Wine Chords

Ribera Rosé

Published 18. August 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

This is a Ribera rosé with lots of character, from a classic winery that is steadily improving, or should we say: modernizing. This wine however has an inspiration from the rosés from earlier times. This can also be seen in the name and the label, porrón being the traditional drinking vessel.

It’s made from predominantly tempranillo (a small part is a historic field-blend). The grapes grow in east-facing plots at an altitude of 800-900 metres. The climate is continental with mediterranean features.

The cultivation is organic with biodynamic methods (Demeter certified). The grapes for this wine are harvested twice, the first one for freshness and the second -also relatively early- for more body. The first harvest undergoes a pre-fermentation maceration for 5 days, the second for 8 days. After a separate malolactic fermentation, the two wines are blended in February and continue their journey together in old barrels and concrete vats where they rest for 11 months. The wine is bottled without filtering, clarification nor addition of sulphur.

El Porrón de Lara 2021 (Peñalba López)

Garnet red. Fresh aroma, ripe red fruits (blueberry, cherry), flowers, earth, a balsamic note. Medium-bodied, juicy and savoury, silky tannins, red berries fruit, good concentration, mineral. Improves with air.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

Great Garnacha from Rioja

Published 11. August 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Carlos Sánchez has a background from Sierra de Gredos (4 Monos). But he had early on fallen in love with the Sonsierra area of Rioja. And here he is. Since 2019 he has used the facilities of the former cooperative in Labastida.

This is a wine from a single plot (0,3 ha.) in San Vicente de la Sonsierra, on 100% garnacha. It’s spontaneously fermented with a high percentage of whole bunches, and kept in large oak barrels. Not clarified nor filtered. A modest production of 1.700 bottles.

Buradón Las Plegarias 2020 (Carlos Sánchez)

Cherry red. Good ripe fruit, red plums, cherry, some strawberry, and a layer of dried herbs and lavender. Good volume, soft and fleshy, fine tannins, integrated acidity. It’s rooted in its landscape, yet has a noble air to it. Really good.

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Wine bars and restaurants and Wine of the Week

Classic classico

Published 4. August 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

I have been a couple of days in Grimstad, Norway, the beautiful seaside town of my childhood. The most inspiring restaurant these days is Smag & Behag. They have also opened another restaurant in neighbouring Kristiansand. But this is the original. The wine list is not very extensive, but they have a magnificent underground cellar, high ambitions – and the selection is well-crafted and consists of organic and natural wines of good quality.

Hans Petter Klemmetsen, founder and chef
(Credit: Smag & Behag)

For a four course meal I selected four wines together with the waiters. The three first wines -young and beautiful- were Brocard‘s saline Chablis Sainte Marie 2022, Domaine de Nozay‘s flinty Sancerre 2022 and Olivier Merlin‘s raspberry-scented Bourgogne Pinot Noir 2021. Instead of going for a dessert with a sweet wine I chose a selection of cheeses and this week’s wine, a classic style Chianti

Castell’in Villa is located in the south of Chianti Classico, just outside the village of Castelnuovo Berardenga east of Siena in Tuscany. The farm is run by the Greek-born Princess Coralia Pignatelli della Leonessa, who lives in a medieval tower on the property. Out of a total of 300 hectares, 54 ha are vineyards that are all grown organically.

The sangiovese grapes are grown in old river deposits with pebbles and sand, in a vineyard planted in the 1960’s. The grapes were picked by hand and spontaneously fermented, before 3 weeks’ skin maceration. The wine is aged in large oak barrels. Unclarified and unfiltered, and low sulfur (<40 mg/l).

Chianti Classico 2018 (Castell’in Villa)

Dark cherry red, with a beginning hint of brown. Aroma of red berries, herbs, leather, mushrooms. Firm and fine-grained tannins, good acidity, notes of tea and plums, with a decent concentration and length.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

Lancelot’s Champagne

Published 28. July 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

At Raw Wine Copenhagen I met Philippe Lancelot, maker of natural wine in Champagne. The estate was created by his parents who both inherited some vineyards, then bought new ones together. Philippe had introduced biodynamic practise for all vineyards by 2012. He wants to express the individuality of each cru and village, almost always completely dry and in most cases without any added sulphur. He showed five magnificent wines, among them Le Fond du Bâteau 2018, from the lieu-dit (named vineyard) of the same name in the surroundings of Choully, a grand cru village in Côte des Blancs. 100% chardonnay, no dosage and zero added sulphites. Light golden, aroma of green apples, citrus, chalk and brioche, concentrated, mineral, long, pure.

The oldest wine he presented was the 2014 vintage of Les Bas des Saran 2014, also pure chardonnay, with no additions. This one comes from four lieux-dits of various grand cru villages, among them Cramant (his home village). It’s vinified in oak barrels and vats, and spent 5 years in the cellars before launch.

Les Bas des Saran 2014 (Phillipe Lancelot)

Light yellow. Discreet floral nose, expressive citrus, brioche. In the mouth it has a dry and tense attack, but develops both creamy and fruity. Concentrated, long, salty.

Price: High

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Wine of the Week

Noble Zweigelt

Published 21. July 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Maria and Sepp Muster of Südsteiermark I met a few years ago at a wine fair in London. I was hugely impressed by their range, and the orange wines I regard as some of the best there is. Last Saturday I visited a new wine bar in the unlikely place of my hometown (sorry, Sandnes!). And this masterpiece of a zweigelt was served blind by Pål, managing director of Tempo vinbar. The bar takes its name from the historic bicycles that were once made right in the same quarter.

Maria and Sepp Muster make vital and beautiful wines in Gamlitz of Südsteiermark, Austria. The soil is composed of stony clay and silt over calcareous marl subsoil.
The grapes for this wine were harvested by hand, de-stemmed and gently pressed. They spontaneously ferment in 2,400-litre wooden barrels. The wine is then stored for approx. 2 years in old wooden barrels. Unfiltered. Nothing added.

Graf Zweigelt 2019 (WeinI. Maria & Sepp Muster)

Cherry red. Aroma of cool red and black fruits (raspberry, blackberry), cranberry, fresh herbs and some earth. Medium-bodied, fine-grained tannins, a lovely integrated acidity, and a long finish.

Price: Medium

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Wine bars and restaurants and Wine of the Week

Asturianos revisited

Published 14. July 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Last evening in Madrid: I haven’t been to the Asturianos restaurant since many years, when I had a tasting of Gredos wines with Belarmino Fernández. Belarmino’s family runs this restaurant in the Chamberí neighbourhood, and he is also in charge of Bodegas Canopy in Méntrida (Toledo province, at the foot of the Gredos mountains) together with his friend Alfonso Chacón.

I had celebrated and good wines like Esporão Reserva Branco 2021 (Alentejo) and Predicador 2020 (B. Romeo, Rioja), of which the restaurant is a distributor, and also Canopy’s varietal syrah Malpaso 2021. Still, when sommelier José Antonio offered me a tasting of their garnachas, this was unquestionably the highlight of the evening.

Belarfonso is put together from the names of the two owners of the bodega. The wine’s origin is in El Real de San Vicente where old garnacha grows in granite soil. It underwent a pre-fermentative cold fermentation, before a malalactic in oak, and spent a short time in French barrels of 500 and 700 liters.

Castillo de Belarfonso 2019 (Bodegas Canopy)

Garnet red. Cherry, herbs, scrubland and a typical ethereal note. Fresh in the mouth, well-integrated tannins, some earth and a hint of coffee and black pepper.

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Wine of the Week

Ponce by Ponce

Published 7. July 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Just back from Bobal country I look back on the best wines during the week. In Manchuela I was welcomed by Juan Antonio Ponce in Villanueva de la Jara (province of Cuenca) a real master of the art.

Bodegas Ponce makes super-elegant and drinkable wines with a very light extraction. Juan Antonio uses only big old wooden containers, whole cluster, and the presence of oak in the wines is zero. He also has a good hand with other varieties such as monastrell that he also makes in a surprisingly elegant style.

The self-titled wine is one of the latest additions to the portfolio of the house, first made as a tribute to the first 15 years of Ponce’s project. It has in short time become something of a prestige wine, and as such maybe surprisingly only 85% bobal, while the rest is moravia agria.

The two varieties ferment separately with native yeasts in wooden vats and with a short maceration. The wine ages for 17 months in large in 600-litre French oak barrels. It’s bottled without filtering or clarifying.

Ponce 2020 (Bodegas Ponce)

Cherry red. Red and black fruits, herbs, a touch of smoke. Medium-bodied, concentrated flavours, mineral and long. Elegant.

Price: Medium/high

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Wine of the Week

When in Arribes

Published 30. June 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

I am in Fermoselle, a lovely village in Zamora province, Castilla y León. This is the heartland of Arribes del Duero, an exciting wine district bordering Portugal. One of the leading small, terroir-focused wineries is El Hato y el Garabato, José Manuel Beneitez López and his wife Liliana Fernández Pérez. The restaurant of my hotel, Posada Doña Urraca, has plenty of good local wines, and my choice is their Sin Blanca.

José and Liliana work with very old vineyards, between 80 and 120 years old, planted in bush style. These are all managed organically, out of conviction and because the structure of the vines, their age and the weather will protect them. In total they work 8 hectares divided into more than 20 plots.

Arribes is a small territory with only 272 hectares. Still the soils are diverse. El Hato y el Garabato take advantage of this as they have vineyards in clayey soils near the river, granite on the plains and schist and slate in the canyon – with altitudes ranging from 300 to almost 800 meters.

Sin Blanca (meaning: broke) is made from the oldest vines in which all the varieties in the vineyard are included. Juan garcía usually counts for 80% accompanied by bruñal (alfrocheiro in Portuguese), bastardillo (also known as bastardo, merenzao and trousseau) and rufete. It spent 9 months in French oak. Like all their wines it’s not filtered nor clarified, and the sulfuring is very low.

Sin Blanca 2017 (El Hato y el Garabato)

Dark cherry red. Red and dark fruits (cherry, blackberry), plum, herbs, stony minerals. Good volume, with an earthy touch and fruit all the way.

Price: Medium

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Wine bars and restaurants

Go to Gota

Published 25. June 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Gota is a relatively new wine bar in Madrid, in the Chueca district. It’s quite hidden, with no signposts. You simply have to know where it is and look for the doorbell, that is the only place you can find the name. I popped in a couple of hours ago. I have booked my first visit to Les Mouvais Garçons, a few blocks away, tonight. But the talk of the town said that I should pay Gota a visit, so there was no time left, as I leave tomorrow.

Manager is Fede Graciano from Argentina. He opened Acid Café near Atocha some years ago, which is recommended for coffee freaks, and Acid Bakehouse (I think it was later). Nahuel is his sommelier, when he’s not making his own natural wine in El Tiemblo, Gredos.

At Gota they specialize in natural wines and homemade kombuchas. They offer a sharing menu that works well with their wine list. They specialize in music of various types, that can be as “acid” as the wines and reflecting the name of the original bar. But don’t think of it as a noisy place, it’s a haven, relaxed and perfect for wine lovers who want to disconnect after a hard day at work.

I had two wines at this first try.

Verbena 2022 (Uva de Vida), a pét nat from Santa Olalla in the Toledo province, based on graciano and tempranillo made with direct press, malolactic, three months on lees and no additions.

Ruby red, with bubbles. Smells of cherries and flowers. Rounded in the mouth, no sharp acidity, but still fresh and saline. The wine is simple, but Herbie Hancock’s music is complex, says Nahuel, referring to what plays in the background.

1301 2021 (Samuel Párraga), an orange wine vijiriega from the Málaga province partly made under flor.

Amber colour. On the nose, oxidized notes, like almonds and nuts, and flowers. Full and savoury, with a salty finish.

The pét nat went with an oyster, and the orange wine with rugbrød (I recognized the Norwegian/Danish spelling there), sourdough bread with butter and anchovies.

A place to go to when in Madrid.

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Wine of the Week

Generous Godello

Published 23. June 2023 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

What started in the old synagogue of Ponferrada in the 1940’s is now carried on by 3rd generation. Manuel Benito Otero runs the family business with his wife Merche and their daughters Encina and Marina, whose initial syllables gave the winery its name. It was in 2013 that the need to have production facilities near the vineyards made them move to the beautiful village of Molinaseca outside Ponferrada.

The Otero family’s vines are planted between an altitude of 600 and 650 m in soils with a mix of slate and clay. The 10 hectares of vineyards, with up to 120 years old vines, are all worked completely organic.

Un Botón is a village wine in the Bierzo classification hierarchy, from Ponferrada. It’s made from 100% godello, dry-farmed in aluvial soils. The grapes are destemmed and cold-macerated cold for a few hours (by dry ice). Then goes into a pneumatic press. Once the fermentation with yeasts has started, the must is racked into oak barrels and foudres and a small stainless steel tank where it ferments at controlled temperatures. The wine remains in contact with its lees, with batônnage, for a minimum of 6 months.

Para Muestra Un Botón Godello 2019 (Encima Wines)

Yellow colour. Aroma of yellow tomatoes, hints of lemon, stony minerality. Full in the mouth, glyceric, creamy, with integrated acidity. It’s not oaky; the wood in a way enhances the fruitiness.

Price: Medium

Food: Light meat, cheese, rice dishes, fish and shellfish. Best served at room temperature.

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