Aragon
Reino de los Mallos (Murillo del Gallego)
This winery is in the village of Murillo del Gallego and takes its name from the huge jutting rock formations of Aguero and Riglos, the “kingdom of the mountains”, the foothills of the Pyrenees. A bold, slightly sweaty, blend of Cabernet, Merlot and Garnacha.
Carinena
Piquer (Muel)
From Carinena, a sub-section of Aragon with its own Official Denomination (D.O), in the foothills of the Pyrenees, we bring you an excellent, characterful red by Manuel Piquer in hot, dry Muel. “Lelia” is an old-vine Grenache without a hint of oak to let the fruit shine through and has become a firm Winery favourite. Our shop was overrun when Manuel visited The Winery with a posse of 14 family members recently.
Chapillon (Muel)
Christophe Chapillon is the (surprisingly) French man who, while working at Vinicola Real in Rioja, introduced us to our phenomenally popular Spanish red “Lelia”. He recently sourced some old vine Syrah and Merlot, and asked Manuel Piquer, the wine-maker of Lelia, to make it for him. Something of a maverick businessman, Christophe now lives in Zaragoza with his Spanish wife and is very pleased to have named this wine after himself.
Castilla y Leon
The old kingdom of Castilla y Leon provided a fertile hunting ground on our recent trip to Spain. From the green, rainswept hills of Bierzo on the Pilgrims Trail to Santiago de Compostela in Galicia to the much hotter, dustier landscape of Ribera del Duero, the Duero valley 150kms due north of Madrid, made famous by Vega Sicilia and Pesquera and often held to be the source of the finest wines in Spain.
Finca Cardaba (Valtienda)
There is an excellent Asador in Aranda del Duero called El Pastor (The Shepherd). It’s the classic local grill restaurant, where they do just one thing, roast spring lamb with salad and a hunk of bread. Xavier Sancha has two jobs, one as lamb-roaster in the family restaurant, the other overseeing his spanking new winery in the otherwise rustic, cattle village of Valtiendas to the south, where he makes more-ish, fleshy reds from Tempranillo vines by the house he shares with his girlfriend Nurio.
Garmendia (Vizmalo/Burgos) ORGANIC
Patxi Garmendia became the biggest supplier of partridge in Europe and has now built an organic winery (complete with winemaker who looks like a freedom fighter) and started rearing Wagyu beef in the countryside southwest of Burgos. His Blanco is a 50/50 blend of zizzy, grassy Verdejo (a grape best known from nearby Rueda) with the softer, oilier Viura (best known from white Rioja). His reds are beautifully-made Tempranillos with deep saturated fruit.
Bierzo
Demencia (Ponferrada)
Mencia is the name of the grape. An old, indigenous variety being brought back to life by young winemakers in northwest Spain. A total contrast to many other heavy Spanish reds, Mencia is usually a crisp, fresh red with low tannins (that’s the tea-like mouth coating sensation you experience with heavy, young, red wines). In the right hands it is tipped (by us) to become the Pinot Noir of northern Spain. The right hands belong to three young(-ish) men, each with day jobs, making just 1,924 bottles of this very arty red wine in a garage in the lush, green, rain-soaked and very hilly region of Bierzo on the Pilgrims’ Trail to Santiago de Compostela. Demencia – of Mencia – demented, get it? They know they’re crazy.
Ribera del Duero
Alvides (Villalba de Duero)
Alvides is a family Bodega. Concha’s father founded the Co-op in Aranda del Duero in 1962. They have 15 ha of vines, some between 60-80 years old, others between 15-30. Enter 33 year-old Emmanuel Ivar who studied winemaking in the Loire and moved to Ribera del Duero. Known locally as Manuel, he has been making wine for 10 large estates in the area. Concha has given him free reign at Alvides to do his own thing. Picked in 20kg baskets, some destemming, 2 or 3 days cold maceration, 30-40 days on the skins. Every level of wine from Joven through Crianza up to the Reserva are treated to some time in oak. Crianza and above are fermented in barrique and there is much stirring of the lees. The results are excellent – we find a high dark fruit content in the nose (with a touch of vanilla – from the oak) and a fabulous suppleness in the mouth. Truly a modern expression of Ribera del Duero.
Arco de Curiel (Curiel)
If you ask the Spanish which region makes their finest wine you will often be surprised to hear it’s not Rioja but Ribera del Duero (unless you are actually in La Rioja, of course). Around 150kms north of Madrid, in the old kingdom of Castille y Leon, between Valladolid and Zaragoza, Ribera del Duero combines the deep, gutsy, sweaty tones we associate with Spanish reds with silky elegance. Tempranillo is the grape – known as Tinto del Pais here.
We were delighted to discover Arco de Curiel, made in the shadow of the rather large gateway into the rather small village of Curiel outside Peñafiel. When we visited in June we were given the full tour of every vineyard and a nearby cliff populated by vultures. This beautiful Roble is bold, deep and gutsy. Rich, oaky, plummy and yet elegant and makes the perfect match with the locals’ favourite food – grilled spring lamb with green salad and a hunk of bread. Yum.
Murcia
Jumilla
Silvano Garcia (Jumilla)
Final part of our previous trip was through the lunar landscape of Murcia (bottom right of the Iberian Peninsula) to sniff out some Monastrell. Monastrell may or may not be Mourvedre, expert opinion is divided. At its best it has exactly what we were hoping for – recognisably sweaty overtones, like Bandol in Provence.
The small town of Jumilla was where we found it. 36 year-old Silvano Garcia bought an old Co-op six years ago, knocked down everything beyond the concrete tanks just behind the front wall and now he and his three employees rattle around in an oversized Bodega. He makes exciting, deep, blackcurranty reds, with the slightly sweaty thrill of the chase, and the unexpected bonus of two outstanding sweet wines. Moscatel which bowled us over with its complexity and a Monastrell Dulce, monstrous enough to beat any chocolate dessert into submission!
La Rioja
World famous Rioja is 100km south of Bilbao and protected by mountains on either side; the Sierra Cantabria to the East and the Sierra de la Demanda to the West. It is divided into three subzones: Riojas Alta, Alavesa and Baja. Most commercial Rioja is a blend from all three. Rioja Baja, with its hotter continental climate was considered a bit rougher than Alta and Alavesa with their maritime influence, relying more on Garnacha (Grenache) than Tempranillo which was more prevalant in the Alta and Alavesa. This is no longer the case. Many growers in Baja replanted to Tempranillo and the best are making wines to equal their more rarified neighbours to the North West. We also mustn’t forget the other authorised grapes which also have a part to play in the classic Rioja blend: Mazuelo (Carignan) for guts and body, and Graciano for colour and elegance.
Rioja has always been a political hothouse. It was the first region to establish its own Denominacion de Origen, rigorously policed by the Consejo Regulador in Logrono. The current controversy is that the Basques are claiming the Rioja Alavesa for themselves. Such is the power of the Consejo Regulador that they have stated, yes, secede by all means, but you will no longer be able to call your Alavesa wines Rioja. This leaves the Basques in a bit of a quandary!
Bodegas Abeica (Abalos/Rioja Alta)
Coming across Isabel Fernandez’s Longrande in the brilliant Casa Toni restaurant in San Vicente de la Sonsierra was a revelation. We had to beg to see her, largely to overcome her fear of export.
She is as full of personality as her wines. Fiery, energetic, 40-something Isabel started full time in the family bodega at the age of 25. Both sides of her family had vineyards and she now has 35ha around the village of Abalos in Rioja Alta over the road from the Alavesa. The small bodega, built by her parents, is on three levels to make the best use of gravity. Grapes (always picked by family members) are sorted in the vineyards, arrive in baskets at the top level and placed directly into the tanks where they ferment in whole clusters. Although they have owned three pneumatic presses in the last 13 years, Isabel says they almost invariably end up treading the fermenting must by foot. A cool malolactic fermentation then takes place in tank and is generally over by December. Isabel is at pains to keep the whole process as natural as possible. No filtering, sometimes a little natural fining. She even hermetically seals her subterranean barrel room with masking tape. She uses only American oak, which she thinks suits her wines better, giving them a little longer in barrel to compensate for the lighter effect of American rather than French oak. Finally, she determines the bottling date biodynamically, according to the cycles of the moon. Her wines are fascinating: perfumed, with a beautiful purity of fruit and surprising body and structure. All her wines benefit from an hour in a decanter.
Heredad Pangua Sodupe (San Asensio/Rioja Alta)
When we visited cigar-chomping, Che Guevara look-alike Roberto Pangua Sodupe in San Asensio, in the Rioja Alta last summer, we said yes to lunch after our tasting. Little did we know it was going to involve the entire contents of the local butcher’s barbequed over vine cuttings and would make us 4 hours late for our next meeting. You only live once. It almost ended there and then. His family has worked the vines for as long as anyone can remember, but it was time to go it alone – so he started the Bodega in 1998. He uses mainly American oak, but has been experimenting with Spanish, French, Hungarian oak, Acacia and Cherry. He told us that Cherry and Chestnut were widely used in the area in the past.
Bodegas Vinicola Real (Albelda de Iregua/Rioja Alta) SOME ORGANIC
Miguel Angel is the energetic, moustachioed owner and winemaker of this brilliant estate in the Rioja Alta. His 200 Monges is an excellent balance of old and new. New, clean, winemaking techniques with old values. The slightly sweaty nose of the Tempranillo grape with a saturated core of dark, red fruit. When we visited him in June, he took us into the hills above the village and showed us his gnarly, old windswept vines. Old vines make good juice. His Vina Los Vallos bottlings are organic.
