To Spain I go

One of the major European players that I don’t know much about is Spain. I have always been a bit hesitant when ordering Spanish wine, and it is often lost on extensive lists of French or Italian wines. The history of Spain’s winemaking history is interesting, with the amount of foreign influence that has taken place from the Moors to the influx of French talent when Phylloxera ripped through the French vineyards. Scores of French winemakers moved across their common border, closing their chateau to open a bodega. The influence of French winemaking, bringing 60 gallon French barrels, noble varietals, and putting their touch on Tempranillo, Garnacha, and other native Spanish grapes is what has formed the Spanish wine industry to what it is today. Now Spain has the largest total acreage in the world and produces the third most wine of any country.

When I think of Spanish wine I think of value, of unknown vineyards, hot, dry weather, and inevitably Sangria (which I did not taste today). The first wine I tasted today was a Cava, a sparking wine made by the traditional Methode Champenoise, fermented on its lees in the same bottle in which it is sold. This wine was nice and light, nothing exceptional, but good enough as an aperitif. This exemplifies what should be, a joke rather than a conversation, a greeting rather than a meeting. I have difficulty picking out characteristics when drinking sparkling wine, but after the bubbles faded in the Dibon Brut Cava I got minerals, pear, and green apple. What makes this wine special was that it was $8, whereas an equivalent French or Californian sparkling wine would be $15-20.

This nice intro to our Spanish tasting opened the door to a beautiful Albariño, a white that I had not previously tasted. I was told that it resembled Viognier, and one sniff of the gold liquid and it let out a scream of peach and orange zest. The Paco and Lola Albariño from the Basque region of Rias Baixes was as refreshing as a Sauvignon Blanc but as flavorful as a Roussanne. Spanish white wine still offers me a lot of unknowns, as the early Sherry trade faded, the cool fields of the North and the hot plateaus of the center of the country began to produce a multitude of small production varietals.

After tasting through three reds, I got a small example of what reds offer. All of them were well balanced, characteristically sound, and well priced, and for the cost, there was no real weak wine. I am trying to pick a few things out about Tempranillo, as this is a difficult grape to really define. While tasting a 100% Tempranillo from Ribera del Duero, I got a very earthy wine, with pine and tannins battling American Oak. I still need to taste further as I still cannot define exactly what I will get from a Tempranillo next time I approach it.

My favorite wine of the night was the 06 ROJO Garnacha priced at $9. Garnacha is the Spanish name for Grenache, and I would like to thank the French for refining it here! This wine was very fruit forward, with ripe black cherry, vanilla bean, and white pepper. My group argued a bit when I threw out the idea that the wine was old world. I felt that because the wine seemed to speak so loudly, there were no chemicals or sulfur noticeable in the nose and the wine made me feel like I was drinking it straight out of the barrel at the winery.

What an exciting tasting this was today for me, the world of wine is ever growing, and I am learning more and more about it with every sip. I do see myself moving towards Spanish wine, if not for value only, but for that fact that the quality truly is at the level of all of the other fine wine regions in the world.