Next up was áster (note the lower-case 'á') in Ribera del Duero, housed in a magnificent new-build bodega which looks from the outside like a ducal palace and includes dining and meeting rooms, as well as bedrooms and a spotless, state-of-the-art winery on the top floor.

2010 Lagar de Cervera - Albariño - DO Rías Baixas - £15.45
Pale straw, hint of green; very fresh green fruit, ripe, clean on the nose; very fresh, crisp, lipsmacking acidity, more green fruit on the mid, hint of citrus on the finish. Delicious. 17/20

2006 áster Crianza - Tinta del País - DO Ribera del Duero - 20 months in New French and new and used American oak - £15.99
Purple; deep dark stone fruit, austere but rich; a biggie: heat, power, weight, ripeness, big tannins but big fruit, too, good balance, enormous tannins on finish. Needs another year. 18/20

2009 áster Finca El Otero - Tinta del País - DO Ribera del Duero - 14.5% abv - malolactic and 12 months in new and used French and American oak - £30
Purple; dark, subtle fruit, rich, hint of chocolate on the nose; huge fruit, spice, heat, power, structured, layered, unfolding in the mouth. This will be magnificent. 18>19/20

Artadi also showed wines from its extended portfolio, with wines from Alicante and Navarra:

2009 El Sequé - Monastrell - DO Alicante - 14.5% abv - 12 months in French oak (20% new) - £23
Purple; big, warm, hints of tar and rubber, rich, dark fruit; bigbig fruit, power, weight, heat and yet there is a structure, length, richness and power, working tannins but the fruit is winning. 18/20

 2008 Santa Cruz de Artazu - 100-year-old Garnacha (2,500 kg/ha) - DO Navarra - 14.5% abv - 12 months in French botas 33% new - £26
Purple, ruby at rim; dark spicy blackberry fruit; bigbig spice, peppery, fruit, enormous tannins but the fruit can cope, almost chilli-hot on the finish, long, tannins at end. 18/20

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Eguren in Toro

12-Nov-11 - I've mentioned the Eguren family before, and particularly winemaker Marcos Eguren whose most famous work has been done in Rioja, with modern classics such as Señorío de San Vicente, El Bosque, La Nieta and El Puntido. Indeed, in a blind tasting of Rioja last year for DECANTER magazine I gave three of his wines 19/20 and one 18/20. There is always, of course, the question of personal taste in a blind tasting (we always try to set our own prejudices aside) and I do admire his winemaking style: richness, power, warmth and concentration. Traditionalists hate it, of course. But in my own defence I should say that I gave only four wines (out of about 500) 20/20 in RIOJA REVISITED 2011 (available at Amazon.co.uk), and three of them were very traditional. The fourth was La Nieta.

Bodega Teso La Monja

Rioja is not the subject of this post, however. Marcos Eguren has moved into the DO Toro in Castilla y León (which seems to be everyone's favourite destination at the moment) with Bodega Teso La Monja. The grape throughout is the Tinta de Toro, which is, of course, a clone of Tempranillo, but it grows hotter, riper and with a thicker skin in Toro, giving wine of great structure and concentration. Marcos very kindly sent me samples of the latest vintage (2008) on the market:

 2008 Almirez - 14.5% abv - part malolactic plus 12 months in French oak - £18
Dark purple, hint of ruby at rim; warm, ripe black cherries on the nose, hint of caramel; bigbig fruit on the foretaste, musky tannins emerging on the mid, prominent but not dominant, dark, damson fruit on the finish. Needs another year or two but fab. 18>19/20

2008 Victorino - 14.5% abv - malolactic plus 16-18 months in new French oak - £30 (2007)
Very dark purple; big, dark, rich fruit, hint of leather, wax polish; amazingly soft fruit on foretaste, big structure, tannins and oak under control, fruit comes through on the finish. Fab. 18>19/20

 2008 Alabaster - ungrafted vines - 14.5% abv - malolactic plus 16-18 months in French oak - €125
Dark purple, hint of ruby at rim; heat and rich, rich fruit on the nose, hint of liquorice; bigbig powerful fruit on the foretaste, hints of tar and caramel on mid, some working tannins on the finish. This will be magnificent. 19>20/20

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