Seeing Differently
by Margaret Rand
How, today, can a wine surprise us? And does that element of surprise come by accident, while both we and the wine are, as it were, looking elsewhere, or can...
Country: Spain
The Dilution of Terroir
by Guy Woodward
First up, a trigger warning… I’m approaching this article from the premise that terroir exists. It’s a position to which I would hope most readers of this site would subscribe....
Aiming High
by Tim Atkin
Where are the highest vineyards in Europe. Switzerland? The Alto Adige perhaps? Both have sites that are vertiginous when you compare them to most of the continent’s classic wine regions....
2021 Ca' Leando L'Arenal Monastrell, Valencia
( £18.50, 14%, Noel Young Wines )I tasted this wine as part of a six-pack that my friend Noel Young offered to customers who wanted to support the winemakers of Valencia after the terrible floods last year. And I loved it. It comes from a small 2.6-hectare vineyard called Lloma Rasa, which benefits from being at 550 metres. Made entirely with Monastrell, the best local red grape, it has hints of clove and tobacco leaf from partial whole bunch fermentation, flavours of wild thyme, fennel and rosemary, savoury tannins and a core of plum, strawberry and redcurrant fruit. Quintessentially Mediterranean.
A Different Path
by Margaret Rand
Did any grower ever say, ‘I’m looking for a really cold, wet site – Yorkshire, maybe, or Derbyshire – so I can plant Ortega and Huxelrebe and Rondo’? Equally, how...
Let Me Count The Ways
by Harry Eyres
Once, many moons ago, I was in a bar in Sanlúcar de Barrameda with my friends Tim and Rocío Holt. Possibly I had imbibed one too many copitas of Manzanilla,...
2021 Manda Huevos Carramainas, Calatayud
( £15, 13.2%, The Wine Society )Norrel Robertson MW, known as the Escocés Volante (Flying Scotsman), is making some of the most distinctive wines in northern Spain right now. Manda Huevos – Spanish slang for “no way!” – is a remarkable, barrel-fermented cuvée of Macabeo and 5% Garnacha Blanca from an 85-year-old vineyard at 850 metres in Calatayud. Creamy, spicy and stylishly wooded, it has notes of beeswax and citrus zest, stony intensity and a hint of vanilla spice.
Tailoring Terroir
by Margaret Rand
In London, if you want your friends to hate you, give their dog a squeaky toy. In Ireland, or at least in the house on the West Coast where I’m...
2023 Eidosela Albariño, Rías Baixas
( £12.99, 12.5%, Waitrose )I sampled this good value Albariño in a large line-up at the Consejo Regulador in Pontevedra this week and it really stood out. Sourced from the warmer Condado do Tea region – but tasting more like a white from the cooler, more Atlantic Salnés Valley – it’s crisp, tangy and focused, with jasmine, beeswax and wet stone aromas, plenty of mouth-watering acidity and flavours of passion fruit and lime.
Getting Better All The Time?
by Andy Neather
Dream’s hit Things Can Only Get Better was the theme tune of Britain’s Labour Party in Tony Blair’s 1997 victory, much reprised at Labour’s election landslide earlier this month. It...
Dorothy Parker Wines
by Harry Eyres
For the past three years I’ve been serving on the committee of my local tennis club in west London. Calling it a tennis club is accurate up to a point;...
NV Taste the Difference Cava, Catalonia
( £7.50 until May 14, 11.5%, Sainsbury's )Just the thing if you’re looking for a party fizz – especially at the reduced price until May 14th – this is a Cava made from traditional local grapes, rather than interlopers like Chardonnay. Blending 40% Xarel-lo with 30% each of Macabeo and Parellada, this is a bargain bubbly from Castillo de Perelada, with lots of zip, notes of cream and petrichor, citrus and yellow apple flavours and a hint of sweetness.