This is a curve ball from the high plains north of Madrid. The first impression is a provocative whiff of herbaceousness—tarragon, with red plum and a hint of coffee peeking around the edge. An unusual aroma profile for Ribera Del Duero, this is designated “roble” which means it was aged in wood for a period less than would earn it a quality ranking.
The upfront flavor intensity is promising but the hollow midpalate is a let down before a gravel and acid explosion launches the medium length finish of dried herbs and hints of charred wood. This is a rustic wine with swollen but sour acidity, and medium grain tannins that bark but don’t bite. A good value but don’t expect subtlety or elegance.
Lots of animated energy in this wine, gritty, ardent but blunt and impetuous, the kind your mama warned you about. Locked in rhythm with Steve Earle’s The Devil’s Right Hand
Technical notes: 100% Tempranillo from 30 yr. old, high elevation vineyards on clay, marl, and limestone. Aged for 6 months in used French oak and 6 months in the bottle.
I’m revisiting an old friend here. One of the more satisfying budget wines available, but it’s been a few vintages since I last wrote about this consistently good wine from the hot, dry deserts of northeastern Spain.
Lovely fruit profile on the nose for a budget wine, very ripe red and black fruits mingle against a figgy background, topped with chocolate and a layer of dust. There are some oak hints but they’re restrained.
The palate shows fig and blackberry, a medium body with an active, tense seam of minerality supported by plenty of acidity, boosting the top notes. The medium length finish is zesty, the tannins prickle but don’t grip. But their is some sourness at terminus from exposed acidity so the finish doesn’t quite satisfy. With ample fruit power but neither plush nor smooth, its lean, muscular frame combines toughness with polish, which holds together until the finish gives it up.
It’s stylish athleticism belongs on the dance floor with Daft Punk’s Get Lucky.
Ego Bodegas is a relatively new winery founded in 2011, with few resources but a burning desire to make money. Their marketing story is refreshingly honest. From their website: “Ego Bodegas is not the culmination of a rich tradition inherited by its owners. Nor was it the result of a burning desire to develop the marvelous vineyards or a mission to learn about the amazing world of wine….From TOP TO BOTTOM, we built the winery from the roof down, and not from the ground up, with one clear objective: SALES AND PROFITABILITY, targets which, when achieved, would guarantee the future of the Company”
No romance here. Their wine delivers that same in-your-face attitude. It’s all about vividness and punch, brash and pulsating with motoric energy. If you don’t care about elegance or finesse, this is for you.
The nose is simple but with clearly defined aromas of prominent black cherry and black pepper, with background smoke and vanilla notes. The palate delivers a load of vanilla and intense blackberry with charred wood notes. Medium plus weight yet powerful, the firm, medium grain tannins and a flare of incisive acidity give the wine a long, edgy finish.
By all means pair with Nine Inch Nails, The Hand that Feeds
Technical Notes: Jumilla is a hot, dry area in the Southeast of Spain of increasing importance, perfect for growing the thick-skinned Monestrell (known as Mourvedre in France.) 15-25 days of maceration in stainless steel tanks with 2 months in American oak. 50% Monestrell, 50% Syrah
Trepat is a relatively obscure grape grown primarily in Northeastern Spain and used in blends and for making rosado and Cava sparkling wine. But in D.O Conca de Barberà, a tiny appellation in northern Tarragona, some producers are making it as a stand alone grape and it shows considerable potential, especially as a lighter, red wine that would pair nicely with meatier species of fish.
This is a natural wine from winemakers Mariona Vendrell and Albert Canela who started Succés Vinícola in 2011 when they were only 20 yrs. old. Stand-alone Trepat has always been in their lineup.
Red raspberry with darker hints and a pleasing pungent aroma, not quite barnyard but in that direction, held in check by prominent floral notes, against a background of baking spice.
Acid heads will like this wine. Slender, fresh and tart, the acidity is pronounced but is neither aggressive nor hard and the overall impression is of a vibrantly active wine that darts and flutters like an acrobatic butterfly. The introduction is fleeting and quickly develops an ascending line hitting very high citric and floral notes anchored by a tender mouthfeel at midpalate. The finish is mouthwatering with a squirt of lemon, the tannins yielding a soft, fine-grained sandy character but narrowly focused and shy.
Pretty, coltish and, carefree like a young girl at play, the virtues of this wine are well highlighted by Katy Perry’s California Gurls.
Technical Notes: Organic. 20-47 year-old bush-trained vines. Native yeasts with 30-day maceration aged 5 months on the lees in stainless steel and bottled with minimal SO2.
Bodegas Breca is noted for their old vine vineyards in the mountains of Southern Catalyud from which they’ve produced impressive, affordable Garnacha since 2010. Unlike other bottlings from Bodegas Breca that I’ve tasted, this wine is sold under the Spain D.O. (Denominación de Origen) instead of the region of Catalyud and makes no mention of old vines on the label, so I’m not sure of the provenance of the grapes. But the wine has the signature dark fruit and minerality of old-vine, high altitude, dry-farmed Garnacha—and something more.
Aromas of blackberry, ripe plum, charred wood and crushed rock provide an intriguing,edgy introduction, the aromatic intensity boosted by alcoholic heat. A seam of minerality drives the medium weight palate giving the pure, dark fruit a hard edge. The tannins are expansive and drying and seem to get an intensity boost from the high alcohol while showing some bitterness on the finish—15.5% is almost unheard of in an $8 wine. Beware the sorcery of tannins and alcoholic heat. Darkly defiant, pent-up savagery hidden by a veneer of restraint, this is one weird wine with an occult charm like Ghost’s Danse Macabre
Technical notes: Aged in concrete and stainless steel
Dave Phinney, creator of Orin Swift wines in the 1990’s, has a new project blending varietals from old vines from various regions of a country to make a wine that is not restricted by appellation rules. Called Locations, the geographic center of these wines is dispersed. This Spanish wine is sourced from Priorat, Jumilla, Toro, Rioja and Ribera del Duero and includes Garnacha, Tempranillo, Monastrell, and Cariñena. It comes down to the art of the blend.
I don’t have the exact blend but the generous fruit and mineral notes on this wine remind me of Priorat in the modern, less oaky style.
On the nose, dark plum, licorice, smoke, and charcoal are ascendant. Baked earth and a toasted cumin seed note hide in the background.
In the mouth, the prelude is dense with fruit power extending to the midpalate where it begins to dissipate showing characteristic mineral notes. With more structure than finesse, the midpalate has a leathery texture, smooth but not supple with enough fruit to temper any rough edges. The acid and tannin on the medium-length finish oscillate from angular to soft velvet giving the wine a sense of playful urgency.
Great QPR.
Serve this with something charred. I paired it with a nicely crisped chicken breast in brown butter vinaigrette and the wine gave the char a luscious round, sweet note.
This doesn’t wow with complexity but it is very active on the palate with lots of motion. Brash and confident, dark yet vibrant, a glimmer against the gloom, a defiant rebel with a cause, a Billy Idol wine.
A Rioja Reserva for $7 raises eyebrows. Unlike the term “reserve” in the U.S., in Rioja “reserva” actually means something. It must be aged for 3 years with at least 1 year in oak. The winemaker’s notes say this 100% Tempranillo was aged in oak for 3 years so this wine exceeds minimum requirements. $7 wines made in the U.S would never see a barrel; their “oak” would be from chips or some other oak product. So this Costco wine looks like a terrific deal.
After tasting I have to say, it’s just OK but has a unique personality and is a good value at this price.
The nose is simple blackberry with an earthy, mushroom background and a hint of wood. The palate shows very soft, muted fruit upfront, a muddled midpalate with chocolate and tobacco that finally gains intensity as the finish begins with lifted, high toned acidity. The tannins are powdery, only a minor presence. This is a curious wine, so reserved and murky as it opens and so mouthwateringly citric as it finishes. It’s depressive then manic but the journey is not unpleasant and when you’re at this price point anything unusual is a treat.
Recommended especially when accompanied by Kurt Cobain’s Lithium.
Loaded with rustic vitality, aromas of baking spices, dried herbs, and damp leaves envelop ripe, red plum and blueberry. Medium grain tannins and bright acidity mix with apple cider hints giving this wine a tense, uncultivated personality, inviting but unpredictable. It represents great value if you like your company on the wild side. It’s not begging you to like it but the folksy charm and anxious complexity is infectious.
The wine celebrates 5 generations of the remarkable Torres family’s pursuit of quality Garnacha, the principle grape from Spain’s Campo de Borja region.
Score: 88
Alc: 14.5
Price: $12 (Widely available, purchase here online)
Ubiquitous, inexpensive, reliable, simple goodness. This is an ideal, go-to, everyday wine.
Black cherry, baking spices, with raw wood notes lurking behind the hints of vanilla, a classic Rioja nose with good intensity.
in the mouth its juicy up front, medium body, but finishes dry and lean, with persistent, powdery tannins supporting cocoa on the finish.
Wine labeled Rioja with no further classification are young wines with no or minimal oak (They were formerly referred to as Joven). This one spends 4 months in American oak.
Score: 86
Price: $10
Alc: 13%
With medium acidity its charming rusticity is enhanced by Lyle Lovett’s I’ve Been to Memphis which pulls out the wines earthy quality.
Take a small annual production of around 500 cases, add quality fruit from very old vines, and a high Parker score upon initial release and you get—a cult wine. Pingus certainly qualifies. Danish winemaker Peter Sisseck left Bordeaux and came to Spain to develop Hacienda Monasterio’s wine project, but was besotted by the old vine Tempranillo (tinto fino) he found while exploring Ribera del Duero. He snapped up the vineyards, started his own label and entered his wine in the 1996 Bordeaux en primeur tasting where Robert Parker gave it a score of 96-100, commenting that it was one of the most exciting wines he had ever tasted. Now you rarely find it for under $800 per bottle.
Happily my wine tasting group was able to secure a bottle.
The secret of their success, aside from wonderful vineyards, is low yields—under 1 ton per acre compared to the generally recognized standard of 3.7 tons per acre and well under even the best Bordeaux chateaux. 2001 was the first year in which the grapes were certified bio-dynamic. At the time Sisseck was using 100% new French oak for 24 months, although in recent vintages he has been dialing back the oak treatment with primarily 2nd use barrels.
The test of a fine wine is in the finish and the finish on this wine is gorgeous—smoky, long and lifted with tannins the texture of cashmere. The nose is rich and powerful with blackberry and smoke dominant. Floral, red fruit and balsamic notes unfurl as the wine sits in the glass. As is often the case with great wines, the complexity emerges gradually over time. On the palate, the wine is dark-fruited and laced with roasted meat notes but the expectation of weight and concentration isn’t quite fulfilled. Surprisingly buoyant and elegant, it’s expansive at midpalate but never throws a big punch seamlessly wending its way to that ravishing finish.
Generally speaking, Spanish wines are defined by oak with vineyard expression playing a less important role. But a finish like that is made in the vineyard not in the barrel. This is about very carefully tended old vines, low yields, and precise berry selection.
It naturally invites comparisons with Ribera del Duero’s other renowned wine—Vega Sicilia Unico (which I reviewed in 2015). The Pingus is 100% Tempranillo while the Vega Sicilia is blended with 20% Cabernet. That is a crucial difference. Memory is an unreliable guide but Vegas Sicilia Unico had more complexity and power which is to be expected given the addition of Cabernet.
Another apt comparison is with another pricey product from Northern Spain–Bodega Numanthia-Termes “Termanthia” from Toro. The 2005, which we also tasted at this sitting, was huge, concentrated, and alcoholic with robust oak expression and soft tannins—a lovely wine but lacking the finesse of the Pingus.
At these prices one wants perfection. In the end, I was only modestly disappointed in the Pingus. I needed more midpalate depth for the experience to be complete but the elegant finish almost made up for it.
Score: 95
Price: $719
Alc: 14%
Spare, elongated melodic contours will highlight a finish like this.
This is a curve ball from the high plains north of Madrid. The first impression is a provocative whiff of herbaceousness—tarragon, with red plum and a hint of coffee peeking around the edge. An unusual aroma profile for Ribera Del Duero, this is designated “roble” which means it was aged in wood for a period less than would earn it a quality ranking.
