Tag: COSTA BLANCA NEWS

First Published Costa News Group January 2012

BODEGAS TERRAS GAUDA

A CHAMPION OF ALL THAT’S GOOD IN DO RIAS BAIXAS

Despite (or perhaps because of) it’s youth, the relatively young 22 years old Bodegas Terras Gauda is something of a yardstick by which the super wines of DO Rias Baixas can be measured. Their classic 100% Albariño wine embodies in abundance all the attributes one would expect from this noble, and increasingly sought after, white wine grape variety.

However such a forward thinking bodega also has a foot in the past and I applaud it for this as well. Unwilling to simply help lead a bandwagon full of Albariño, the variety that is achieving cult status, Bodegas Terras Gauda is also keen to preserve, not just the memory of other local grape varieties, but to promote them as well. Their two other white wines proudly proclaim that they are made with Caíño Branco and Loureiro, with Albariño playing a only a bit part in one (though nevertheless significant) and a more major and yet equal (in terms of flavour and aroma) role in the other.

But even that’s not all! Their eye on the present and the future is also noticeable as they make wines, under a different name, in nearby BO Bierzo too, where the unique, and a touch quirky, Mencia variety makes exciting and yet elegant red wines that will grace any dinner table.

The golden hued, Acacia honey coloured, La Mar, DO Rias Baixas (a glass of which sits invitingly alongside my laptop right now!) is the wine that boasts only 10% Albariño, just 5% Loureiro and the rest the variety, new to me, Caíño Blanco. It’s not an easy variety with which to deal. It is susceptible to disease and attractive to insects. It’s skin is thick relative to the juice it produces and allied with naturally small yields the must realised after pressing is far less than with other varieties.

However the sensual aromas and flavours make up for all the hard work, plus it is also a fine conduit for the terroir under and in which the vine is grown. There’s a minerality about this wine as well as white peach fruit and gently perfumed white flowers along with subtle herbs – a touch of bay, an almost, but not quite anonymous thyme and green, actually damp, sage. Super!

Terras Gauda, simply named but quite complex, is another of their whites that uses Albariño as it’s base but also has a decent percentage of Caíño Blanco and quite a lot more Loureiro (approaching 20%). The Albariño contributes volume, mouthfeel, on the palate as well fruit aromas – some pineapple but predominately peach and apricot and more delicate white flower petals. But it’s the Loureiro that makes such a dramatic contribution to the intense aromatic quality of the finished product.

The Abadia de San Campo bottle, doesn’t have, for me, the most attractive label – but the wine contained therein writes volumes about how good Albariño can be when made from the free-run juice (the first 60% of juice produce from the lightest of pressing). The vineyards for this wine are at the highest altitude with less humidity and considerable differences between night and daytime temperatures.

The wine has a fresh lick of lime and lemon acidity underlying corpulent soft skinned stoned fruit such as peach and apricot. The aroma has a lovely white flower intensity, a touch or orange blossom mingling with distant jasmine floating in on a sea breeze.  It’s a full flavoured wine which will be ideal with its usual Galician partner, the wonderful seafood that is served in all the restaurants, as well as fish with sauces.

So this was the first half of the story – next week the outstanding reds of Bodegas Terras Gauda.

First Published Costa News Group January 2012

RESERVA OR RESVERATROL, SIR?

QUESTIONABLE HEALTH BENEFITS OF DRINKING RED WINE

La Crisis is alive and well in Spain. Fuel, and just about everything else has gone up, whilst wages have remained the same and in some cases have actually dropped. Pharmacies have taken industrial action by closing for three days as they’ve not been paid by Regional Governments. Taxes have increased, the standard of living has fallen along with the Euro.

Spain’s low credit rating dithers. If we had any spare money there’s no point in saving as interest rates are at an all time low. Even the Royal Wedding feel-good factor has dissipated and M&S have reported poor Christmas sales figures!

And, just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, there is now a question mark about possible health benefits from drinking red wine!

It was in 2003 when Dr. William McCrae, of Swindon’s Great Western Hospital, hit the headlines after acknowledging that he had prescribed 2 glasses of red wine a day (in fact Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon!) to 400 cardiac patients. The bandwagon began to roll.

In 2005 an Oregan (USA) winery was given permission to include on their labels that their wines contained antioxidants.

 

In 2007 Resveratrol, a compound found in grape skins, the more so in those of black grapes, was proven again to be an antioxidant and was added to a pill used to help stop cancer.

 

In 2008 a US study found that Resveratrol can help fight diabetes and obesity.

In 2009 research, conducted in Spain and published in the journal ‘Heart’, under the authorship of Dr. Larraitz Arriola, found that the risk of coronary heart disease decreases as alcohol consumption increases! Although the team was quick to point out that benefits must be set against the dangers of over-consumption!

In July 2011 Resveratrol was championed as an antidote to the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle, where it was also stressed that the benefits of exercise were undisputed and Resveratrol should not be seen as an alternative, but used by those who, perhaps because of injury or an office-bound lifestyle, were not able to jog, gym and swim!

A month later another study suggested that the same antioxidant, Resveratrol, could be used to treat life-threatening inflammations such as appendicitis and peritonitis.

We loved it didn’t we! Medical practitioners throughout centuries had always used wine as a medicine believing, correctly we learned, that there were health benefits from its consumption. Now we had the proof!

But hold on – in September 2011 a group of Australian scientists challenged previous findings that red wine helps prevent heart disease (I wonder if their next study will research tinnies!). Their report entitled, ‘Myth Busted – red wine no magic remedy for heart disease’, stated that any positive effects of alcohol in reducing cardiovascular disease have been hugely overestimated, concluding that the dangers of alcohol far outweigh any health benefit.

And now it has just been revealed that a doctor at the University of Connecticut (USA) has allegedly fabricated results and falsified data that suggested health benefits from red wine consumption!

Where will it all end? Well for me, in a moment, it will end in a glass of rich, red wine, because I love it (in moderation like everything, of course – our Grannies were right weren’t they?!) and not because I believe it will help fight the cause of my father’s extremely untimely death (at only 48 years of age) and that of two of his three brothers. Yes, you guessed it, heart attacks!

FIRST PUBLISHED COSTA NEWS GROUP, JANUARY 2012

RESERVA OR RESVERATROL, SIR?

QUESTIONABLE HEALTH BENEFITS OF DRINKING RED WINE

La Crisis is alive and well in Spain. Fuel, and just about everything else has gone up, whilst wages have remained the same and in some cases have actually dropped. Pharmacies have taken industrial action by closing for three days as they’ve not been paid by Regional Governments. Taxes have increased, the standard of living has fallen along with the Euro.

Spain’s low credit rating dithers. If we had any spare money there’s no point in saving as interest rates are at an all time low. Even the Royal Wedding feel-good factor has dissipated and M&S have reported poor Christmas sales figures!

And, just when you think it couldn’t get any worse, there is now a question mark about possible health benefits from drinking red wine!

It was in 2003 when Dr. William McCrae, of Swindon’s Great Western Hospital, hit the headlines after acknowledging that he had prescribed 2 glasses of red wine a day (in fact Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon!) to 400 cardiac patients. The bandwagon began to roll.

In 2005 an Oregan (USA) winery was given permission to include on their labels that their wines contained antioxidants.

 

In 2007 Resveratrol, a compound found in grape skins, the more so in those of black grapes, was proven again to be an antioxidant and was added to a pill used to help stop cancer.

 

In 2008 a US study found that Resveratrol can help fight diabetes and obesity.

In 2009 research, conducted in Spain and published in the journal ‘Heart’, under the authorship of Dr. Larraitz Arriola, found that the risk of coronary heart disease decreases as alcohol consumption increases! Although the team was quick to point out that benefits must be set against the dangers of over-consumption!

In July 2011 Resveratrol was championed as an antidote to the negative effects of a sedentary lifestyle, where it was also stressed that the benefits of exercise were undisputed and Resveratrol should not be seen as an alternative, but used by those who, perhaps because of injury or an office-bound lifestyle, were not able to jog, gym and swim!

A month later another study suggested that the same antioxidant, Resveratrol, could be used to treat life-threatening inflammations such as appendicitis and peritonitis.

We loved it didn’t we! Medical practitioners throughout centuries had always used wine as a medicine believing, correctly we learned, that there were health benefits from its consumption. Now we had the proof!

But hold on – in September 2011 a group of Australian scientists challenged previous findings that red wine helps prevent heart disease (I wonder if their next study will research tinnies!). Their report entitled, ‘Myth Busted – red wine no magic remedy for heart disease’, stated that any positive effects of alcohol in reducing cardiovascular disease have been hugely overestimated, concluding that the dangers of alcohol far outweigh any health benefit.

And now it has just been revealed that a doctor at the University of Connecticut (USA) has allegedly fabricated results and falsified data that suggested health benefits from red wine consumption!

Where will it all end? Well for me, in a moment, it will end in a glass of rich, red wine, because I love it (in moderation like everything, of course – our Grannies were right weren’t they?!) and not because I believe it will help fight the cause of my father’s extremely untimely death (at only 48 years of age) and that of two of his three brothers. Yes, you guessed it, heart attacks!

Contact Colin: colin@colinharknessonwine.com or through his unique wine services website: www.colinharknessonwine.com  

First Published Grupo Costa News SL, November 2011

DARK WINE FROM THE DARK HORSE

OF THE RECENT ALICANTE GOURMET FAIR ‘LO MEJOR DE LA GASTRONOMIA’

If it wasn’t for my contacts I might have missed the excellent Gourmet Fair in Alicante’s IFA Exhibition Centre. It’s clear that organisers, www.lomejordelagastronomia.com, need to be aware of the huge potential of sales to the English speaking extranjeros in the Alicante Province. I was unaware of any advertising in the English language media (and no press releases to me), which I’m sure accounted for the fact that I only heard two English voices during the whole six hours I was at this Mecca of Gastronomes!

The place was really heaving but there was room for more and I’m sure that readers would have loved it! The fair managed to strike the perfect balance between keeping professionals and consumers entertained, informed and happy – there were live TV cooking demonstrations, chef clothing and the latest ovens for sale as well as very well priced tapas and wine combinations. An outstanding success!

Of course I was there for the wine! Food related stands considerably outnumbered wine stands but there was nevertheless plenty of wine to see and taste. And for me one of the stars of the show came from a small, almost anonymous stand under the generic banner of the DO Alicante. Bodegas Sierra de Cabreras is nestled into the hills of the mountain range Sierra Salinas on the DO border between Yecla and Alicante, and making top class red wine!

 

The Dark Horse Wine

Any wine sold in El Corte Inglés Gourmet section has to be worthy of note and at 19€ per bottle, although relatively expensive, it’s very good value for money. Were this same wine made elsewhere in a more famous area I’m sure it would command a price into the top twenties, at least!

 

They make just one wine (watch this space though, as their fame grows I’m sure their portfolio will too), Carabibas and it’s super! Almost opaque, this very dark red wine is made from 60 years old Monastrell vines with the addition of some Cabernet and Merlot.

The 2010 is fruit driven, but it’s complex too with racy acidity and maturing tannin and is a classic wine in waiting, though drinking very well now. The owners told me that it had only just been bottled following nine months ageing in French oak. I intend to lay down some bottles of this to see how it matures over four or five years.

The 2009 is a different wine and yet made with the same varieties in roughly the same proportions. It’s more subtle on the nose, though its lovely damson fruit is nevertheless to the fore. The gentle, sensitive oak ageing has added an extra dimension over time, and will do so still as the wine evolves over the next, perhaps eight years. I enjoyed this dark horse wine as much as the next!

Muga’s Prado Enea Gran Reserva 2004 is of course from an excellent year and whilst not just tasting the wine but drinking it too I was struck once again by the superb quality that is available in Spain, and in this case in the most famous of Spanish producing areas, La Rioja. I’ve written about this wine and Bodegas Muga several times before so I won’t say anything more, except to repeat the advice that, here you can buy Rioja with total confidence, which cannot be said about all bodegas from this area! They even manage to make a characterful white wine, using Viura – which for me speaks volumes!

Another highlight of the fair was the wine portfolio of Bodegas Francisco Gomez whose organic (all their wines are organic) Sauvignon Blanc was full of fresh

Organic Wines from Bodegas Francisco Goméz

varietal character. Their red Fruto Noble 2006 Crianza made with Cabernet, Monastrell and Syrah is well endowed with ripe fruit plus the backing of 12 months in oak.

 

Serrata 2006 Reserva is made with Merlot, Petit Verdot, Cabernet and Monastrell and initially reminds me of some of the full flavoured Chilean wine I sampled when last in UK, but with a good length. The fruit hits, slightly disappears on the mid-palate but returns on the finish – I wonder if it might have been a slightly better wine with a few months less oak?

So, if I can persuade the organisers of this fine food and wine fair to give me some advance notice next year I’ll post it here so you can enjoy it for yourself. PS I’ll be discussing some alternative Christmas Day wines on Bay Radio Sunday 18th December, 12:00 – 13:00 hrs – why not tune in or listen on-line (www.bayradio.fm)?