Spain
Bodegas Muga Reserva 2005
After a good dinner and a bottle of Muga Reserva 1990 a couple of years ago, an older friend told me his philosphy on cellaring wine: stock up on the classic wines that age well, the kind of stuff that goes well with food, and you’ll always be happy with your cellar. Sure, buy a bottle or two of big, expensive wines in good vintages, but concentrate on the mid range wines from excellent producers. Stuff like classic Riojas, Chiantis, lesser growth Bordeaux, red and white village Burgundy, Chablis, Victorian and Hunter Valley Shiraz. Sound advice.
Elefante Blanco 2009
A quick one today on this inexpensive but very drinkable white. A bit of a dogs breakfast of varieties: Macabeo, Verdejo, Viura and Savignon Blanc, but don’t let put you off. The bottle looks sharp too, it would look great on display in a tiny laneway bar.
Calo 2008
Calo 2008A cheaky little joven Tempranillo from Rioja Alavesa. While tempranillo is generally a fairly tannic grape, the wines from the most elevated, northerly regions tend to be a little more tannic. A good thing in my book. I’m not going to bang on about this one, enjoyable and good value….
Bodegas Mauro 2006
There is a great little vinoteca in San Sebastian called Solbes (Calle de Aldamar, 4, just accross the road from the Bretxia market. A full range of smallgoods and cheeses from all over Spain and France, great olive oil, great preserved produce and all kinds of cider, beer, spirits and wine. A well selected range inexpensive wines and a room full of the best stuff from Spain and Portugal with a smattering of France and Italy. All at very reasonable prices. Whenever I’m in Spain, I try to get here and stock up on whatever takes my fancy. Like a bottle of Mauro 2006. I bought this one at Boccaccio tho…I’ve had a couple of bottles of the 2004 lately, it’s really on song at the moment.
Flor de Pingus 2007
I’m in a real Ribera del Duero kind of mood of late, maybe to balance out the 05 Rioja I’ve been hoarding, whatever the reason Ribera and Italians have been getting high rotation on the tasting bench. I’ve had a look at this wine a couple of times now, and to be honest it was underwhelming on first taste, tasting a bit like Bordeaux from a cold, wet vintage (i.e. dilute and green with chunky tannins). Oh dear not good. Right time for a another bottle at home with some ribeye…
Bodegas Félix Callejo Cuatro Meses en Barrica 2006
When I first started buying Spanish wine it was very much like having some kind of collector’s fetish. Hunt around for the wines, hear something about a new import and spend weeks trying to find out where to get it Word of mouth was king. These day’s I’m almost falling over Spanish wines in booze shops, bars and restaurants, you can read about them in local papers and plenty of blogs and I have even heard people talking about Rioja on the train once. Things have definitely moved on. One big change has been in the supermarket chains. You can now find a decent range of wines from all over Spain (and Portugal too) in both Vintage Cellars and Dan Murhpy’s stores. The old token range of big house swill is mostly gone and you can find some quality wines at reasonable prices. And they have gone to some length to get it right: they’ve hired some very smart and experienced chaps to find the wines, either through established importers (as this wine is) or importing them direct. Of course, the supermarkets haven’t been the kindest to many wine brands over the years and there is still a big gap between the good independant retailers and the chain stores in terms of service and range (and price in many cases), but that’s not the point. The point is this: most Spanish and Portuguese wine is sold in restaurants and bars in Australia. What this does do is to bring these wines out of the wine geek’s realm and more into the mainstream wine drinker’s. This can only be a good thing.
Bierzo in a nutshell…(part 2)
So, I’ve finished traveling all around the place (I hope) and back into writing up my last trip to Spain….
Lunch at Amelibia
Amelibia is my favourite place to eat in the old walled town of Laguardia. We ate here a couple of times on our last trip and were very keen to get back and see what’s new. It’s a small restaurant (just 12 tables) that overlooks the vineyards and across to the Cantabrian mountain range. Laguardia is just about the last outpost of Euskadi, or Basque country, and as such the food here is a good mix of Basque food and traditional Riojan food. So you will have a menu that has things like kokotxas pil pil (throat of hake in an olive oil and garlic emulsion, a very Basque dish) and rabo de vaca al tinto vino (oxail in red wine, a typically Riojan dish).
Bierzo in a nutshell…(part 1)
It’s impossible to define a whole region after visiting for a couple of days and talking to a handful of winemakers, but here is a quick overview of what makes this a special place to make wine.
La Vendimia 2008
After a fairly indulgent Christmas/New year period and start of a new year, I usually think it’s time for a couple of weeks of detox. Well not detox really, just a couple of weeks to a month of not drinking. Given I’ve got almost a month of eating and drinking in Spain coming up in a couple of weeks, it seems like the wise thing to do. So it will continue to be fairly quiet here at Tinto y Blanco for a couple of weeks…
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