Ever since, I’ve been buying two Rioja Reservas in every vintage. This is one of them, the other is Remelluri, which is almost a national treasure in the Basque area and is set to move towards an organic operation with Telmo Rodriguez moving back into the role of wine maker with his sister looking after the vineyards. Getting back to Muga Reserva, it’s a typical Rioja blend of 70% Tempranillo , 20%Garnacha, and 10% Mazuelo and Graciano aged in big old vats for 6 months, then into french and american oak for 24 months. While this clearly meets the Reserva requirements, in Spanish speaking countries it’s sold as a crianza…no idea why.

Classic nose of wild thyme and oragano, earthy cherry, mulberry and woody spices. Perfect balance between fruit and structure with minerally acid. Tannins that build and build to give a sense of contrast with the acid. The fruit doesn’t stick out, it’s savoury and fresh, it sits inline with the oak, tannin and acid. Purity, complexity and structure. The finish is long with the sense of clay, minerals and tangy red fruits. Just lovely drinking. Not as imediately rewarding as the 2004 now after a decant, but this is a long term wine, drink over the next 20 years. 93+ Pts.

Source: ?? Price: Around $60 Closure: Conventional Cork

Web: www.bodegasmuga.com

Pear and melon, slightly tropical with a little pepper on the nose. Nice mouthfeel and length, kinda juicy but fresh. Not much to really talk about in the mouth in terms of flavour, but good acidity and length lends itself perfectly to fried seafood. Kiddy safe, no sharp edges. And at 12.5% I really like this for casual lunch time drinking and snacking. 87 Pts.

Source: Fourth Wave Wine Partners RRP: $12 Closure: Screwcap

The thing that really strikes me with this wine is it’s focus on texture and a savory fruit profile. There is not that mid palate fruit sweetness that I often find in Aussie attempts at Spanish (and Italian) varieties, and while not majorly tannic, the tannins lend a silky texture with a grippy finish. Nothing wrong with that sweetness, it’s not sugar, just ripe, sweet fruit and to my mind this is something of a stamp of Australia on the wines. However, I do have a preference for the savory side of things.

Wild herbs and raspberry, cinnamon and fig, earth and cherry. It’s a very pleasing nose, confident and enticing. The palate is really savoury, with zingy acid and lovely fine tannins that give texture and body. The kind of wine that is both casual and serious depending on your mood. Raspberry, cherry and wild herbs, very little in the way of oak influence. Hugely enjoyable, I can see myself drinking a fair bit of this. An educated guess on aging: drink over the next 5 year, but it will more than likely live much longer. 92 Pts.

Source: Crittenden Estate Cost: $30 Closure:Screwcap

Musky raspberry and violet, black cherry and malty biscuits on the nose. Earthy, a little herbal and fresh. Musky, with plenty of smooth tannins. It is a little lacking in the acid department, leaving it a little flat in the mouth and the finish on the shorter side, this gets better with a bit of air. More dark cherry and pepper in the mouth. Give it a bit of air to open up and your laughing. 87 Pts.

Source: Fourth Wave Wine Partners RRP: $19 Closure: Screwcap

Opens up with loads of wild bramble and herbs, with some red and black cherries smashed in with some wild violets. Wild and rustic with character and real appeal. It needs plenty of air to open up, but once it does, it’s packed full of smooth long tannins, a good line of acid straight down the centre and excellent length. Plums, cherries and a little choc in the mouth, spice and herbs. Give it a year or two to develop and dig in. 92+ Pts.

Source: Boccaccio Cellars RRP: $80 Closure: Conventional Cork

Web: www.bodegasmauro.com

Oak, lots of oak. That’s my first thought. Ok, it is quality oak and it’s not totally dominating the fruit initially but it’s fairly obvious. A bit more air and the fruit comes up to meet the wood halfway, starting to look good. A little herby, a touch of cola and plenty of ripe dark red fruits. In the mouth it’s a different story, your in first class here. It sits on a fine line between medium and full bodied, excellent acid and rough suede like tannins. A bit of a tight rope walker this one, one step either way it wouldn’t work. But it pulls it off convincingly. Not the best vintage of Flor de Pingus, but I have a feeling this will be a late bloomer in about 5 years. 90+ Pts.

Source: The Spanish Acquisition Price: $195 Closure: Conventional Cork

Other vintages: 2005, 2006

Anyway, I picked this up at Dan Murphy’s on Friday night, rather surprised to see it there. After all, this is a fairly small family run bodega that gets a bit of press every now and then. I’ve had their Reserva in Spain a couple of times, now that its available here it’s well work tracking down if Ribera is your thing. The short story on this one is that’s Tempranillo grown in lime rich soils in northern part (towards Burgos) of Ribera del Duero, that gets a quick dunk in french and american oak for 4 months (hence the name)…Imported by Bibendum.

A bit stinky on opening, but this cleans up in a minute or two to reveal a nose of tar and spice, salami, sweet cherry and a little funky mulberry. Very slick in the mouth, smooth with buscuit crumb tannins but that acid drive things along nicely. Deeply flavoured, juicy fruit as you’d expect from Ribera del Duero, with cola, minerals, clove and sage.  Lip smackingly good, grab a rack of lamb for the BBQ and a bottle of this for a nice sunday lunch. Drink now and over the next 5 years. 90 Pts

Source: Dan Murphy’s Price: $31 Closure: Conventional Cork

Web: www.bodegasfelixcallejo.com

With a bit of background from my last post, we can get on to the wines in more detail. I was lucky enough to visit two different producers and drink a number of wines from other producers at local restaurants and bars. The thing that is common to all of these producers is that they are looking to the older mencia vineyards on the high slopes that centre around the villages of Cruillon and Villafranca del Bierzo at the west end of the valley. There is an amazing diversity of climats here, a slight move 10 meters left or right on a hill can make a difference to the amount of sunlight that a vine will receive and the soil composition. Similarly, elevation changes the character of the resulting grapes. With elevation ranging from 500 to 1100 meters, there is a wide variation in the character and class of the wines produced here. The single vineyard wines of Descendientes de J.Palacios show this really well, but more on that in another post.

Now Menica can be a tricky little beast, it is very high in tannin, moderate in acid, and has a number of traits that some will see as overbearing, at the least undesirable. A herby green tang, smoke and excessive blackcurrant to name a few. As such it is fairly easy to make hard, tanninic monsters with green notes and there are some tough decisions to be made in both the vineyard and bodega depending on the desired style and source of grapes. Many modern producers belive that a mix of tradition with a healthy dose of modern methods is required to get the best out of these hills.

Vineyards in Bierzo, like many other areas of Spain, have traditionally been small plots owned by a family for their own consumption with the left overs sold off to either a local co-op or larger producer. This hasn’t really changed too much, so many of the wines are a made from a collection of small, old vine vineyards that are still farmed by their owner in conjunction with whoever they are selling their grapes to. A number of producers are buying up small plots and working them with organic or biodynamic methods, however this is still not too far off the way people have been farming here for generations. There are also broadacre vineyards on the river flats that have been planted in the past 15 years, these are generally for bulk production and are farmed as they are anywhere else.

The majority of the quality vines are grown in the traditional gobblet or en vaso style, so no trellis or and only minimal training. Driving around the region you will see some newer vineyards with trellis, these are mainly on the lower, flat land for bulk wine production, however some newer quality planting have also use trellis. In terms of rootstock, most vines are on their own rootstock, however newer plantings are using phylloxera resistant rootstock. I haven’t done a lot of research into it yet, but I’m told that there is a huge number of clones of Mencia available. From what I can tell most people are replanting with cuttings from similar sites or with clones they prefer from long experience in the vineyard.

So, moving on to the  wine making style of Bierzo in general, the modern producers tend to like largish (2,000 to 10,000 litre) french oak fermenters for oak aged wines, while the young wines are fermented in stainless steel. There are some using old open top concrete fermenters (or legares) and holding tanks, however the use of these seems to be on the decline. I’m told many of these old tanks were hiding places for republican supporters during Franco’s purges in the 30s and 40s. A bleak reminder of Spain’s past.

There are a few things here that are common to many other regions of Spain. In just about every red wine producing area in Spain there seems to be three main styles of wine: carbonic maceration wines, young wines with or without oak, and mature wines with extensive oak treatment and aging. I am simplifying of course, and you could lump the first two together if you like and there is lots of diversity in each category.

Carbonic maceration is quite popular here. At it’s best it can produce fresh, fruity blueberry bubblegum flavored wines with that retain a savory note and they match excellently with the local food. Now, I am not often a fan of wines made with carbonic maceration, but when done well it seems to suit Mencia from Bierzo quite well. The young wines step this up a little in terms of structure and generally have some time in wood, french oak seems to be the popular choice, although many wines have a blend of american and french oak.

Mature wines, or ‘raised’ wines, don’t really follow a defined trend in terms wood treatment or aging here and the crianza system is not prescribed by the DO. So there is no fixed minimum time in wood or bottle (there are lots of other rules that govern the production however). As such producers are free to do what they like with wood aging. There are wines with full on new oak for 18 or 24 months, wines with only old wood, fermented in old lagres and everything in between. In general these are the wines that are causing all the buzz on this region and they range from huge, taninic big oaky wines to smooth, almost Burgundian styled wines. As always producer is important to pick the right kind of wines for your taste.

To my mind the leading producer in terms of quality is Descendientes de J.Palacios (lets call them DJP for short), a collaboration between Ricardo Palacios and his uncle Alvaro. I’ll give a full report on these guys later on, but the work that is being done by these guys is inspiring and they have brought significant muscle to the table, both in terms of experience and know how coupled with smart investment.  Focused on very high quality, DJP produce wines on a similar model to burgundy: there is a regional wine from a blend of their own and bought grapes, called Petalos, a ‘village’ wine from the vines around the village of Corullon, called Corullion strangely enough, and a range of single vineyard wines of high up on the slopes surrounding  Corullion. Similarly, Martin Codax are making some great wines here and have really worked hard to capture the essence of Bierzo and Mencia. Other producers to look out for here in Australia are Domino de Tares and Luna Beberide. Given these four producers you should be able to see a good cross section of what is going on here and get a good feel for the region.

This time in Spain I’m having a bit more of a holiday and I’m focusing more on food than a full on wine adventure: lazy days with long lunches, lots of jamon and roasted lamb, and of course a bit of wine here and there. Of course I can’t help but have a couple of appointments in and around Bierzo, plus a couple more in Rioja to get the low down on the 2009 vintage. I’ll post up some notes as we going along…Oh and another thing. If you haven’t checked out the new (or not so new) Movida book “Movida Rustica”, do check it out. From the brief look I’ve had so far it looks like its full of ‘real’ Spanish food.

Anyway on to the wine. Love the label and the 2008 is much better than the 2007 that was around for a little while mid last year. Fresh raspberry and earth is the first thing on the nose, it opens out to show some cherry and a little herb. Easy to drink, but still kind of serious and savoury at the same time. Meaty with soft tannins, its a little light in the acid department. Very likeable with a nice hunk of goat. 88 Pts.

Source: The Spanish Acquisition Price: $27 Closure: Conventional Cork

Web: www.vinosherenciaremondo.com

It’s peachy, lemon-limey, herby and a little salty on the nose. A little melon creeps in as it warms up too. Nicely textured, you could be convinced there is a bit of spritz there, but its not really fizz but the fine minerally acid. From what I’ve seen of previous vintages, this will open up and keep deilvering over the next couple of years. Next time you’re heading out for yum cha, grab a couple of bottles of this, loads of friends and fill the table with seafood dumplings. Heaven. 89 Pts

Web: www.quintadoameal.com

Other Vintages: 2005, 2007

Valdeorras is a very striking place too, very hilly and rainy. There are some great photos on the Temlo Rodriguez website. In fact I think they might have the best photos of any wine website I’ve seen…Anyway, hopefully I’ll get a chance to have a quick look around here when I’m back in Spain in February.

This version from Compania del Vinos de Telmo Rodriguez is looking very raw at the moment (this is a good thing), there is some clear power there, but the classic pears, freshly cut hay and a touch of guava and hot wax are all there. Very robust and tight for a white wine, kind of like white burgundy in structure, but nothing like it in flavour. Crunchy minerals and an acid laden finish. A little fleshy, the texture is silky and fine. I’ve not had an aged godello, but this looks like it has the goods to go for at least 5 years…90Pts

Source: The Spanish Acquisition Price: $28 Closure: Conventional Cork

Web: www.telmorodriguez.com

Other Vintages: 2005, 2006

The nose is almost meaty, with plum and strawberry notes. A bit of toffee and earth round this out nicely. There is a slight texture there in the mouth, balanced out with some good acid. The palate has a tangy red apple note to it, with some light plum juice and earthiness. Savoury and very drinkable, with or without food this is a winner for $14. It’s under screwcap too. How can you go wrong? 88 Pts.

Open and ready to drink, the nose offers up plums and cherries, with some earthy herbs and a rustic mustiness. Open weave on the palate with a bit of edge to keep it interesting. Light tannins and good acid. It drinks like a champ, round and fruity, but not overly sunny and obvious. My neighbour is cooking lamb chops on the BBQ (and they smell fantastic), I might have to go and see if I can pinch one…87 Pts.

Source: Ce Soir Imports Price: $11 Closure: Screwcap

This is really bright and vibrant, but with all they savoury, earthy, herby stuff that makes Spanish granache so tasty. Raspberry and black cherry on the nose, hot rocks, sage and rosemary, earthy and musk. It has a core of juicy fruit wound up in a ball of light tannins, minerally acid and good length. It’s smooth and refreshing. Highly enjoyable and drinkable, I’d drink now but there is nothing wrong with keeping it for a couple of years. Excellent value too. And yes, I did buy it for the label… 92 Pts.
Source: The Spanish Acquisition RRP: $40 Closure: Conventional Cork

Web: www.cellercapcanes.com

Other Vintages: 2000, 2004, 2005

Anyway, back to the wine. I like the style of this wine, it balances the floral notes with firm acidity very well. There is that trademark minerality that shows up in good vintages in Rias Brixas, along with plenty of green pear, lemon and lime leaf complexity. Its just long enough and has a tangy lemon sherbet/hot rocks thing going on the finish. Very easy to drink, it’s on the firmer side of Albariño which makes it perfect with food. The price is a couple of bucks cheaper than last year too. 91 Pts.

Source: Ce Soir Imports Price: $28 Closure: Conventional Cork

Web: www.galiciano.com

Other Vintages: 2007