Category: Wine of the Week

Bernabé’s Tragolargo

Published 4. March 2016 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Rafa Bernabé makes highly original wines in the Alicante province of Spain, and -as I have showed in earlier posts such as this one– is a Spanish authority on the use of clay vessels in winemaking.

Made from the Mediterranean grape monastrell (mourvèdre). Spontaneous fermentation.

Tragolargo 2013 (Bernabé Navarro)

Dark, deep red. Dark fruits, blackcurrant, blackberry, garden flowers. Luscious, yeasty, fresh, nicely acid, and with a slightly “funky” natural wine aftertaste. The 14% of alcohol was barely noticed.

Price: Low

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Wine of the Week

Poggio al Vento Riserva 2007

Published 26. February 2016 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

A recent tasting of Brunello and Rosso di Montalcino showed a great variety of styles, from the classic wines of Banfi, the structured Fonterenzas, the “wild” Il Paradiso di Manfredo, some top end, and some old…

This was one of the best, but definitely not the most expensive. Located by the Sant’Angelo hill in the extreme south of Montalcino, Col d’Orcia has delivered good value organic wines on the fruity side for many years now. This is a special reserve that originates in a special vineyard in a (as the name suggests) “windy ridge” overlooking the river Orcia.

Grapes from the different parts were kept separate, the alcoholic fermentation was carried out in stainless steel and the malolactic in concrete. Then followed four years in big oak barrels.

Poggio al Vento Riserva 2007 (Col d’Orcia)

Dark, deep colour with hints of development. Fruity, quite cool with cherries and morello, some spice and balsamic notes. Full, lots of soft tannins, a matching acidity, and a long and lightly spicy aftertaste. Delicious now and, for me, the next 5 years or so. Good airing recommended.

Price: High (not for a brunello riserva, but generally speaking)

Food: Wild boar and a lot more

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Wine of the Week

Malvasija, spelled the Slovenian way

Published 19. February 2016 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Here is a really lovely orange wine, and it’s not produced in one of the countries that we would call “classic”. But not far away either, because both sides of the Italian-Slovenian border share many winemaking principles, such as the “classic” ones of organic cultivation, prolonged skin contact for white wines, and maturing in clay vessels.

This wine has been a favourite for several years, and when I met Vasja Čotar at RAWfair a couple of years ago I took the opportunity to taste through most of the range, wines made from vitovska, friulano, teran, and some merlot, cabernet and such – and a very interesting passito from refosco too. The Čotar family has been in the forefront of organic winemaking in Slovenia since they started in 1974, in the small town of Gorjansko in the hills of the Karst region, close to the border against Friuli. All of them express the limestone ground with its red, iron-rich topsoil, where the cool winds from the coast some 5 kilometers away have a temperating effect on the climate. There are also quite harsh winter winds struggling to have an impact on the wines.

Vasja Čotar at RAWfair, London

The 2006 from malvasija istriana underwent an 8 days fermentation with skins in open vats, matured in big wooden vessels (2000 liters). Needless to say, no added yeast, enzyme, sulphites…

The whites bear Vasja’s fingerprints

Malvazija 2006 (Čotar)

Deep yellow, towards orange. Aroma of mature apple, citrus, dried apricots, and a hint of sweet spices. Full on the palate, grapey and quite smooth, but with a touch of tannin, and with a saline farewell.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

Els Bassots, a Catalunya chenin with character

Published 12. February 2016 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

There is a huge clay vessel at the entrance of the Escoda-Sanahuja winery in Conca de Barberà, that gives us a hint of what to expect. I have reported on Joan Ramón Escoda and his wines several times, so I will make this short. Let me just say that I simply love this wine. Made from all chenin blanc, fermented spontaneously, matured in 720 liters amphorae, un-fined and un-sulphured. Light and full of taste at the same time, delicious on its own or with almost any food. It’s one of those wines that I really feel have a story to tell, but where the plot is somehow hidden in some mysterious cloud too, one of the wines that make me want to quote long passages from some favourite novel, and where title of the so far un-written tale The bearable lightness of being is especially apt.

I would have called it an orange wine, as it smells like “long skin contact”, but the colour is quite light; yellow, just on the verge of going over to orange. Smells of red berries, flowers, yellow tomatoes… Concentrated yet light, grapey, long and dry, with a hint of salty minerality.

Price: Medium

Food: Delicious on its own, for meditation… But try it to almost any kind of food, from the shells of the sea to the partridge of the forest, or the thrush that bathes in the puddle (that I believe is the translation of bassot)….

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Wine of the Week

A varietal graciano from Rioja

Published 5. February 2016 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Positive news from Rioja: Another terroir-oriented company, this time David Sampedro and DSJ Vineyards, a man and a company with projects in several Spanish DO’s such as Rioja, Navarra, Valencia and Rías Baixas. Common for these wines are indigenous varieties, organic farming, little intervention along the way and wines that express their terroir.

This one is a 100% graciano from the high Elvillar area in Rioja Alavesa. In this project he is now working to get a biodynamic certification. The company is also called Bodegas Bhilar, from the Basque word for Elvillar. The Lágrimas is the only varietal in the portfolio, made with purchased grapes.

Lágrimas de Graciano 2014 (Bodegas Bhilar/ DSG Vineyards)

Dark red with a violet tinge. Fruity with aromas of red berries, some blackcurrant, aromatic herbs, a hint of lickorice too. Luscious with a slight tannin grip.

Price: Low

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Wine of the Week

Pure magic from Gredos

Published 29. January 2016 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

This time our Wine of the Week was sampled in the Cork wine bar of Bilbao. But the wine itself is from the middle of the country. Spain, that is.

This is from a project of Dani Landi and Fernando García’s, Comando G. The G stands for garnacha, here grown in three small parcels on granite 850 meters above sea level in Rozas de Puerto Real (Madrid),

The Bruja, by the way, is taken from a children’s program from the 80’s, when the winemakers grew up, called ‘the Crystal Ball’, as Dani told me when I visited them last year..

La Bruja Avería 2014 (Comando G)

Light red. Aromas of dark red fruit, cherries, herbs, and a slight touch of coffee. Light in appearance, yet quite concentrated, and good acidity that gives it a lot of freshness.

Price: Medium

Food: Tonight I had it with a pintxo of beef tenderloin on a bed of mushrooms, with a delicate syrup. But this versatile wine will go to a variety of fish and light meat too.

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Wine of the Week

A natural green wine

Published 22. January 2016 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Fernando Paiva has been one of the pioneers of biodynamic farming in Portugal, making whites from loureiro, arinto, and azal grapes for white, and reds from vinhão. He is based in Sousa, a sub-region of Vinho Verde (literally “green wine”, the Minho region’s wine name) with less than average rainfall and no direct influence from the Atlantic. At the same time the climate is more moderate compared to the extreme cold nights and winters and summer heat of the inland, so we could consider it a transition area. Azal is one of the grapes that benefit from this, as it’s more difficult to ripen, compared to, say alvarinho.

Life at the quinta

Our wine is a 100% loureiro, a grape that thrieves in the whole region. The must had a spontaneous fermentation, spent almost a year on fine lees, and additions of SO2 is very scarce. It’s rich and smooth-textured compared with more well-known loureiros, but the high acidity (almost 10 g/L) makes it very appealing.

Simple and delicious fare

Quinta da Palmirinha 2014 (Fernando Paiva)

Quite deep yellow with a greenish hue. Aromas of yellow apple, lime, herbs, nuts and a hint of smoke. Inspiring and fresh acidity, that makes it last in the mouth.

Price: Low

Food: Fish, shellfish, white meat

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Wine of the Week

Hidden treasure from Gredos

Published 15. January 2016 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

…

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Wine of the Week

A pure Jura yellow wine

Published 8. January 2016 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

With the typical comté

This wine I tasted today in the Remedy wine bar in London. It comes from a single vineyard belonging to Château Chalon in the French Jura region, a so-called “vin jaune” (yellow wine), and a very good representative for the species too. They are aged under a layer of yeast, like fino sherry, and like this one they typically come in 62 cl bottles.

The producer puts “Vin de Garde” in the middle of the front label. And many tastings have shown that even if they are delicious now they are able to develop over several decenniums as well.

Domaine Macle 2007 (Château Chalon)

A yellow to orange coloured Vin Jaune. Pure scented with elements of almonds, citrus, apricots and some salty mineral notes. Grapey, silky-smooth on the palate, nutty and long.

Price: Medium/High

Food: Comté (cow’s milk cheese from the region), a variety of white and light meat, a whole range of tapas too

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Wine of the Week

Bourgueil wine for a drunken night?

Published 1. January 2016 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Anyway that’s the meaning of the expression Nuit d’Ivresse. It’s in the middle of the Loire valley that this wine starts its life, on limestone and clay-silex ground. Catherine and Pierre Breton has 6 hectars of vineyards in the Borgueil-Chinon-Vouvray area, and they made their first Ivresse wine without addition of SO2 in 1992.

The wine is certified organic, made from cabernet franc grapes, and has undergone a three week long fermentation that startet with indigenious yeasts. Both malolactic and a 12 month ageing was done in two year old barrels, and the wine was bottled unfined and unfiltered – and again without addition of sulphur.

I first tasted this wine in a wine club in 2014. Now I came across it again, and while slightly more evolved it still had a lot of lovely fruit.

Nuits d’Ivresse 2011 (C. & P. Breton)

Dark red. Aromas of blackcurrant, raspberry, a bit balsamic, Earl Grey tea. Less structured than last time, but still with a certain grip, just lovely, and with just the right acidity and concentration for “inspired” drinking.

Price: Medium

Food: Red and light meat, game, hard cheeses

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