First one is from the legendary Wine Lovers Page, and is noted in their 30 second wine advisor section. They highlight this week a tempranillo from Tierra de Castilla, called: Bodegas Tikalo 2004 “Rubens”. Giving it a thumbs up they recommend others seek out small treasures from Spain’s lesser known regions. Read their Spanish wine tasting note here.

The second is from a place that when I think of it I rarely think of Spanish wine, Honolulu. Todd Ashline the manager and sommelier of Chef Mavro restaurant, has a nice article about Spanish wine and the importer Jorge Ordonez. Check out his article on Spanish wine here.

It’s spring time and summers just around the corner. Today, as I walked over to the 20th editon of Gourmetour, I was blessed with a slight breeze that cut down the sun’s growing heat in Madrid. However, despite the heat, everything has been green and beautiful as a result of some brief heavy rains - quite the exception considering the past few years. The weather, in combination with the red and white Spanish wines, along with a Sherry or two, made for a great day. I will share the following notes as an intro to my summer sherry season - the time when I find my refridgerator consistently storing a bottle or two for me to sample. So enjoy the note, and if your starting your sherry season, drop us a line and let us know what your drinking!

Till soon,

Ryan Opaz

• N.V. Bodegas Navarro Montilla-Moriles Fino - Spain, Andalucía, Montilla-Moriles (5/8/2006)
  Incredibly intense nose of nutty salt air and rich hazelnut aromas. Creamy in the mouth with a strong alcohol and good acidity. Lush and tasty this wine screams of nuts and the aromas associated with them while the salt air rounds it out. A very intense interpretation of the style but throughly enjoyable.
  

Spring is here in Spain and the patios are starting to open up along the avenues of Madrid. Madrilenos (Spainards from Madrid) favorite pastime is walking, talking and drinking on the sidewalk while seated side by side. It’s around this time that parents and grandparents are found relaxing during the afternoons, gabbing about everything and nothing along the streetside cafes. Inevitably, it will also include a glass of wine or two or three, depending on whether the subject is political or if it wanders to whose family has the “best” toritlla recipe in Spain. As for me, it’s a chance to get some fresh air before the sweltering summer heat arrives forbidding me to even sip a glass before I melt. Spring in Madrid, and I would assume most everywhere in the world, is a time to rejoice in the rebirth of the earth, new plant life blossoming and birds singing. This season also includes a return to two wines that I tend to sideline during the winter months: sherry and rosés, not because I fail to enjoy them during the winter months, but because I tend to forget about them as I pour over the wine list at the restaurant. However, I once again celebrated its existence by enjoying a bottle of sherry at a local Brazilian restaurant last week and I intend to seek out a nice rosé this coming week.

Dry, off-dry and sweet are the main ways you’ll encounter rosés, and today, I want to highlight one particular Bogegas rosé that I haven’t tasted the likes of before. During my past trip to Barcelona, I was presented with my first ever barrel fermented rosé! That’s right, a rosé fermented and then aged in a barrel! Before all the anti-oak rants start, keep this in mind: when done right, oak doesn’t have to be a primary flavor, but rather a component of the whole. That was the case this time.
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It was about 6 months ago when we had a somewhat lively debate here at Catavino regarding the merit of having numerous wine competitions around the world. I had posted the results of the International Wine Challenge as proof that Spain was producing quality wine; but after a reader pointed out the bias in so many of these competitions, I quickly posted an explanation as to why I thought there could be some merit to the Spanish wines showing so well. Since then, I have seen an incredible amount of awards brandished about by wineries that have won a gold medal or a ribbon at the latest tasting event. Therefore, it was interesting when I saw the following two prizes mentioned on the Wines of Spain website:
Two Spanish wineries Take the top prize at the “Chardonnay du Monde” Competition
and
Spanish organic wines triumph at Biofach 2006
At first, I dismissed them as frivolous awards lacking both meaning and significance. To me, these two shows have a common goal to give awards to people that normally wouldn’t win them. Kind of the school house rule of “everyone is a winner” or no one wins at all. However, once I took my assumptions and placed them on the side burner for a minute, I realized that there is another side to this debate. Take the Biofach award as described on the Wines of Spain website:

In total 777 wines made from organic grapes competed (72% more than the previous year) from leading producer countries such as Spain, Italy, France, Argentina, Chile, Germany, Greece, Turkey and Hungary, among others. The wines were evaluated by a panel composed of 30 expert tasters, oenologists and winemakers from Germany, Italy and Switzerland. The prize categories were red wine, red wine with barrel contact, white wine, rosé and sparkling wine.

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When I worked in my liquor store back in the States, I became enamored with old, long lost cocktails that once held a place in the better bars around the world. I studied the Martini, originally 4 parts red vermouth to 1 part gin. I fell in love with the Manhattan, only after I found that the key was straight rye whiskey and high end vermouth. Soon, I found myself collecting vermouth from around the world to use in these once “exotic” drinks, feeling as though I was one of the few who recognized the essential ingredient of good vermouth to mix a fantastic drink. Boy was I wrong!

Allow me to clarify myself in that I still love my mixed drinks and will accept a properly made Manhattan at the drop of a hat, but what I failed to realize is the basic truth to it all - if you can’t drink the vermouth by itself, why use it in a mixed drink? That’s right, I said it, DRINK VERMOUTH BY ITSELF! I know it sounds strange to an American, but any of my European readers are probably saying to themselves, “DUH!”

It was shortly after arriving in Spain when I started to see signs in bars announcing that they had Vermut de Grifo, or Vermouth on tap. I thought to myself, “Silly Spaniards, don’t they know how to use vermouth correctly?” I couldn’t find one good Martini glass in any bar around town, but they had vermouth on tap? For months, I ignored the signs and stuck to my guns swearing that vermouth was to mix, not to drink.

Now, fast forward approximately six months to a dark stormy night when we met up with a few new friends whom we I had found on the blog The Full Bottle maintained by a Spaniard and an American living in Madrid. Having food and wine as our mutual interests, the conversation pretty much stayed in the same vein all night. Eventually, the conversation meandered towards Vermouth when I asked Juan what his thoughts on vermouth being sold on tap. His was response was not what I had initially expected when he said, “I like it!” Previous to this enthusiastic statement, I believed that only a false wine lover would acknowledge vermouth as a stand alone drink. So, what did we do? We flew out of one vermouth bar and onto another for an evening of Vermouth tastings. (more…)