After our recent travels to the New World, it was time to get traditional again. Spain has been making wine for 5000 years, but wine is a very different drink since the advent of electricity and temperature controlled stainless steel tanks. Moreover, although Spain was a huge exporter of wine at the end of the 19th century, it did not have a happy 20th, at least not for two thirds of it. World wars one and two and a civil war which left the country for nearly 40 years under a dictatorship. So in terms of modern wine-making, Spain’s history is recent, greatly helped by entry into the European Union in 1986. So where is it now? It has more land planted to vines than any other country on the planet, yet it is only the third largest producer: it is generally hot and dry, so that many vines are planted much less densely to share the scarce water resource sometimes as low as 1000 vines a hectare (ten times less than can be found in Bordeaux). But it is also a country with mountains and rivers, a cold Atlantic coastline and a warm Mediterranean one, and many different soils. In short, you can make a diverse range of wine styles. Spain has some of the most exciting young wine-makers on the planet, who’ve been to wine-school, who’ve travelled the world to learn from the best and are now creating wines that are quite unique.
This evening twelve Society members and friends joined me in a mix of the traditional and the revolutionary: four whites and six reds, together with some authentic accompanying finger platter.
The chosen wines were:
- Pazo de Villarei Albariño, Rías Baixas 2022
- Viños López La Bodegaza Blanco, Valdejalón 2020
- Capitel Verdejo Vides y Vines Ossian 2016
- López de Haro Classica Gran Reserva Blanco, Rioja 2013
- Mas Doix Salanques, Priorat 2021
- Descendientes de J. Palacios Villa de Corullon 2021
- Clos I Terrasses Laurel 2019 Priorat
- Bodegas El Nido ‘Clio’ 2021 Jumilla
- Frontonio Garnacha 2019 Aragon
- CVNE Imperial Rioja Gran Reserva 2011
Organised by Richard Pearey