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May 14 2024 - May 20 2024
There are, I reckon, two reasons why Spain has become such an attractive proposition for independent wine merchants over the past couple of decades – and these two factors are very much connected.
The first is the emergence of fine wines in all sorts of hitherto overlooked or underused places; the second is the re-discovery in those places of a seemingly inexhaustible supply of undervalued grape varieties.
Put those developments together – and then throw in the generational wave of talented and driven viñateros who have overseen them – and you have one of the world’s most progressive winemaking cultures, with a diversity that now matches France and Italy.
The wines featured on my wine walk are designed to illustrate this brave new world, taking the form of a virtual vinous tour of some my favourite Spanish regions and wines.
I’ve started in the northeast, in Catalonia, with a prime example of Xarel·lo, one of the Cava trinity of grape varieties, but now being used to incisive effect in Penedès in superb still and pet nat, ancestral method fizz.
A skip down the Mediterranean coast takes us to Valencia, and a juicy amphora-red from the local Mando, before heading across to Andalucia and a prime example of the new wave of unfortified white wines made in Sherry country.
Then it’s up to the northwest and a textbook youthful unoaked mencía red from Bierzo before finishing with two powerful but balanced, high-altitude reds from Spain’s two most famous red grape varieties: Tempranillo (aka Tinto Fino) from the high-plain vineyards of Ribera del Duero and a Garnacha from the hills of Calatayud in Aragón.
Here is my selection:
- Celler del Roure Safrà 2021 (Alliance)
- Vins El Cep Pet Nat XRL-LO (Amathus)
- Sotovelo Palomino 2022 (Moreno)
- Vinos Valtuille Pago Valdoneje 2023 (CD Wines)
- Cuveas de Arom Altas Parcelas Garnacha 2021 (Liberty Wines)
- Rippa Dorii Crianza, DO Ribera del Duero (Boutinot)
Join me to taste these wines and meet the producers/importers at their table at the Wines from Spain Annual Tasting on 14 May. To secure your place, email: winesfromspain@otaria.co.uk.
Start Time: 11am (30-40mns duration)
Meet: Info point/Main Hall (Ground Floor)
Register for the Wines from Spain Annual Tasting.
