Tasting notes, Jan. 18, 2020; Wines from Spain

2018 Ostatu Blanco 

Rioja

Regular Price $17.99

Sale price $13.99

Bright, fresh and crisp, this unoaked blend of Viura and Malvasia evokes flavors of green apple tossed with lime juice. It’s a great aperitif wine, well balanced and sensibly weighted. Lovely and easy to enjoy.

2017 Do Ferreiro Albarino Cepas Vellas

Rias Baixas

Regular Price $62.99

Sale price $49.99

Uhm, this wine is really in a class of its own. 100% Albarino, from 200 (!!!) year old vines planted in crumbling sandy granite soils in sight of the Atlantic Ocean. Dense and full, it is nonetheless brightly acidic with notable salinity woven through the citrus and floral aromas and flavors. Complex and rich, it’s probably going to improve with some bottle age, but it’s sensational right now.

2015 Can Rafols dels Caus Terraprima

Penedes

Regular Price $16.99 

Sale price $12.99

Cabernet Franc, Grenache and Syrah make up this wine, which is a bit of an unusual blend for Catalonia. But, hey, it works! Showing some vegetal notes (green peppers and olives) balanced by crushed red berry, the wine is persistently crisp, yet not simply angular. Back loaded, the wine begins quietly but lasts on the mid-palate and nicely cleans up after it self. Over delivers for the price.

2018 DaTerre Viticultores Casas de Enriba

Valdeorras

Regular Price $33.99

Sale price $26.99

To start, this is a blend of 80% red grape (Mencia) and 20% white grape (Godello), which wasn’t all that rare, historically. But, since we know that the color of the grape is pretty meaningless, except when the topic is color, we can get over the ‘novelty’ of blending white and red together and just enjoy this wine. It’s vibrant and fresh, elegant and well balanced.  Floral and plummy, the wine has more body and grip than it seems at first, and over-delivers in terms of length.

2017 Bodegas Bhilar Tinto

Rioja

Regular Price $21.99

Sale price $16.99

A young and fresh style of Rioja, made of 85% Tempranillo (the balance is Grenache and Viura, another white grape…yikes!), this wine does not show the heavy oak presence of many Rioja. Bright berry flavors with herbs and smoke and leather, its medium bodied and lithe and perfect with pork and fowl and fish. 

2015 Pinea ‘17’

Ribera del Duero

Regular Price $49.99

Sale price $39.99

This is Pinea’s ‘second’ wine, called ‘17’ because that’s when it was released and also because that was the year of Sergio Garcia’s (an investor in the winery) win at the Masters. 100% Tempranillo, from younger vines, its nonetheless full and rich, and after spending 20 months on new oak, pretty tannic and assertive.