Domaine le roc des anges, roussillon
BODEGAS COTA 45, RAMIRO IBANEZ, Sanlucar
Download 6.21 Mb. Pdf ko'rish
|
- Bu sahifa navigatsiya:
- Ode to Wine
- PORTUGAL
- CASA DE CELLO, Entre-Douro e Minho and Dão
- ITALY –– STATE OF THE MANY NATIONS REPORT
- In The Vineyard – The Biodynamic Clock
|
BODEGAS COTA 45, RAMIRO IBANEZ, Sanlucar UBE won knobe – the flor-ce is with these proto-sherries. These are still white wines made under flor from numerous old Palomino clones, rediscovering styles of Manzanilla that were made in the 18th and early 19th centuries. Ramiro Ibáñez Espinar, is a restless and talented winemaker who, with experience in Bordeaux and Australia as well as his native Sanlúcar, runs a winemakeing consultancy under the name GL Cero used by various bodegas in the Marco de Jerez. He is hugely enthusiastic about the potential of albariza soil and the recovery of traditional local grape varieties, many of which are all but lost, and which are no longer permitted in the Consejo regulations. He makes all sorts of interesting wines to demonstrate the terroir and personality of each vineyard and grape variety without letting too much flor obscure it. Ramiro was a founder member of Manifiesto 119, a group of like-minded local wine producers who want to experiment with the old varieties and winemaking techniques, make unfortified sherry and give more importance to the grapes and the vineyard, not to mention restoring casas de viña. They chose this name after the 119 grape varieties (40 of them in Cádiz) catalogued in Andalucía in 1807 by the first Spanish ampelographer, Simón de Rojas Clemente. Like Ramiro the group makes table wines as well as Sherry, and while few of them carry the DO they are still sought after and hard to obtain due to the small quantities made. One of the projects is called Ube and focuses on old vine Palomino from different clones fermented in an old Manzanilla butt without flor. UBE Miraflores uses old clones of Palomino and is mix of three different albarizas (chalky soil with high fossil content): lentejuelas (grainy); tosca cerrada (lower chalk content, harder) and lustrillo (chalky with iron) The grapes derive from five different vineyards of the Pago Miraflores area in Sanlúcar – the largest and most heterogeneous vineyard area of Sanlúcar. This blend of different albariza soils and vineyard gives the equivalent of a “village” Sanlúcar wine. Carrascal is from the Las Vegas vineyard, the highest in the Pago de Carrasacal, and the closest area to the Atlantic. The vines are original rootstock Palomino and the terroir is lentejuelas, a grainy type of Albariza soil. The wine is fermented in 500 litre sherry butts with indigenous yeasts, aged in very old barrels and bottled after a light filtration and minimal sulphites added. What is also delightful is the uplift of beautiful chalky acidity and the wines weigh in at an eminently drinkable 12-12.5% abv. Los Angeles (thirst)slakers! 2016
COTA 45 UBE MIRAFLORES W
2015 COTA 45 UBE CARRASCAL W
COTA 45 MIRAFLORES - magnum W
- 220 -
2016 LISTAN BLANCO W
R
Ode to Wine
Day-coloured wine, night-coloured wine, wine with purple feet or wine with topaz blood, wine,
starry child of earth, wine, smooth as a golden sword, soft as lascivious velvet, wine, spiral-seashelled and full of wonder, amorous, marine;
never has one goblet contained you, one song, one man, you are choral, gregarious, at the least, you must be shared. At times you feed on mortal memories; your wave carries us from tomb to tomb, stonecutter of icy sepulchres, and we weep transitory tears; your glorious spring dress is different, blood rises through the shoots, wind incites the day, nothing is left of your immutable soul. Wine stirs the spring, happiness bursts through the earth like a plant, walls crumble, and rocky cliffs, chasms close, as song is born.
- 221 -
A jug of wine, and thou beside me in the wilderness. sang the ancient poet. Let the wine pitcher add to the kiss of love its own.
My darling, suddenly the line of your hip becomes the brimming curve of the wine goblet, your breast is the grape cluster, your nipples are the grapes, the gleam of spirits lights your hair, and your navel is a chaste seal stamped on the vessel of your belly, your love an inexhaustible cascade of wine, light that illuminates my senses, the earthly splendour of life.
But you are more than love, the fiery kiss, the heat of fire, more than the wine of life; you are
the community of man, translucency, chorus of discipline, abundance of flowers. I like on the table, when we’re speaking, the light of a bottle of intelligent wine. Drink it, and remember in every drop of gold, in every topaz glass, in every purple ladle, that autumn laboured to fill the vessel with wine; and in the ritual of his office, let the simple man remember to think of the soil and of his duty, to propagate the canticle of the wine.
Pablo Neruda
- 222 -
VALE DA CAPUCHA, PEDRO MARQUES, Lisboa – Organic Pedro Marques’ Vale da Capucha wines are from organically farmed vines situated in the Lisbon region around eight km from the Atlantic Ocean in limestone soils rich with fossils. The precept is simple: maximum human work in the vineyard and minimum intervention in the winery. The resulting terroir-driven wines come from a medley of Portuguese varieties: Arinto; Fernão Pires; Alvarinho: Antão Vaz; Gouveio; Viosinho; Touriga Nacional and Tinta Roriz. The 2012 Alvarinho is hand harvested with low yields. The grapes are whole bunch pressed. The juice ferments with the skins and on the lees for three weeks before being racked off and spending a further 20 months on the fine lees and the wine is then bottled without filtration or fining and with a wee bit of SO2. The Gouveio (Portugal’s version of Godello) is an addition to our portfolio. This white has a brilliant line of acidity allied to some pretty crunchy seashell minerality. Arinto is a versatile grape, grown in most of Portugal’s wine regions. In Vinho Verde country, it goes by the name of Pedernã. It makes vibrant wines with lively, refreshing acidity, often with a mineral quality, along with gentle flavours reminiscent of apple, lime and lemon. Pedro’s version tickles the tongue with maximum prejudice. Pedro subscribes to the less-is-more approach. And also leaving the wines to come into focus in their own good time. 2015
VALE DA CAPUCHA VINHO BRANCO W
2015 VALE DA CAPUCHA ALVARINHO W
VALE DA CAPUCHA GOUVEIO W
2013/15 VALE DA CAPUCHA ARINTO W
VALE DA CAPUCHA CASTELAO R
For most of the 20 th Century, the Dão region in northern Portugal never quite lived up to its potential. Due to government regulation, private firms were forced to buy finished wine from ten co-operatives scattered throughout the region. This system was finally changed in 1989 with Portugal’s entry into the EU. Since then, a winemaking revolution has occurred in Dão and throughout Portugal, as young winemakers and new property owners have been bringing top winemaking techniques to the native Portuguese varieties. Owner João Pedro Araujo of Casa de Cello has teamed up with Pedro Anselmo, star winemaker of Quinta do Ameal and others, to make Quinta da Vegia. Located in the Dão region near Penalva de Castelo, Quinta da Vegia has 20 ha of vineyard planted to Touriga Nacional, Aragonês (the local clone of Tempranillo) and Trincadeira Preta. Porta Fronha is their 222rborio cuvée, bursting with crunchy red berry fruit, plus food-friendly earthy and spicy notes. Deep, bright red. Spicy, almost saline aromas of fresh red berries, plums and cherry skin. Lively and sweet, the red fruit qualities showing striking purity and focus. Really delicious wine with impressive lift and energy to the finish, which leaves a strong impression of pure, fresh strawberry and raspberry fruit. Already drinking well. – Tanzer The Vinho Verde, in the words of two famous adverts, does what it says on the label whilst staying sharp to the bottom of the glass. A blend of Avesso and Loureira it conveys the customary pear and apple fruit aromas, with a touch of floral and green notes. Lovely succulent fruit on the palate, with lots of lemon and dry, appley qualities and very dry, pithy lemon finish. 2015
VINHO VERDE BRANCO QUINTA DE SANJOANNE W
2012 DAO TINTO QUINTA DA VEGIA PORTA FRONHA R
- 223 -
of the Lima river. Sheltered by hills and forests from the north and west winds, they receive welcome breezes from the south bringing the Atlantic influence that characterizes the freshness of the wines. We begin with a Loureiro which displays a variety of pleasant citrus fruits on the palate such as lemon and tangerine. Fruits, flowers and minerality are the key notes within a delicate balance between sweetness and acidity. . Vinho Verde is the product of its micro-climate; the result of the richness and purity of the land which is the legacy of centuries of agriculture; a sandy, granitic soil that endows the wines with a special acidity and minerality: these are the main features of the terroir. A classic Teinturier grape (see Alicante Bouschet and Saperavi) Vinhão is one of the oddities in which the juice from the flesh is crimson not clear. The red grapes, after being destalked go directly into fermentation vats or the “lagares” together with their skins, where they go through a process of maceration in order to maximize the extraction of colour and polyphenolic elements. Dark as the inside of a coal mine at midnight the Aphros Vinho Verde has impenetrable opacity, presents a slightly prickly sensation in the mouth and then bursts out smilingly with thick gobs of bramble jam and exotic black cherries and black raspberries. The tannins are chewy, agreeably abrasive, and, twinned with the angular acidity, create a pucker-sour-sizzle combination which confronts the palate with plenty of difficult textural adjustments. You can almost smell the colour of this distilled purple juice; it’s as if the skins had been freshly ripped off the flesh and just finished fermenting in the glass. The texture is part stalky and part bitter chocolate but it is the kinetic acidity that simultaneously drives the tannins over the gums and helps to alleviate their astringency. This is a prime example where cultural context might provide the narrative necessary to appreciate the spirit of the wine. Served chilled with some slow cooked shoulder of pork or one of those artery-coating Asturian bean stews this wine’s snappy vitality would not only cut through, but dissolve, fat. I can think of few better drinks to be supped al fresco, preferably in a carafe, where the thrilling, almost unreal intensity of the colour and the joyfully rasping rusticity would seem to laugh in the face of wine convention. The Palhete harks back to a traditional Portuguese style, a co-ferment of white and red grapes. Its colour and texture remind one of Jura grapes, with the sour flavours provided by the Vinhão—despite it being only 20 percent of the blend. Vasco write: “It is hard to credit what a natural and effortless endeavour it was to make this conversion. The amphorae (which are very difficult to find) that found their way to me were from Alentejo, all six from the same supplier, lined with beeswax by a marvellous potter (who is also a healer and is conversant with plant medicine). In the cellar, all I had to do was to remove a lot of electric cables, build a 20 cm step for the amphorae, and change the lighting. As for equipment I bought a perfectly functioning manual pump for 180,00 euros, had a manual de-stemmer made by a carpenter, and recycled a crusher and a press from my great grandmother’s time. We’re making two different wines: a 100% Loureiro, which is now fermenting in three amphorae, each with a different proportion of stems/whole grapes/must; and a « Palhete », a blend of 80% Loureiro and 20% Vinhão. The Palhete is in line with the tradition of ancient Portuguese wines. Most red wines in Iberia were in fact blends of white and red grapes before the XVIII century. That is why they were called « Tinto », meaning « tinted”. In medieval times the symbolic image that monks had in mind, when making red wine, was the blood of Christ. A wine that to contain light and transparency within itself. In Alentejo, the Portuguese region where the amphora tradition has been established for 2000 years, white wines (from amphora) are the most typical and appreciated .” 2016
APHROS LOUREIRO VINHO VERDE BRANCO W
2015 APHROS FAUNUS LOUREIRO AMPHORA W
AFROS VINHAO VINHO VERDE TINTO R
2015 APHROS FAUNUS PALHETE AMPHORA Ro
- 224 -
During the last few years we have enjoyed several sensuous epiphanies in Italy. Imagine wallowing in a heated spa swimming pool toasting a snow-capped Mont Blanc with a glass of sparkling Blanc de Morgex, or tasting 1961 Barolo in the Borgogno winery, or eating almonds under the pergola vines in Sankt Magdalener…
Much hithering and thithering has allowed us to probe the hidden corners of this amazing country. Friuli, abutting Slovenia, has provided perhaps the most varied and recondite taste sensations: the biodynamic wines of Benjamin Zidarich, for example, (consider salty-mineral Vitovska and sapid, cherry-bright Terrano), the more constructed amber efforts of Princic nodding and winking to Gravner, a spicy ramato (copper-hued) Pinot Grigio from Bellanotte, and a dry Verduzzo and Schioppettino respectively from Bressan – to name but a few. In Piedmont we are working successfully with Giacomo Borgogno, one of the oldest estates in Barolo. The wines are organic and delicious, drinkable now and endlessly ageworthy. Another estate that prides itself on using no chemicals is Sottimano in Barbaresco. The 2004 Fausoni is destined to be a memorable vintage, its supreme elegance making up for the natural austerity of the wine. After a long hunt we finally discovered two superb Brunellos: Pian dell’ Orino and Il Paradiso di Manfredi. Uncompromising pure wines at the former; no kowtowing to the palates of certain American wine critics at this establishment whilst the authentic Brunellos from Manfredi magically capture the essential purity of the Sangiovese grape.
When you’re choosing Italian wine you don’t have to sacrifice yourself on the altar of orthodoxy. PG has for too long stood not for Parental Guidance but for vapid Pinot Grigio or Pappy Gruel. Ditch the dishwater! How does unfiltered Prosecco, made in the ancestral fashion from pre-phylloxera vines, sound instead? Or Sicilian Cerasuolo – fermented in amphorae? Or perhaps you have an irrational hankering for a Verdicchio dei Castelli di Jesi from 1991? Or a dry Lacrima di Morro d’Alba? And wouldn’t you like to open a bottle of Vecchio Samperi (a dry, unfortified traditional-style Marsala) from Marco de Bartoli and know that it would be still in perfect condition in several week’s time? From the communes of Valle d’Aosta, nestling on the Swiss border, to the baking volcanic plug of Pantelleria swept by hot winds off the Sahara, every corner of Italy throws up a grape variety, a quirky tradition or some delicious vinous oddity that keeps the most jaded palate on taste-bud tenterhooks.
We don’t set out deliberately to buy wines that are organic and biodynamic – these labels are practically irrelevant as many wine growers adapt elements of natural philosophy or vineyard practice in order to make better wines from healthier vines, but, it so happens that about half of our Italian wineries are working to a consistent and rigorous programme of sustainable viticulture and minimal intervention. The link between organic/biodynamic farming and terroir (or typicity) is surely undeniable, and, if it cannot be proven by lab technicians in the sterile conditions of a laboratory, it can certainly be tasted time and again in the wines. Of course, good winemaking exalts the expression of terroir, but it doesn’t have to be overtly interventionist. This year, at our “Real Wine Tasting” we brought together growers from various regions of Italy – the link being that they all worked without chemicals in the vineyard (encouraging biodiversity) and without adjustments in the winery. With no make up and no pretension the wines simply tasted of themselves; the strong, distinctive flavours announced proudly that the wines could only come where they came from, a bonus and a relief in the face of global pressure to create styles to please the “common denominator palate (whatever that might be). Thank goodness for diversity; vive la difference, as they don’t say in Rome.
- 225 -
For whereso’er I turn my ravished eyes/ Gay gilded scenes and shining prospects rise; /Poetic fields encompass me around/And still I seem to tread on classic ground. Joseph Addison – Letter From Italy
In the last couple of years we have assembled an agency portfolio of “Italian terroiristes”, a group of growers dedicated to producing wines of purity, typicity and individuality, who are not only perfectionists and passionate about their own wines but also fine ambassadors for their respective regions. Our idea was to represent growers from both Italy’s classic and lesser-seen regions. From the Alpine valleys of Valle d’Aosta to its baking southern Mediterranean coast Italy is many countries with a fascinating diversity of cultures, climates and wine styles. It is our intention to demonstrate the Italian wines can match the French for regional diversity and sensitivity to terroir. We have examples of rare traditional indigenous varieties such as Longanesi, Albana, Monica, Mayolet and Petit Rouge and also the best expression of better-known grapes such as Sangiovese, Nebbiolo and Montepulciano.
Download 6.21 Mb. Do'stlaringiz bilan baham: 
|