Spain | amarchinthevines

I am proudly a francophile and French wines are dearest to me. Of course I like wines from many other places but my wine collection is dominated by French wines as is my list of favourite wines which I post every December. This last few weeks though have been dominated by a series of very good wines from Spain which I wanted to share.

At the Element event in Edinburgh which I described last time I mentioned wines from Abeica and Jose Gil and, happily, I have hit a very strong streak of bottles since. Two came from the 4 Manos team who produce their wines in the Sierra de Gredos, 80km west of Madrid. These mountains offer the altitude (750m-1000m) necessary to temper the heat of central Spain. The eponymous four monkeys are friends who came together to share their passion for organic viticulture, local grapes and minimalist winemaking techniques. I opened two bottles recently. GR-10 Tinto is a blend of Syrah, Cariñena and Garnacha. It is their basic red wine and whilst not complex the 2018 is full of pleasure with fruits and a little texture and plenty of light, refreshing notes. Cien Lanzas Cenicientos is mainly Garnacha with small additions of Cariñena and Garnacha Blanca. Aged in old barrels for a year there is more weight and concentration in this 2020 bottle than the GR-10 but the same drinkability and freshness, a really good wine.

In the aforementioned list of wines of the year was a superb Garancha Blanca from Edetària in the Terra Alta region. I opened one of their lower priced Garnacha Blanca wines, Via Edetana 2023, and it was a real delight. There was that lovely white fruit flavour but with a creaminess and great freshness, perhaps from the 50% of grapes maintained on lees before joining the other half aged in barrel. I’d happily have this as my house wine!

Mencia is a red grape , possibly a clone from Cabernet Franc, which is becoming increasingly appreciated for its freshness and fruit. Grown mainly in North West Spain and Portugal this particular version is made by Telmo Rodriguez who has made wines across Spain, helping to boost the reputation of those wines. Gaba Mencia 2020 has lovely fresh fruit with breezy acidity, like biting into fresh rhubarb. Proximity to the Atlantic has clearly left a mark on the nature of the wine. I have had a few very nice Mencia bottles, such as Veronica Ortega’s, but this one was possibly my favourite.

My favourite wine though has been Ossian Segovia 2021 from Nieva in Segovia, north west from Madrid. This is made from Verdejo grapes, not a variety to usually get the pulse racing to be honest. The vines for this though are pre-phylloxera and ungrafted because the soil is full of sand which has protected the vines from the louse which brings the disease. The vines are at almost 1000m altitude and have to endure extremes of temperature, down to -15c in winter and well over 30c in summer. The 2021 followed a winter which had seen several weeks of minus temperatures. This gives the Verdejo grown in these terraced vineyards a unique character. Aged in old barrels and on lees for 9 months the wine is organic and minimal sulphites are added. The colour is golden, there are fresh, white fruit and citrus aromas with long, clean flavours of those white fruits and a slight nuttiness. This is complex, drinkable and delicious.

From bold Garnacha, deep Monastrell and Cariñena, to fresh Albarino and Godello as well as these lovely Garnacha Blanca and Verdejo. Spain is rapidly taking up a bigger proportion of my favourite wines. Deservedly so.

Meanwhile I have been working with the vines I received a few weeks ago. I have planted them and the recent sunny, dry weather has helped them to become established. I have been a bit surprised at how soon they budded and developed leaves, fortunately there has been no frost risk as they would have been vulnerable. I have removed side shoots to help build up the trunk before I train them next year.

Consett’s climate is certainly different to Spain’s, hopefully my vines can eventually highlight the adaptability of vitis vinifera.

This isn’t a post I had expected to write but sometimes you find a wine which makes you want to tell everyone how good it was. It happened back in February at Noble Rot in London when I had a bottle of the excellent Domaine Aux Moines’ Savennières 2021 and I made a beeline to the domaine in April. Then, last week we went for a week to Cambrils on the Costa Daurada near Tarragona. A week intended to be simply restful but with gourmet interludes. Well, at the excellent Miramar* restaurant I ordered a bottle of local Grenache Blanc and was blown away by it.

The bottle in question was from the Terra Alta region, Edetària’s, Finca La Terrenal 2020. It is made from old vine Garnatxa Blanca from a single, steep vineyard on clay soils. The winery is the work of Joan Àngel Lliberia who studied and worked in wine in France before returning to the area and eventually establishing his winery. It is organic wine production, harvesting by hand with careful sorting at the cellar. The wines are fermented in small tanks before ageing as appropriate for the various levels of wine they produce. The Finca wines are their top level wines aimed at expressing grape and place. Certainly, this bottle certainly achieved those goals.

The Terra Alta wine region is just west of Tarragona in the foothills of the Pyrenees. Overshadowed by other local regions, such as Priorat and Montsant, it is beginning to gain recognition. Checking back on the Spanish tasting I attended in London in February, Vinateros, there were no Terra Alta producers present so it is still relatively unknown. One interesting fact, a third of all the Grenache Blanc in the world comes from Terra Alta.

Over the next few days I deliberately chose other organic Garnatxa Blanc wines from Terra Alta to see how they compared.

LaFou Celler’s Els Ameleres 2022 is made of a blend of young and older vines, aged in various types of container to add complexity. It was a nice bottle, fresh acidity and citrussy notes, a little flabby perhaps on the finish but perfectly decent. The producer’s website claims the wine shows aromas of the local almonds which give the wine its name, I didn’t pick that up.

Better was a wine made especially for the El Posit restaurant chain by Estones Vins, a project based in Priorat but with vineyards in Montsant and Terra Alta. Salvi Moliner is the winemaker and he makes his own Garnatxa Blanca as well as this one for the restaurants. Grown in the typical sandy ‘panal’ soils, Aproppòsit Garnatxa Blanca 2022 had good acidity and freshness to accompany seafood, its raison d’être of course, but with more yellow fruit notes and complexity than the LaFou. Nice bottle.

***Grenache Blanc grapes from Jeff Coutelou***

***Grenache Blanc with some Grenache Gris***

Nothing special then, perfectly decent bottles of wine but can we expect more from Grenache Blanc? After all production of this grape has fallen by two thirds in France since 1980 so it can’t be that great? Why was La Terrenal so special?

For me, and wine taste is personal, a top white wine brings a range of characteristics. This wine had aromas of white flowers and fruit, a sense of cleanliness but also a citrus note with stony texture. At first it tasted light, citrus again, but then it built in the mouth to add peachy notes, nutty too, suggesting some oak barrel ageing. There was no heaviness, no flabby notes to leave the palate overwhelmed or tired. Instead the freshness cut through again and the wine, from first glass to last, walked a fine line between the acidity and the fruit. It developed and changed but maintained its interest all down the bottle. A balanced wine, capable of being drunk on its own or with food.

So top marks from me, it was a bottle to remember along with that excellent Savennières. And one final point. Miramar was one of several excellent restaurants we visited in the area*, whisper it quietly but a standard higher than you’d generally find in France. The wine retails for around 40€ and the restaurant listed it at 49€, I wish other restaurants had similar pricing! I know it wasn’t cheap, yet it was a bargain. Now to hunt some down!

Edetària

* Miramar, Can Bosch, Maccarilla, Casa Quadrat (Tarragona)