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Nice article on Spanish wines
- Thread starter Jeff Grossman
- Start date
originally posted by Jeff Grossman:
Nice article on Spanish winesParticularly, whites: click
Thanks, Jeff. Having just recently returned from a week in Spain, I can say that the whites were by far the greater surprise for me (in a pleasant way, too).
Mark Lipton
p.s. Perhaps journalistic standards at the Post have dropped some since the days when I'd occasionally read a print copy, but I was mildly bemused to note in a sidebar the title of another recent article: "Conservative Catholic Theologians Can't Stop Talking About Anal Sex." Katherine Graham is rolling over in a grave somewhere.
Mark Lipton
Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
Heh. Heh heh.
Warren Edwardes
Warren Edwardes
GrapesTALK 7 has a Focus on Iberia.
Positive article overall, but the writer gets too many facts wrong. It's also very un-Post like in that it's a one-source story - Aurelio Cabestrero. But wait - there used to be some pretty good one-source stories in the Post back in the day, the source being an FBI agent known as Deep Throat... So maybe this should be accepted too.
Even some basically correct statements on Spanish whites such as "the high-yielding palomino, which does wonders when fortified in sherry but renders an insipid table wine" can now be challenged - the unfortified white made (under flor) in Jerez by the Equipo Navazos/Dirk van der Niepoort "joint venture" has been a total eye-opener! (There's an interesting article on the Navazos team on the Jancis Robinson web site, but I think it's only accessible to subscribers. Then again, the aforementioned GrapesTalk7 has an outstanding article by the Equipo Navazos' own Jess Barqun.)
This is clearly incorrect: "Verdejo is the main white grape of the Rueda region in northwestern Spain, where it produces enticing wines reminiscent of sauvignon blanc, with its grassiness and fresh herbal flavors." The real fact is: if your Rueda verdejo smells and tastes like sauvignon, it's probably because there's 15% sauvignon (or maybe more) in it!
Sauvignon is now rather extensively grown in Rueda and used for varietal wines under the Rueda Sauvignon Blanc appellation, which can be OK in a New World Sauvignon Blanc way. (At the recent Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, only one sauvignon blanc received a Grand Gold Medal, and it was from Rueda: Finca La Colina Sauvignon Blanc Cien X Cien 2008 Vinos Sanz.) But it's legal to add up to 15% of something else to a 'varietal' verdejo under European rules, and too many Rueda producers do it with sauvignon, and in so doing they completely subvert the grape. They do it because they are overly concerned with verdejo's rather shy aromatics, but in so doing they transform verdejo into a mere sauvignon wannabe.
Real verdejo is, to me, more interesting than 'sauvignonized' verdejo because its grassiness is entirely different from sauvignon's, with always a bitterish, elegant counterpoint, and it has a powerful, weighty structure, almost like a red wine's, which makes it quite original.
Un-sauvignonized verdejos which retain their character include those made by ngel Rodrguez Vidal (Martinsancho - the name of the small vineyard from whose cuttings verdejo was retrieved in the 1970s from the brink of oblivion), ngel Lorenzo Cachazo (Martivill), Bodegas Naia, Mara Jess de la Hoz (Trascampanas), Bodegas Aura, Jos Pariente and indeed Vinos Sanz's Finca La Colina Verdejo Cien X Cien, which this year also won our Rueda Verdejo blind tasting at elmundovino, and earned the winery a second Grand Gold Medal at the Bruxelles shindig.
Also to be corrected, this: "The Medrano Irazu 2005 white Rioja, made entirely with viura, is traditionally styled. It is fermented in oak barrels with a daily stirring of the lees to give it complexity and body, enhanced by extended bottle aging." This may be traditionally styled - but in Burgundy, not in Rioja! Fermentation in large stainless steel or old oak vats (as at Lpez de Heredia, where they hold 6,000 liters for whites - larger for reds) and no lees stirring at all is the tradition in Rioja. Me, I have nothing against barrel-fermented whites if done right, but let's call a spade a spade...
Finally, the txakoli grape may be spelled hondarrabi zuri in Vizcaya and hondarribi zuri in Guipzcoa, but not hondaribbi zuri. But I guess that's being overfastidious.
Even some basically correct statements on Spanish whites such as "the high-yielding palomino, which does wonders when fortified in sherry but renders an insipid table wine" can now be challenged - the unfortified white made (under flor) in Jerez by the Equipo Navazos/Dirk van der Niepoort "joint venture" has been a total eye-opener! (There's an interesting article on the Navazos team on the Jancis Robinson web site, but I think it's only accessible to subscribers. Then again, the aforementioned GrapesTalk7 has an outstanding article by the Equipo Navazos' own Jess Barqun.)
This is clearly incorrect: "Verdejo is the main white grape of the Rueda region in northwestern Spain, where it produces enticing wines reminiscent of sauvignon blanc, with its grassiness and fresh herbal flavors." The real fact is: if your Rueda verdejo smells and tastes like sauvignon, it's probably because there's 15% sauvignon (or maybe more) in it!
Sauvignon is now rather extensively grown in Rueda and used for varietal wines under the Rueda Sauvignon Blanc appellation, which can be OK in a New World Sauvignon Blanc way. (At the recent Concours Mondial de Bruxelles, only one sauvignon blanc received a Grand Gold Medal, and it was from Rueda: Finca La Colina Sauvignon Blanc Cien X Cien 2008 Vinos Sanz.) But it's legal to add up to 15% of something else to a 'varietal' verdejo under European rules, and too many Rueda producers do it with sauvignon, and in so doing they completely subvert the grape. They do it because they are overly concerned with verdejo's rather shy aromatics, but in so doing they transform verdejo into a mere sauvignon wannabe.
Real verdejo is, to me, more interesting than 'sauvignonized' verdejo because its grassiness is entirely different from sauvignon's, with always a bitterish, elegant counterpoint, and it has a powerful, weighty structure, almost like a red wine's, which makes it quite original.
Un-sauvignonized verdejos which retain their character include those made by ngel Rodrguez Vidal (Martinsancho - the name of the small vineyard from whose cuttings verdejo was retrieved in the 1970s from the brink of oblivion), ngel Lorenzo Cachazo (Martivill), Bodegas Naia, Mara Jess de la Hoz (Trascampanas), Bodegas Aura, Jos Pariente and indeed Vinos Sanz's Finca La Colina Verdejo Cien X Cien, which this year also won our Rueda Verdejo blind tasting at elmundovino, and earned the winery a second Grand Gold Medal at the Bruxelles shindig.
Also to be corrected, this: "The Medrano Irazu 2005 white Rioja, made entirely with viura, is traditionally styled. It is fermented in oak barrels with a daily stirring of the lees to give it complexity and body, enhanced by extended bottle aging." This may be traditionally styled - but in Burgundy, not in Rioja! Fermentation in large stainless steel or old oak vats (as at Lpez de Heredia, where they hold 6,000 liters for whites - larger for reds) and no lees stirring at all is the tradition in Rioja. Me, I have nothing against barrel-fermented whites if done right, but let's call a spade a spade...
Finally, the txakoli grape may be spelled hondarrabi zuri in Vizcaya and hondarribi zuri in Guipzcoa, but not hondaribbi zuri. But I guess that's being overfastidious.
originally posted by VS:
Real verdejo is, to me, more interesting than 'sauvignonized' verdejo because its grassiness is entirely different from sauvignon's, with always a bitterish, elegant counterpoint, and it has a powerful, weighty structure, almost like a red wine's, which makes it quite original.
Our server at Mon Vinc remarked that he found a similarity between Verdejo and Grner Veltliner as he poured us an '07 Telmo Rodriguez Rueda 'Basa', a comparison that I found somewhat apt.
Mark Lipton
That server makes me smile... Usually, they know their business better at Monvnic! See, Telmo's Basa is precisely one of the wines I was writing about: it's 85% verdejo, with the rest being viura and... sauvignon blanc, of course!originally posted by MLipton:
Our server at Mon Vinc remarked that he found a similarity between Verdejo and Grner Veltliner as he poured us an '07 Telmo Rodriguez Rueda 'Basa', a comparison that I found somewhat apt.
Warren Edwardes
Warren Edwardes
.. Then again, the aforementioned GrapesTalk7 has an outstanding article by the Equipo Navazos' own Jess Barqun.)
...
Finally, the txakoli grape may be spelled hondarrabi zuri in Vizcaya and hondarribi zuri in Guipzcoa, but not hondaribbi zuri. But I guess that's being overfastidious.
Yes great article by Jess.
Linking with the sulfites/sulphites thread, I wonder how the txakoli grape is spelled/spelt in Boise, Idaho.
Jeff Grossman
Jeff Grossman
"dam furriner!"
Warren Edwardes
Warren Edwardes
Given the Basque connection with Idaho I wonder if anybody has tried planting Hondarrabi / Hondarribi / Ondarrabi Beltza or Zuri there? As Victor indicates different official spellings across the three Txacoli DOs of Getaria / Alava / Bizkaia.