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Spain Producers
Name: Spain
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Husband-and-wife team Abel and Maite Mendoza are responsible for some astonishingly fine expressions of Rioja and its terroir. Abel handles the vineyards, Maite does the winery. Abel works 37 parcels around the village of San Vicente de la Sonsierra (which is the Sierra de Cantabria, near the border between Rioja Alta and Alavesa).
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Oh, how much do we love the wines of Alvaro and his cousin? A lot, is the simple answer and the reason is purity. Alvaro is driven by producing and tasting, even absorbing, great wines. After the civil war and the isolation and poverty that the Spanish people endured for decades, Alvaro`s training and experience in France taught him what could be achieved in winegrowing.
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The Belondrade story began in the early 1990s, when hispanophile Frenchman Didier Belondrade had a brainwave. He realised he could vinify Rueda Verdejo with barrel fermentation and aging to make a white wine in the Burgundian idiom he so loved. His first vintage was 1994, made with rented vines and borrowed space in someone else`s winery; it was a big commercial hit. Success then followed success, and the Belondrades now have a lavish winery of their own.
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Bodegas Lacus is an interesting estate over 7 different parcels, which add up to around 15 hectares. Farming is largely organic, some of the parcels are certified and the Selection cuvé is vegan friendly. A lot of the vines are old, having been planted by owner Luis Arnedo`s grandfather. Co-winemaker holding a consultant role is Olivier Rivère, originally from Cognac, though hugely experienced across France before moving to Spain.
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It`s a timeless style, and one built on a reputation for consistency vintage in, vintage out. Bodegas Lopez de Heredia have been making wine the same way ever since they were founded. The best quality fruit from their flagship vineyard Tondonia is fermented, given long aging in American oak barrels followed by yet more aging in bottle, before finally being released to the market. The result is a wine in a complex and mellow style, as much characterised by primary red fruit (strawberry, raspberry) as it by such developed characteristics as fresh leather, tobacco, game, sage and vanilla.
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There aren’t a lot of people who live in the small Catalan village of Capcanes, and of those who do, many are members of Spain’s premier wine cooperative. This cooperative was established in 1933. For decades they only sold fruit or made bulk wine for blending and bottling elsewhere. In the late eighties they watched nervously as their biggest customer, Torres, began buying land in the area. Into this picture stumbled German winemaker Jurgen Wagner.
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Although founded by a family with a long history in wine, Descendientes is a recent investment. Alvaro Palacios is now a pillar of Spanish winegrowing but he left his Riojan family firm because he felt they were doing it wrong, to move to Priorat, where in those days the region was more or less a blank slate. The expansion to Bierzo, with nephew Ricardo Perez in charge was to develop the considerable charms of both the region and the subtle and rather beautiful Mencia grape variety.
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Jean Belondrade hadn’t been planning to make red wine. Belondrade enjoys a worldwide reputation for Burgundy-like white wines. And if he had, given his winery is in Rueda (northwest Spain) it might have made more sense logistically to go to Ribera del Duero, or perhaps Rioja. But that wasn’t the way things worked out. Gonzalo Cores, an old friend of Jean’s father, invited the Belondrades to go and view a vineyard on sale – at the other end of northern Spain, in the isolated inland hills of Priorat.
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Piercing, pristine expressions of Albarino, and some beautiful bottles that prove how well Albarino can age, if given the chance. In the thirty or so years that they have been on the scene, Rias Baixas producer Pazo Senorans have leapt towards the top of the Spanish pack, developing a reputation as one of the country’s finest producers.
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Vega Sicilia has been branching out and Pintia, the Toro, is the country cousin to Alion`s urbane elegance. Also 100% Tempranillo - locally Tinto del Pais or Tinto de Toro - it is grown on lower altitude, warm, pudding stone covered sandy soils and is a bigger, richer and more alcoholic wine, as befits a region with a rich history of warriors, monks and students. Toro marks the boundary of Christian Spain during the Islamic occupation. It makes a fascinating alternative to the company`s higher altitde and `finer` vineyard holdings in Ribera del Duero. There are other differences too.
