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Outstanding from Ourense

Published 10. January 2025 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

We had this wine at the Pura Cepa restaurant in Murcia. It was chosen from a quite extensive by the glass menu to go with a savoury turbot dish.

The Lagar de Sabaríz winery is located in San Amaro in Ourense, Galicia, that is just outside the boundaries of the DO Ribeiro. The founder Pilar Higuero works her vineyards biodynamically, though the climate is heavily influenced by the Atlantic and has high yearly rainfall.

The vineyard covers four hectares, at 400 metres above sea level, high for Ribeiro. The soil is granitic, which is typical for the area.

A Pita Cega is the Galician name for a children’s game. The varieties are mainly treixadura and albariño, with a collection of other grapes.

Grape bunches are pressed with stems and the must ferments with natural yeasts. The wine doesn’t undergo malolactic fermentation and there is no bâtonnage. It ages for 1 year in stainless steel, and a little sulphur dioxide is added before bottling.

The bottles weigh less than 400 g. And they bear no labels, as Pilar herself paints every bottle by hand. The corks come from protected forests.

A Pita Cega 2015 (Lagar de Sabariz)

Pale cold yellow colour. Fresh aroma of apricot, citrus (baked lemon), pears and white flowers, towards a flinty background. In the mouth it’s fresh with a granitic minerality, with a lot of nerve, and with a slightly bitter and pleasant, long aftertaste. This is outstanding quality, The freshness is impressive for a wine of this age, and it should have many years ahead.

Price: Medium

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Some reds at La Gracia, Murcia

Published 6. January 2025 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

It’s always a pleasure to come back to La Gracia natural wine bar in the centre of Murcia. They have a small but carefully crafted selection of wines. And I know I can trust sommelier Esperanza Pérez and let her just chose something.

This Christmas and New Year I visited twice. Though the temperature was quite low we chose to sit outside, so the descriptions might suffer a bit. I had two wines that I have described before. You can read about the local Negrete 2021 (Negre- T Blue) here and Navaciegos (Cható Gañán), Gredos here. Sorry, I didn’t get the vintage of the latter, but it was probably 2019.

Here follow two wines that both were perfect for a cold winter’s afternoon, with 15 and 14,5% alcohol respectively.

Ninja de las Uvas 2022 is made by Julia Casado, or La del Terreno, as she calls her project. It’s located in the Sierra de Lavia regional park in Murcia, and the wine comes under the designation DO Bullas. We are in monastrell country, but this wine is in fact made of garnacha tinta. It’s made with grapes from 20 year old vines planted in clay and calcareous gravel soil at 750 metres above sea level and tended organically. The grapes are 90% destemmed and macerated for 15 days, with malolactic fermentation in used barrels. Bottled without being filtered, clarified or adding sulphur. It’s a unique wine with some warmth, but with a lovely fruit quality (morello, plums), complemented by aromatic herbs and coffee. It fills the mouth with its roundness and is perfect in the cold Murcian winter.

Ars Nova 2016 is from Navarra, made by Bodega Tandem, that is José Maria Fraile and Alicia Eyaralar. They are committed to little intervention. The grapes are cultivated in the Yerri valley, in western Navarra, that is, as sommelier Esperanza points out, close to Rioja Alavesa.

It’s made of Navarra’s trilogy of grapes, cabernet sauvignon, merlot and tempranillo. Fermentation took place at controlled temperatures of 28°C, with a careful extraction. Pumps were not used, instead, the wine was racked by gravity into concrete vats. The wine was not cold stabilised or fined. It spent 24 months in concrete vats, followed by nine months in French oak. Super black fruit, with olive and spice. It’s full in the mouth, with nice concentration. Perfect for this kind of setting.

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Wine of the Week

Sparkling new year

Published 3. January 2025 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

This wine was opened to salute the new year 2025.

Raventós i Blanc is one of the leading producers of sparkling wine in Catalunya. Pepe Raventós has family links to the creator of the drink that came to be called cava. Still he was one of the first to leave the DO Cava, to establish his own appellation Conca del Riu Anoia. It is located in the Penedés comarca (area), in a valley between the Prelitoral and Litoral mountain ranges.

Raventós i Blanc makes mineral and saline wines, at a quality that is incredibly stable. I have never been disappointed.

De la Finca comes from a vineyard known as Vinya dels Fòssils. The old bush-trained vines were planted in 1964 on the highest terraces of the Anoia, on a soil covered with marine fossils. The orientation is predominantly northern, and there is spontaneous plant covers, that contribute to bring freshness to the wine. Viticulture is biodynamic. The grapes are the traditional blend xarel.lo, macabeu and parellada. Each variety and soil is vinified separately before settling together.

De La Finca 2021 (Raventós i Blanc)

Light straw yellow with fine bubbles. Aromas of lemon, yeast, lime and brioche, over a layer of smoke and herbs. Mineral in the mouth, a little austere, with a fresh acidity, completely dry. It’s Mediterranean in its ripeness, but it also shows a fresh side. Wonderfully balanced.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

Fresh Mediterranean red

Published 27. December 2024 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

El Tiempo que nos une is one of the entry-level reds from Bodega Cerrón. They regard it as a tribute to family viticultural work. In fact it’s a Jumilla wine that don’t come from Murcia, as the winegrowing area also comprises a part of Albacete (Castilla-La Mancha).

Bodega Cerrón is a family project located in Fuente-Álamo, in Albacete. They are dedicated to recovering abandoned vineyards through organic and biodynamic practices and producing wines with a good balance between acidity, alcohol and fruit.

El Tiempo que nos une comes from pre-phylloxera vineyards with an average age of 70 years. They are old vines planted in mostly calcareous soils at an altitude of about 900 meters above sea level. Organic farming is carried out, and harvest is manual.

In the winery it undergoes spontaneous fermentation with 50% whole grapes in cement tanks, and after gentle pressing, the wine ages in foudres for 6 months.

El Tiempo Que Nos Une 2023 (Bodega Cerrón)

Dark cherry red. Aromas of ripe black fruit, spice and white flowers. Decent concentration. Fresh and juicy in the mouth, balsamic, medium-bodied with fine-grained tannins. Typically Mediterranean and a good representative of its origin.

Price: Low

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Wine of the Week

The avant-garde of Aragón

Published 20. December 2024 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Mario López is winemaker for Vinos López and Bodegas Frontonio. These wineries, both in the IG Valdejalón, can be regarded as the avant-garde of Aragón at the moment.

Mario runs the family winery Vinos López together with his brother. It was their grandfather who planted the vineyards in the 1960s.

Aragón is mostly noted for big companies and cooperatives, and DOs that have favoured international grape varieties. The region has a long tradition for the grape garnacha though (along with the white macabeo), and here is where López’ and his companions’ dedication lie.

This wine originates in the La Bodegaza vineyard, a planting carried out in the 1960s. Low yields from organic cultivation without irrigation. Directly pressed, spontaneously fermented with a proportion whole bunches, and matured in old demi-muids (600-liter barrels). Natural fining.

La Bodegaza 2021 (Vinos López)

Ruby red. Aroma of black cherries and plums towards a background of herbs, earth and a hint of licorice. Medium-bodied with juicy berry fruit, delicate texture, fresh acidity and a firm finish. It’s a superbly balanced, drinkable wine.

Price: Medium (very good value)

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Wine of the Week

A fresh ripasso

Published 13. December 2024 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

This wine was presented at a bring-a-bottle tasting in my local wine club. It shows a more fresh side of the ripasso style, as opposed to the more heavy and raisiny wines often found in the category.

The Musella Estate is located close to the village of Ferrazze, east of Verona, where their vineyards are biodynamically farmed.

Their ripasso has been produced since 1995. At the winery, unpressed amarone pomace is macerated with the fresh valpolicella (the so-called ripasso method). This enhances the colour and structure of the wine. The wine undergoes 12-15 days of fermentation and maceration on the skins with periodic racking followed by malolactic fermentation. The wine is then transferred to barrels of various sizes for 12 months.

Valpolicella Ripasso 2020 (Musella)

Cherry red. Some fresh fruit, such as cherry, plums and blackcurrant. Behind is a layer of cinnamon and clove, and dried fruits, and also a hint of chocolate. Medium-bodied, with fine tannins, and a refreshing acidity. Finishes quite long.

Price: Medium

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Wine of the Week

Bernabeleva Carril del Rey 2016

Published 6. December 2024 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

Bernabeleva is located in San Martín de Valdeiglesias, in the community of Madrid. They work with a respect for balance with nature, though they don’t aim for certifications. Their wines express the characteristics of the vineyards and their surroundings.

This wine is made from 75 year old garnacha vines in a gently sloping south facing plot. This site has granitic soil, shallow at the top and deep at the lower part. The parcel covers 2.5 hectares.

Maceration lasts over 40 days, during which the wine is pigeaged in the oak tank. Malolactic fermentation takes place in French oak barriques, where the wine remains as long as necessary. It is neither stabilized nor filtrated.

The wine was selected for a private dinner and showed some maturity, but still has much life ahead. Maybe it’s at its peak now.

Carril del Rey 2016 (Bernabeleva)

Very light red. Delicate and complex nose, with red fruits and aniseed. Some warmth, fine tannins, good acidity, good concentration and length. Superelegant wine, it’s individualistic yet a good representative for its origin.

Price: High

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Wine of the Week

Cornas at its peak

Published 29. November 2024 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

The Reynard vineyard is on a beautiful, terraced granite hillside that overlooks the village of Cornas and is bordered by cedar trees.

Christopher Moestue, a knowledgeable and respected Norwegian importer, bought a plot at the top of the Reynard, and he got Vincent Paris to vinify. The 2007 was served at a private tasting a couple of weeks ago. The wine was maybe at its peak.

Cornas Coteaux de Reynard 2007 (Vign. Moestue)

Dark red with touches of brick. Scent of blackberry, pepper and cooked sauce, over a layer of dried fruits and cinnamon. Meaty in the mouth where fruit still remains, polished tannins, still with some acidity. Good concentration and a long finish. Superb now, for my taste it will not get any better than this.

Price: High

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Wine of the Week

Nouveau day again

Published 22. November 2024 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

It’s beaujolais nouveau day again. The best producers have made light and delicate wines, while those from the more commercial wine houses are generally more thin.

Foillard and Brun are among those all time favourites who excel in this context. Dupond, that I discovered A couple of years ago, is delivering again. Last year’s find was Perrachon.

As I wrote then, Laurent Perrachon is based outside Juliénas and harvests six appellations. Martine and Laurent are fifth generation, and the sixth is also involved in the family business.

This nouveau is made exclusively from grapes grown in the Chânes municipality on granite and blue stone soil. The wine underwent 5 days carbonic maceration.

Beaujolais Nouveau 2024 (Perrachon)

Dark cherry. Red fruits, predominantly raspberry and strawberry, with some dark berries and flowers. Fresh in the mouth, soft tannins, good acidity, and a very generous fruit.

Price: Low

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Wine of the Week

Jura with the Mont d’Or

Published 15. November 2024 by Vidar Kenneth Johansen

This exceptional white wine from Jura was served in a private dinner a couple of weeks ago. It was paired with a vacherin mont d’or, one of the region’s formidable cheeses.

It was aged for more than 36 months under a veil of yeast (“sous voile”), and shows a delicate balance between the nutty richness of a vin jaune and the fruitiness of a young savagnin.

Grown in clay soils the savagnin grape is perfect for oxidative winemaking without fortification. The result is a wine with a complex flavour, reminiscent of a fino sherry, but without the added alcohol.

Savagnin Sous Voile 2019 (B&STissot)

Light golden. Oxidation notes with nuts, dried fruits, salt- and a flowery note. Rich in the mouth, concentrated with good acidity, and good length. It’s both delicate and full of depth.

Price: Medium

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