WBW #35: Spanish Value Wines

Happy Wine Blogging Wednesday!

Don't forget to send your permalink and a brief summary to spanish.wbw@gmail.com. If you don't have a blog, just email your review. You will get an auto-reply (or a personal reply) from the email account. As long as you get that reply, you'll know we received it and it didn't get lost in spam or Internet ether. If you don't get that reply, email me, but check your spam folder too. It may be lost in there.

Kevin & I are going to split the duties this weekend and hopefully get the round-up posted early next week. We're looking forward to reading everyone's entries. The roundup of all entries is now posted here.

In November of 2006, Kevin & I took a seminar on Spanish wine from Doug Frost. It was a great seminar, where we learned about more grapes than I can begin to mention. What Doug made sure we took away from the seminar was simple: Don't overlook value-priced Spanish wine. They slip under the radar as consumers gravitate towards California, towards the familiar.

After that seminar, we started spending a lot of time in the Spanish aisles of the local wine shops. We have a case of Tres Picos right now (it's supposed to open up by the fall). During the holidays last year, we gave bottles of Vina Borgia to folks, because it was easy to drink. We have a case of Red Guitar (Navarra) right now too, because it's a light summer red. We admit it - we're hooked.
 
For this edition of WBW, we tried 4 different Spanish wines: 3 reds and a cava. Let's start with the reds after the jump.

Blés Crianza, 2004, Valencia DO, $8.99 (pronounced "blaze")
This wine was recommended to us, but it's not one we'll recommend to others. There is a chance we had a bad bottle. Each glass had an odd smell, but it didn't smell corked. There was a chemical-ness to the smell, and some muddiness. Maybe some white pepper for good measure. It tasted like mud. Not the nice, pleasant earthiness often found in Bordeaux, but mud and a little bit of vegetable. We let it open up for a while, but it didn't improve.
Our rating:

Luna Beberide Mencia 2005, Bierzo DO, $8.99
The nose is full of dark berries and a little vegetable. The attack is tingly, full of cinnamon and plums. It's smoky, with a little chocolate. This isn't a fancy wine - not much structure. While very much worth the money, it isn't our favorite.
Our rating:

Garnacha de Fuego, Old Vines 2006, Atteca, Calatayud DO, $8.99
This one came recommended from Mark Maher, of Cutting Edge Selections (a local distributor). He told us this:

It is very old vine (60 to 80 years old) Grenache from the Calatayud region. The old vines only yielded 2 tons per hectare (a hectare is 2.2 tons per acre). So, you have a wine retailing for $9 per bottle made from yields of less that one ton per acre The wine is bursting with bright, concentrated Raspberry flavors along with surprising structure.  We just got in 350 cases and they sold out in 2 days. My next shipment of 500 cases will be spoken for well before it arrives.

With that recommendation, we  emailed around to find some, finally discovering the elusive bottle at The Party Source.  Mark was right. There are a lot of bright raspberry notes. My initial reaction was that it is a very dry wine. But as I relaxed with the wine, I noticed a lot of cinnamon and chocolate. Inhaling over the wine, it's almost fiery and a little ticklish. Overall it's a bold and fruit-forward wine with a light finish. It's imported, of course, by Jorgè Ordonez. There is a slightly more expensive version of this wine and we may be trying it soon.
Our rating:

Segura Viudas Brut Reserva Cava, NV, Torrelavit DO, $6.99 (50% macabeo, 35% parellada, 15% xarel-lo)
If you're not familiar, cava is a really affordable way to have some bubbly. This is the low end of a cava I love that retails for $19.99. I wasn't disappointed in the $6.99 version. It's pale blonde in color, almost transluscent with medium bubbles. There is some oak and fruit in the nose.  This is a delicate cava, with slight oak, a little bit of lemon, and some apples. By day 3, it was still fizzy and heavier on the apples. The lemon in this cava gives it an overall cleansing effect - very pleasing to the palate. It's dry, but not too much. It's definitely worth at least $10 - for $7, I got a real bargain.
Our rating: