Showing posts with label Carinena. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Carinena. Show all posts

Monday, August 31, 2020

Four Chilean Wines That Play Rough


The Viña Ventisquero Grey line of wines is the expression of a single block of vines from different growing areas in Chile.  Ventisquero has vineyards in the Coastal Maipo, Casablanca, Colchagua, Leyda and Huasco valleys.  Head winemaker Felipe Tosso takes his craft seriously, comparing the creation of a wine to the raising of a child.  He says, "it's just like being a father. You give birth to a son, you raise and mold him so he can follow his destiny."

In addition to the wine samples, I was given tips on which Chilean music to pair with the various wines.  I have included Spotify links to the suggested Ventisquero selections.


Ventisquero Grey GCM
2017

The Ventisquero Grey GCM wine is a traditional blend of 62% Garnacha, 19% Cariñena and 19% Mataro grapes from the Valle de Colchagua's Apalta area, the terraced, hillside Roblería Vineyard.  You may know Mataro better as Monastrell or Mourvedre.  The soil is poor - good for grapevines - made up of clay and lots of stones.  2017 was a hot year, so the grapes ripened  earlier than usual.  The wine was aged for six months in neutral French oak barrels, stands at 14% abv and retails for $23.  The winery says the Grey GCM wine is "complex, like the music of Chilean artist Nano Stern, which stands at the crossroads of various influences and genres such as rock, folk, fusion and trova."

This wine is medium dark in color and in just about everything else.  Wonderfully dark.  The nose is black fruit, savory tar, a meaty kind of note and some light oak tones.  The palate allows the savory aspects a little more room to move.  There is a lip-smacking acidity; the tannins are firm.  I tried mine with smoked pork belly and some apple smoked Gouda, with great results.

Song pairing: Carnavalito del Ciempés by Nano Stern


Ventisquero Grey Cabernet Sauvignon
2014

This wine comes from Block 38 of Ventisquero’s Trinidad Vineyard in the coastal Maipo Valley.  The winery refers to this Cab as "non-traditional," and it does seem to me to be more rustic than elegant.  The 93% Cabernet Sauvignon grapes are joined by 4% Petit Verdot and 3% Cabernet Franc.  Growing in the 2014 vintage was marked by a typical summer featuring moderate temperatures and no rain.  The wine was fermented in stainless steel tanks, then aging took place over 18 months in French oak barrels, one-third new - and another eight months in the bottle.  Alcohol sits at a restrained 13.5% abv and the wine sells for around $20.

This wine is dark and savory.  The black fruit comes along with cedar, vanilla and a chalky earth tone.  It is nothing like Napa Cabernet Sauvignon, but more in line with Paso Robles.  Lots of South American minerals are having a bit of roughhouse here.

Ventisquero likes to pair their Grey Cab with Violeta Parra, one of the most iconic Chilean artists.  Like the wine, they say she is "classic yet surprising, elegant and inspiring."

Song pairing: Gracias a la Vida by Violeta Parra 


Ventisquero Grey Carménère
2017

This red wine is made of Carmenere grapes, grown in the Trinidad Vineyard in Chile's coastal Maipo Valley.  Chile reportedly has the largest vineyard area planted with Carmenere, the country's flagship grape.  Only half of the grapes were crushed for fermentation.  The wine was aged for 18 months in French oak barrels - one-third new and two-thirds second and third use - where malolactic fermentation took place.  Alcohol in just 13.5% abv and the retails price is $22.

This is a beautiful Carménère, all earthy and full of savory minerality.  The blackberry and black plum aromas creep through the smell of that dirt with tar, forest floor and tobacco all over them.  A hint of vanilla sweetens the sniff a bit.  On the palate, the dark fruit is draped in sweet oak spice, and you'll find a bucketful of tannins until the glass has been sitting for awhile.  This is a steak wine, intended for a big, juicy piece of beef.

Just as this grape is iconic to Chile, the winery says Cueca music is essential to Chilean culture as the country’s national dance and music.  

Song pairing: Yo Vendo Unos Ojos Negros by Los Huasos Quincheros 


Ventisquero Grey Pinot Noir
2017

The Grey Pinot Noir is a complex wine which the winery says is typical of the Leyda Valley, a growing area known for excellent acidity and mineral notes.  The Las Terrazas Vineyard's soil starts off with a bit of red granitic clay, and gets rockier the deeper the roots reach.  The fairly warm 2017 vintage prompted the pickers to collect the grapes a little earlier than usual.  Fermentation took place in steel tanks, while aging took a full year in French oak barrels, 15% of them were new, 30% second-use and 55% third-use.  

This Chilean Pinot Noir offers a nose that is heavy with cola, black tea and coffee grounds.  The savory aromas actually outweigh the fruit.  It is a medium-weight wine, not very deeply tinted, and it rides light on the palate.  The acidity is brisk and the tannins firm.  This is not a Burgundian take on the grape, for certain.  It is more playful than elegant, more rustic than beautiful.

Pair this delicate grape with Francisca Valenzuela's music, whose slow yet powerful songs are as vibrant as the Grey Pinot Noir. 

Song pairing: Ya No Se Trata de Ti by Francisca Valenzuela 


Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter



Wednesday, February 27, 2019

E Is For España

Great wine is all about location.  The location of the vineyard makes all the difference in the end product.  Locations is an experiment of place for winemaker Dave Phinney, of Orin Swift fame, in which he makes wines from all over the world.  These wines are labeled only with a big letter or two, depicting the place of origin - F for France, P for Portugal, I for Italy, and E is for Espana, much like those European bumper stickers.

Phinney sold the Locations brand this past summer to Modesto's E and J Gallo, two years after selling off the Orin Swift brand.  A price wasn't announced, but Phinney will reportedly stay on as the winemaker "indefinitely."

E5, the fifth vintage for his Spanish red blend, combines Garnacha, Tempranillo, Monastrell and Cariñena.  Those last two you might know better as Mourvèdre and Carignan.  Phinney says unabashedly that E5 is all about the "interplay of provenance, artistry, freedom, and creativity" with the Iberian peninsula as a backdrop.  Five regions are represented by the grapes in this wine, Priorat, Jumilla, Toro, Rioja, and Ribera del Duero.

That guy Parker loved a previous vintage, throwing around adjectives like full-bodied, opulent and voluptuous in his wine-porn style.  The wine was aged in barrels for ten months and hits 14.5% abv for alcohol and retails for about $20.

For starters, this is an aromatic wine.  The nose blasts dark fruit and a drawer full of savory aromas.  There are cigars, trod-upon leaves, tar and an old catcher's mitt in that dark liquid.  Herbs abound, with thyme, sage, nutmeg and peppers leading the way.  On the palate it's blackberryland, with a heapin' helpin' of currant and licorice.  The flavors are rough-cut and rustic, as is the tannic structure.  This wine needs a big, fatty steak to give it something useful to do. 


Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Monday, January 28, 2019

The Pleasure Of Garnacha Blanca

Wine regions that go back centuries always make me wonder what the wine tasted like back then.  I can't imagine that it was anything like today's wine, but who knows?

The Corona D'Aragon folks say that the Corona de Aragón - Crown of Aragon - spanned territories from the east of Spain to the south of Greece between the 12th and 18th centuries.  Winemaking may not have been tops on their list of things to do, but they did enough of it to earn a reputation, especially in Cariñena.

Cariñena is known for its distinct stone soils and its old-vine Garnacha and Cariñena.  It's right in the heart of the Ebro Valley in Spain's northeast region of Aragon, bordered by the Pyrenees and France to the north, and Catalunya to the east.

Today, the grapes that grow in the vineyards' stony soil are mostly Garnacha and Tempranillo, but there is some space allotted to the mineral-laden white version of Garnacha and a bit of Chardonnay.  This wine is 87% Garnacha Blanca - enough to get top billing on the label - and 13% Chardonnay.  Alcohol clocks in at 12.5% abv.  The wine is bottled by Grandes Vinas y Viñedos and shipped right out the door, with no aging.

This beautiful Spanish white wine - the 2017 Corona D'Aragon Garnacha Blanca - features a golden tint with a nose of apricots, oranges, limes and a wet driveway.  Most of that probably comes from the Garnacha Blanca, but on the palate there's a hint of tropical fruit from the 13% Chardonnay.  Minerals are in play from start to finish and the acidity rips at about a medium.  You may want some oysters or octopus with this.


Wednesday, January 2, 2019

One Particular Garnacha Rosé

Founded in 1944 by 60 winegrowers in Spain's Cariñena region, Bodegas San Valero is now 700 winegrowers strong, with more than 8,600 acres of vines.  The Cariñena region is in the middle of the Ebro river valley, in Zaragoza, Aragon.  The region earned the first Designation of Origin in the Aragon region in 1932.

The Particular line features a rosé made from Garnacha grapes, which in some necks of the woods are called Grenache.  The website says this is the wine that winemakers make when they make wine for themselves.  Just a few hours on the skins gives the pale coloring of the wine.  Stainless steel fermentation keeps the aromas and flavors fresh.  The pink wine hits only 11.5% abv and it’s pretty inexpensive.

The 2017 Particular Garnacha Rose is a pale wine that doesn't smell inexpensive.  The nose bursts with strawberry and cherry aromas, and there's a hint of the stems adding an herbal twist.  The same fruit holds on the palate in fairly simple fashion, with a bit of lime to go along with a zippy acidity.  It tastes almost tart, but holds instead with an extremely herbal sensibility.  It's not elegant, if that's what you're looking for, but it holds its own with a ham sandwich.


Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Friday, May 5, 2017

E Is For España

Locations is an experiment of place for winemaker Dave Phinney, of Orin Swift fame. It's his attempt at making wine a country-wide effort. At first, I wasn’t on board with the philosophy. Specific locations are important because of what they are, where they are, why they are. After sampling through a few "letters," I'm on board.

Yes, the letters. These wines are labeled only with a big letter or two, depicting the place of origin - F for France, P for Portugal, I for Italy, TX for Texas. Yes, he sources grapes from Texas. The wines are bottled at the Locations headquarters in Spain. Or, in this case, España.

E is the fourth release of the Locations wine from the Iberian locale. Phinney uses Garnacha, Tempranillo, Monastrell (Mourvèdre) and Cariñena (Carignane) grapes grown all over the Peninsula. The locations for this wine include Priorat, Jumilla, Toro, Rioja and Ribera Del Duero. Grapes from low-yielding, old vines, assure that the aromas and flavors are concentrated.

Carrying alcohol at 14.5% abv, the wine was aged in barrels for ten months. It retails for around 20 bucks.

Aromas of currant produce an elegant first whiff of this incredibly dark wine. Layer in some tobacco, pepper and sweet oak and you have a nose worth remembering. It brings to mind great wines I’ve had from the varied regions, er, locations of Spain. The sip is lush with black fruit, and spiced with white pepper, mocha and a hint of vanilla. There is enough tannic grip here to tame a steak right off the grill.


Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Monday, January 6, 2014

Monte Ducay Reserva 2009

The holidays bring all sorts of surprises with them.  Getting together with friends you may not have seen in months is one happy by-product of having everyone out shopping at the same time.  And when they bring a wine gift with them, it's even better.

One such wine-bearing friend met my wife at Wood Ranch and sent her home with a bottle for me; how thoughtful!  Produced by the Bodegas San Valero cooperative, Monte Ducay Reserva 2009 comes in a very nice looking paper wrapper over an unlabeled bottle.  The wrapper gives the wine a very high-end look.  However, knowing how the times are these days, I didn't expect that this gift was very expensive.

In the same manner one does not look a gift horse in the mouth, neither does one look a gift wine in the shelf talker.  Well, maybe just a peek.  It sells for under $10.  At that price, it's a pretty fair value, too.

The red Cariñena wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Tempranillo and Garnacha.  Cariñena is a DO - Denominación de Origen - in the center of Spain's Aragon region.  Alcohol is quite reasonable at 13% abv and the bottle is closed under a natural cork.

The color is a very dark ruby, with light barely able to get through the glass.  A nose of dark berries, black cherry and cola provide a little more depth than I expect.  The palate is deep and luxurious, with dark fruit and notes that give away the presence of the Cab - cassis and graphite.  There is just a wisp of an herbal flavor lagging behind the fruit, a bit like sage and nutmeg.  This wine offers great value for a bargain shopper who wants some complexity with their deal.


Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter

Monday, April 16, 2012

Spanish Wines At Whole Foods Market


The wines of Spain loom large in my love of the grape.  It was a tasting event featuring Spanish wines which first made me want to pursue wine as something more than just a beverage.  To paraphrase the Hoyt Axton song made famous by Three Dog Night, “I’ve never been to Spain, but I kinda like the vino.”  I kinda like it a lot.

Whole Foods Market has their springtime spotlight on Spain’s wine heritage, and they are featuring a dozen Spanish wines that are each priced at less than $20.

When the grocery chain invited me to participate in a pair of Twitter tastings featuring some of these Spanish wines, I didn’t even think about saying no.  Due to scheduling difficulties, I was unable to participate in the first round of tasting and tweeting.  The second round - April 19th, 2012 at 7:00 p.m. CDT - will see me tasting and tweeting.  Since my local Whole Foods was kind enough to supply me with all six of the wines in the tastings, allow me to taste and type about the first three now.

Hermanos Lurton Rueda Verdejo 2010
In addition to Spain, Francois Lurton also makes wine in his French homeland, as well as in Portugal, Argentina and Chile.  This wine comes under a screwcap and carries an alcohol number of 12.5% abv.

This Verdejo comes from from low-yielding vines.  When a grapevine yields a small amount of fruit, that fruit tends to be much more concentrated in aroma and flavor.  The Lurton holds true to that rule, showing a medium golden tint and an extremely aromatic nose.  Tropical fruit aromas, cantaloupe and the peel of lemons and oranges fill my nostrils immediately.  It’s the kind of bouquet I want from a slightly chilled white wine on a warm afternoon outside.  Not to plagiarize Evan Dawson, but it has the olfactory sense of summer in it.

The wine is fairly full in the mouth, too, with a razor-sharp acidity.  The citrus zest comes across the palate first with pineapple next - not the sweet heart, but the part very close to the rind.  Melon lingers on the very long finish.  This is what I want a white wine to be - anytime.


Castillo de Monséran Cariñena Garnacha 2009

The grapes for this wine - called Grenache elsewhere - are grown in Spain’s northeastern Aragon region.  The cool-climate vineyards are located up in the Sierra de la Virgen mountains.  The DO status for Cariñena was created in 1932, and the area is where the French Carignane grape originated.  It’s known as Mazuelo in Cariñena and is still widely planted, although Garnacha Tinta is king.

The back label, after a brief and none-too-descriptive summary of the vinification, ends up with one of those great blanket recommendations: “To be drunk with all meat dishes or slightly chilled with any starter.”  That doesn’t narrow it down much, but it does leave my options wide open.  Again, a moderate alcohol level of 12.5% abv.

The medium dark hue tips off a nose of very intense black cherry and blackberry with a bit of earth peeking through.  The taste is a mix of cherry and raspberry, with a tartness and earthy quality about it.   A great level of acidity makes the mouth water.  Nice tannins would support that rather all-encompassing pairing suggestion..


Castaño Yecla Monastrell 2011

Yecla is a DO in the Murcia region of southeastern Spain.  The area is known for its Monastrell - elsewhere called mourvédre.  Under the Castaño screwcap is a wine made from organic grapes and bearing a robust 14% alcohol number.

It’s a very dark wine, not inky but getting close to it.  The nose displays dark blackberry and plums with a layer of clove.  On the palate there is dark fruit and spice as well.  Some oak steps forward but doesn’t try to steal the show.  That act is handled by the brilliant acidity and forceful tannins.  The Castaño Monastrell would pair quite well with a smoky grilled steak.

If these three Spanish beauties are an indication, the second round of the Whole Foods Twitter Tasting should be a gem.  Join in, if you can.  Follow my tweets, or those of @WFMWineGuys.  The hashtag #WFMWine should make it easy to channel all that Spanish wine chatter into a single column.  You can also go to http://www.twitter.com/#!/search/wfmwine to see all the tweets.



Spanish Wines Twitter Tasting 2 – Apr. 19 at 7 p.m. CST
Castell de Raimat Albariño
Faustino Rioja
Más de Leda Tempranillo


Whole Foods Market featured Spanish wines include:
Hermanos Lurton Verdejo from Rueda
Castell de Raimat Albariño from Costers del Segre in Catalan
Spartico Organic Tempranillo from Valencia 
Protos Tinto Fino from Ribera del Duero 
Faustino Rioja from Rioja
Maximo Tempranillo from La Mancha 
Más de Leda Tempranillo from Castilla y León 
La Vendimia Granacha Tempranillo from Rioja 
Cellars Can Blau Blau Cariñena Garnacha-Syrah from Priorat 
Monte Oton Garnacha from Campo de Borja
Castillo de Monséran Garnacha from Cariñena
Castaño Organic Monastrell from Yecla 



Follow Randy Fuller on Twitter