Monthly Archives: June 2012

June 10, 2012 · 10:50 pm

It’s a bubbles thing (Penedes, Spain – Day Two)

After spending the night at Raventos i Blanc, I spent my second day in the region meeting a few of the most important people in cava production in the heart of the production area, Sant Sadurni d’Anoia. The first person was the owner of the winery I stayed at, Manuel Raventos himself. Over breakfast Jose introduced me to the history of his forefathers and their impact on wine in the region. He is an amazingly modest man considering the contribution he himself has made to lift the profile of cava wine around the world. Back in the early ’90s he innovatively decided to purchase a chateau in Bordeaux in an effort to secure more placements for his cava. He completely changed the business from selling the fruit and wine, to bottling the wine entirely. After he realised that having a bordeaux wine didn’t help his cava he decided to sell the winery, and the new owners promptly upped the price off the back of the growing acclaim the winery had received. Manuel continues to chip away at creating larger markets for terroir-driven vintage cava, and he is lucky to be supported by a number of other producers like my other hosts for the day Agusti Torello Mata.

In the relocated library of the Raventos family, the Intrepid Wino with Manuel Raventos

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June 10, 2012 · 6:59 pm

Cava country (Penedes, Spain – Day One)

Cava is to Spain what champagne is to France. Way back in the 19th century the area in and around Penedes to the south of Barcelona there was a lot of grapes growing, but they weren’t known for quality wines. The indigenous grapes were macabeu, xerello and parellada, grown for their yields and ability to ripen but provide plenty of acidity. In 1872 after a visit to Champagne, Josep Raventos Fatjo returned to his estate in Penedes and had the revolutionary idea to begin producing traditional method sparkling wine, from the indigenous grape varieties which as I mentioned had plenty of acids ideal for the wine. This proved to be a wise decision and changed the entire wine industry in the region. His son then wanted to protect the reputation they were gaining for high quality sparkling wine, and thus created one of the first DO classifications in Spain to protect the name and area of production. As the Spanish government weren’t particularly interested they went to Brussels to get the protection, but the problem was that they couldn’t agree with the area of production, only that it must be made in the traditional method. The Denominacion de Origen area covers Penedes, areas to the south near Valencia, and even as far west as Rioja, however 95% of the cava produced comes from the Penedes region.
Traditional method bottle of cava

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June 9, 2012 · 5:12 pm

Agusti Torello Mata – 8/06/2012

Xarello 2011
Typical juicy green characters, lime, kiwi, some asparagus. Green tropical notes, very clean and fresh, pure minerality and crispness. Some textural elements. A little extension, but a good aromatic varietal wine.

Subirat Parent 2011
Slightly more closed oily crispness, crisp tight salty texture. Fresh balanced pleasant more subtle notes. Same green fruit notes.

Aptia Macabeu 2011
Slightly more closed, very delicate hints of toast and nut, riper fuller and juicier, more yellow fruits, no green. Very slight creaminess and very soft texture. Some good extension, lingers nicely on the palate.

Agusti Torello Mata Brut Reserva 2008
Clean precise perfectly balanced, great depth and richness, texture creaminess, wonderful apple and lemon notes with the typical cava varietal nature, slightly green herbs. Perfect example of the classic style.

Brut Nature Gran Riserva 2007
More mineral almost like chlorine, very pure precise and clear, amazingly subtle fruit on the nose. Natural cream from the bead and fruit, typical varietal character but more fruit richness and depth.

Gran Reserva Barrica 2007
More complex quitter o the nose, creamy in a very toasty vanilla way, interesting texture, slightly deeper, a much better example than champagnes I have tasted, very fresh and light, only a subtle difference. Not too creamy, better balance and integration.

Kripta 2006
Exquisitely subtle, very elegant, a little richness creamy notes. Creamy delicate yet explosive flavours of brioche, vanilla, creamy wheat, lively fruits still very fresh, very mature citrus and slight carob notes. Almost as complex as trying to store the bottle.

Rosat Trepat 2009
Bright intense fairy floss strawberry creamy, lovely texture and some citrusy crispness. Strawberry desert gives the wine an almost maraschino cherry, cherry liqueuer flavour. Good with deserts.

Kripta

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June 9, 2012 · 4:11 pm

Raventos i Blanc – 7/06/2012

Reserva Brut 2009
Nice fresh familiar cava nose, smoky citrus, creamy nose, wonderfully full and vibrant on the palate yet amazingly well balanced, focused and driven. Some great but unpretentious autolysis notes. SO enjoyable yet unique.

De Nit Rose 2009 (5% monastrell short cold skin contact)
Red citrus notes, quite vibrant and some astringent tannins texture. Bright slightly savoury red berries, not sweet, quite subtle. A very differet rose wine. Not rose but not white either. Interesting combination of tannin and yeast notes.

Elisabet Raventos 2006 (4 years on lees)
Floral vanilla creamy citrus notes. Honeysuckle white lily. Deeper more intense and serious, builds beautifully on the palate, layers of complexity. Very subtle but assured autolysis notes. Still fresh and will benefit from age. A champagne drinkers cava, no doubt.

Silencis Xerello 2011
Very intense fruity nose, grapefruit lychee apricot, freshness persistence, balance, very delicate and approachable, not a particular wine of distinction, but a great crisp fruit driven wine nonetheless. Good phenolics, some subtle viscosity.

Raventos i Blanc Reserva de la Finca Cava

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June 9, 2012 · 3:05 pm

Can Feixes – 7/06/2012

Huguet Gran Riserva Cava Brut Nature 2007 (60% parellada, 20% macabeo, 20% pinot noir)
Lovely tight crisp tropical yellow green notes, some passionfruit, stone fruits, some minerality and very integrated autolysis. Vibrant fresh but exquisitely balanced, reflective of the varieties and region, but really a cut above. Amazingly subtle and long, like a Champagne twist on Cava.

Can Feixas Blanc Seleccio 2011 (Parellada, macabeo, chardonnay, malvasia)
Fresh bright, slightly uriney sauvignon blanc fume stink, again green fruits on the nose. Very full fruit driven fresh vibrant textural volume. Bold stone fruits and some very ripe citrus notes. Pretty intense now, perhaps will settle down in some months. Wonderfully juicy and drinkably refreshing.

Chardonnay 2007 (barrel fermented, new oak – five French coopers)
Very creamy toasty almonds and maize notes, slight toffee aromas, ripe citrus peach notes. Full crunchy bold hot texture, multilayered, very ripe and fruit heavy, oak meshes well with the ripeness of the fruit, thank god there is no malolactic as it would make it far too fat. Well balanced, just too warm a region for the variety, like Sicily.

Negre Tradicio 2007 (merlot, tempranillo, cabernet sauvignon, petit verdot)
Sausage meat, toasty notes, black olives, black fruits. Wonderful acidity and freshness, beautiful balance, bright red and black fruits, fresh plum and cherry notes, Full and generous yet soft and approachable with solid structure and character.

Reserva Especial 2005 (70% cabernet sauvignon, 30% merlot)
Dusty chalky clay notes, slightly smoky meats, full voluptuous, very tight in structure and looking a little youthful/green in texture. Oak looking a little prominent still, lot’s of potential. The structure is all there, the pieces around it just need to fall into line. Slightly warm.

Huguet Gran Riserva Cava 2007

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June 9, 2012 · 2:44 pm

Torreblanca – 7/06/2012

Brut – Xarello, Macabeu, Peredara
Fairly subtle classic cava nose, Very vibrant dark honey, fresh, fresh citrus, not completely unfamiliar, clean fresh, very approachable and drinkable.

Brut nature
Slightly brighter and more vibrant fruit and floral nose. Tighter fresher, broader and denser, full flavoured, bright fresh.

Brut Rosat (garnacha, merlot)
Very dark ruby colour, juicy blackcurrant juice nose, Dark juicy, fresh bold, mellow, not really bright, but pretty juicy and floral. Almost like a slightly savoury sparkling Ribena.

Extra Brut (pinot noir)
A cava expression of pinot noir, bold red berries, nice and yeasty and rich, quite broad and very fruit creamy but very toasty and quite special, different. Elegant, flavours last a long time in the mouth.

Torreblanca cava ageing in the cellar

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June 6, 2012 · 10:03 pm

Slow down (Montsant, Spain)

Life is pretty different in this part of the world, and things move just a little bit slower. There is something peaceful about driving along the winding roads between Priorat and Montsant, and as the valley opens out into the gentler rolling hills it makes for very nice driving in a pretty decent car that I was upgraded to. Meandering about through the lanes of medieval villages perched on hills, sitting down to a long lunch, enjoying a cold beer with some local cuisine, life couldn’t be easier. If you have a closer look around the villages here however, you see several of the problems not only with Spain but much of Europe. The first is that it is a rapidly ageing population in the country, with most of the young people gone to work in the larger cities and live more modern cosmopolitan lifestyles. There are a lot of difficulties with the bureaucracy here and red tape is a constant annoyance of the people. Apart from Falset, if you drive through most of the villages they are essentially ghost towns, which may also have something to do with the afternoon heat this time of year. There just isn’t enough work for young people (not that there is much more in the cities), and many of the people who do work here commute in, such as from Tarragona only 45 minutes away on the coast. So shops close at odd hours, restaurants may not open several days of the weeks, I haven’t seen many petrol stations or supermarkets, it is a little bit more difficult than most of the other places I’ve been. It really does remind me of the Salta region in Argentina, except at least you aren’t far from other places here, whereas you can run into serious trouble if your car breaks down in Salta. Don’t let it happen to you!
Nice view into the Capcanes valley

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June 6, 2012 · 9:51 pm

Dosterras – 6/06/2012

Barrel tasting
“White wine” Dosterras Blanco 2011 (60% pedro ximenez, 20% roussanne, 20% marsanne) – not DO Montsant, not available in the market
Quite green, reductive, sulphured and leesy. Ripe tight fresh tropical citrus notes. Textured deep and mineral notes, a product of sun and soil, warmth and depth, textural.

Old vine Grenache 2011
Vibrant rosy violet floral notes, ripe red fruits and concentrated red soil elements. Ripe red currants, 2.5 g/l RS vibrant soft generous and makes a nice component. But also pretty good on its own. Great earthy complexity, nice firm yet silky texture.

Carignan 2011
Very bright tight and fresh, but completely reductive and shut-down.

Finished wines
Vespres 2010 (grenache, carignan, 10 months second use 300l barrels)
Pretty hard to smell when it is chilled down. Very dark purple colour, quite intense concentrated, vintage? Tight fresh juicy dark red fruits. Nice and full, good balance and generosity of acidity and tannins, no oak characters. Approachable for the wine, is this the Montsant style?

Dosterras 2010 (100% grenache, 16 months new and second use 300l barrels, old vines)
Intense dark sweet black fruit. Extremely plummy, very dense maceration regime, soft sweet dark fruit, very gentle and caressing, not oodles of depth or good concentration.

Finca Aiguasals 2009
Black olive, savoury blackberries, brown earth, chocolate, liquorice, Good structure, texture from the tannins and oak, gets some life somehow from the second passage in barrels where the first use was for white wine. 900 litres in total. A wonderful wine, a cut above the Monsant DO.

Berries!

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June 6, 2012 · 9:49 pm

Like a rolling stone (Priorat, Spain – Day Two)

Spending eight weeks travelling through Italy visiting wineries can be pretty challenging. As if it isn’t difficult enough that outside of the cities and towns there are no street names – and in many cases addresses are simply designated as an area which includes a great many roads – there is little to no directional signage. Add to this the poor quality of the maps on my navigation software, and you get a situation where I was rarely early to an appointment, and in one case couldn’t find the winery at all. After the first few days in Spain I am concerned that this will be the case again. Some countries do wine tourism a little better (Australia, USA, France), some less so (Argentina, Germany), and some have almost none at all (Chile, Italy). The good countries have directional signage towards a region, and then within the region they have directional signage to every winery that welcomes visitors. Some regions are more advanced than others, and include such information as distances, but at a minimum they have signs at every major turn. It goes without saying that at the wineries they have signs indicating that ‘yes, the winery is here and we are open for business’. This is less common in Europe, perhaps as they are considered a little flashy, but they are in fact a necessity. The issues of addresses seem similar in Spain to that of Italy and thus knowing and providing GPS coordinates is almost the only recourse to avoid potential visitors getting lost. To any winery I am visiting for the rest of my trip who may be reading this, I urge you to send me the GPS details so that I am not late and we can make the most of our time together.

High above Priorat

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June 6, 2012 · 9:24 pm

Celler de Capcanes – 6/06/2012

Mas Donis Rosat 2011 (saignee, 8 days skin contact, 15% free run juice taken, garnacha, cabernet merlot)
Very bright quite dark cherry colour. Dark savoury fruit aromas, slightly spicy. Fresh fruit-driven bright, clean finish. Some fruit sweetness (4g RS/L), red cherry, strawberry, vibrant. Slightly floral notes. Quite simple and inelegant wine, easy to drink.

Mas Picosa 2010 (organic certified, growers handling chemicals hence shift away from, garnacha, carignan, tempranillo)
Dark cherry fruits, quite bold florals, intense but wonderfully fresh, very clean and pure, excellent fruit and acid structure, minimal tannins quite open and mentholly, balanced, juicy and drinkable.

Costers del Gravet 2009 (50% cabernet sauvignon, 30% garnacha, 20% carignan)
Deep ruby aromas, black forest fruits, cassis notes, fairly cabernet dominant on the nose. Tight focused cabernet tannins, leather, stalky, roasted capsicums, juicy dark fruits and plummy sweetness. Quite fresh and vibrant for a cabernet led wine in a climate like this.

Peraj Ha’abib 2010 (kosher wine)
Reductive but very intense nose, quite powerful and sharp, bold and piercing. Quite savoury earthy meaty nose, intense red fruits. Very finely balanced, elegant and long, very full and complete, soft velvety very long and complex, some savoury spice notes and sweet herb notes, bold powerful and youthful, fantastic wine from the vintage. Drinkable now but will evolve quite slowly over the next 10 years. Very very subtle oak characters late on the palate, a little oak sweetness.

The wines and soil profiles they come from in Celler de Capcanes

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