Beat the Heat With high value Spanish Wines!

When summer begins to swelter, we find ourselves reaching for something to cool off with. Most people go for a light white wine, some people prefer a chilled rosé. But when I toured the Mediterranean and was impressed with how refreshing the wines of Spain can be in the heat!

Spain is covered with grape vines, most of which are quite old. Age means deep vines, which which equates to small grapes with a robust flavor profiles: rich, acidic reds, and delicate, herbaceous whites.

 

Start with Albariño. In several years of tastings, Paco & Lola from Rias Baixas have consistently been in the top picks. There run from under $20 to low $30’s for aged Albariño. The 2012 pictured below, right, is gorgeously concentrated and a stellar aged white for serious oenophiles.

 

The bright polka dots of Paco & Lola are easily distinguished in a wine store. Take a bottle home and tell me if you don’t adore it!

 

 

 

 

Garnacha Blanca (White Grenache) and Verdejo are two wines that are lesser-known in the USA, but extremely popular in Europe. Some of Spain’s finest wines are made from Verdejo, with delicate flavor and beautiful structure.

 

 

Viura-chardonnay blends like the one below from Faustino are easy to find, herbaceous with bright white fruit, tasty in the heat, and easy on the wallet – around $15/bottle.

 

 

Bright, delicious reds like these old vine ’15 Garnacha and 2016 Cariñena (below) are delicious by themselves slightly chilled, and pair with food easily. Believe it or not, they can often be found for under $10/bottle, but drink well compared to other bottles you might find for twice the price.

 

 

Last but not least, you can often find aged Rioja and Gran Reserva wines that are beautifully aged reds, in the $30-70 range. These offer rarity and great age at a tremendous value.

 

 

Try wines from Spain’s Rioja and Cariñena regions this summer- slightly chilled to beat the heat- and let me know how you like them, and what your favorite pairings are!

 

 

à votre santé!

Advertisement

Smith-Madrone 2015 Chardonnay

Smith-Madrone 2015 Chardonnay, Napa Valley, Spring Mountain District, CA. ABV 14.4%,  SRP $34/bottle.

Color is pale straw. The nose offers pear, apple, lemon zest, and just a hint of oak. On the palate,  however, the fruit is beautifully pronounced: yellow peach, sweet apple, citrus crossing from the mid- to back palate, leaving a swath of mouth-watering heat from the alcohol. Secondary notes of baking spice, stone, vanilla, and vegetation with marzipan on the lingering finish.

 

 

As a wine lover, my first thought on this wine is that it’s so tasty, you don’t want to think about it. You simply want to enjoy this delightful glass of wine that is so unlike what we’ve come to expect from Napa. Smith-Madrone’s winemakers (Stuart, Sam, and Charles Smith) actually dry-farm (no irrigation) and in doing so, they develop a grape and create a wine that is closer to a Beaune-style chardonnay than the common flavor profiles that are popular with New World grapes. What does this mean to you?  It means you’re going to enjoy this wine more than you expect, and you’re going to need to buy more of it than you’d expect because like me, you’ll drink it faster, even if you’re savoring the flavors. You’re going to wish you bought a bigger bottle…or several bottles, because your mouth is going to ask you for MORE.

 

 

 

As a wine drinker who personally tries to shy away from the high alcohol content of some California wines, this is one where I take exception. The wine is so well-made, I’d easily buy a case of this to tuck into my cellar (if I only had the room!) it’s such a delicious wine that sings through warm weather and is incredibly agreeable with food.

If this is a good price point for your chardonnay drinking, (or a good price point for a special bottle) I can not recommend highly enough that you give Smith-Madrone a taste. As passionate as I am about white Burgundy, this is a wine I will remember for shattering my conceptions of Napa Valley chardonnay.

 

#WIYG?

à votre santé!

Adventurous summer red: Jura Pinot Noir

Frédéric Puffeney 2011 Pinot Noir, Arbois Contrôlée, Jura, France. 12.5% ABV; SRP ≃ 9€; Purchased several years ago for $25/bottle.

 

A wine to confuse your senses!

 

Color is a pale, delicate garnet. The nose offers rich, dark notes of eucalyptus, earth, black plum, and dried cranberry. On the palate this wine defies my every expectation: blackberry and cassis, bold tannins on the front palate, massive notes of soil and vegetation across the mid palate. So pastoral and rural in style, it is bound to challenge you, too! The wine confounds my brain with full-bodied notes from a mid-bodied mouthfeel; how I’d love to see how many Somms would match this wine correctly in a blind tasting!

 

 

I had prepared a meal of comfort food for my spouse: Italian bruschetta, chicken teriyaki, steamed broccoli, and a Mediterranean cucumber-tomato salad in balsamic vinegar. The high acidity in the wine would be an easy match; while I feared the dark flavors of the wine would be too much for the lighter fare, I was wrong. The wine played well off the vinegar and tomato from the bruschetta; it calmed and contrasted the teriyaki on the chicken; it felt full against the broccoli, and held well against the salad. This wine has enough oomph and body to pair with steak or even a cold weather stew, but Puffeney himself suggests terrine or cheese- obviously comté is the perfect cheese for any wine from the Jura, but I can attest that goat cheese, a creamy blue, and Dutch gouda all are delightful matches with this unusual-yet-delightful pinot noir.

 

The Jura continues to be a delightful, favorite region to me- what unusual wine region do you love to taste or  collect? Let us know!

WIYG? 

 

à votre santé!

 

Related Articles from JvB UnCorked on the Jura: 

http://bit.ly/FPTrousseau

https://jvbuncorked.com/2016/07/19/now-i-am-alone-puffeney-arbois-vin-jaune-08/

https://jvbuncorked.com/2016/01/13/in-appreciation-jacques-puffeney-winemaker/

Vin d’Alsace: Zinck Pinot Blanc 2016

Domaine Zinck 2016 Pinot Blanc; Eguisheim, Alsace, France. Stelvin/Screwcap Closure; 12.5%ABV, SRP $16/bottle.

Color is pale straw. The nose offers honeysuckle, wildflowers, and poached pear. On the palate is a beautiful citrus mix, both light and flavorful with lime, lemon, pear, apple, with tangerine zest and beautiful acidity. This is a carefully made wine that is nicely balanced. It shows delicacy yet features full fruit flavors to match with the acidity and aromas.

Served warm, the acidity is prominent and offers searing heat across the mid and back palates; while served cold the citrus is forward and the acidity is muted. So if I were to invite friends over to grill in the summertime, I’d pull a few bottles of this cold from the fridge, and start with a glass (or two) by itself as we chat, cook, and prepare a meal. By the time the food is ready, the wine is nearly room temperature and appears to have expanded the flavor palate with air and temperature to a fuller-bodied wine that is ready to pair with grilled lemon and garlic chicken, roast pork shoulder, or shellfish. So you can consider how you want this wine to present itself, and use that to your advantage. Either way, it’s win-win!

 

 

If you love wines that can work either daytime or night, in summer sun or under moonlight, this is a white wine you should seek out. I was surprised at the SRP, to me this is a steal and drinks like wines from $25 and up. Vins d’Alsace (Wines from Alsace for those who don’t speak French) are still under-appreciated in the USA, and if you taste this, you’ll understand and value what this tremendous wine region has to offer.  

If you’re planning a summer party and want a killer secret weapon, this might be it! I know there will be more of this in _my_ cellar. 

#WIYG? (What’s in your glass?) C’mon… you’re dying to share. Click the link below and tell me: Have you tasted wine from Alsace? And what’s in your glass right now? We all want to know!!

 

à votre santé!