Spanish Renaissance: Fresh and Local Wines Nudge ‘Sophistication’ Aside
2017 and 2018 vintages from Vega Sicilia tasted and rated by the JamesSuckling.com Tasting Team. At front is one of our top-rated Spanish wines, the Vega Sicilia Ribera del Duero Reserva Especial Unico NV. (Photo by JamesSuckling.com)
There’s no denying that the main calling card for Spanish wines is their affordability, although more sophisticated elements of the winemaking process itself, such as oak maturation, blending and oxidation, are seeping into the country’s overall wine personality profile and in some cases gaining an upper hand over more intrinsic factors like varietal character and provenance.
But over the last five to 10 years, we have also seen Spanish winemakers craft more balanced, fresh and terroir-transparent wines, with less of a focus on so-called sophistication in the process and more attention paid to local grape varieties. And after tasting nearly 1,500 Spanish wines this year, we see a renaissance happening in the country, with more wineries aiming to fine-tune their style and make more drinkable wines, showing plenty of nuance and less manipulated extraction or obvious new oak cosmetics.
Overall, it’s a better way of bringing authenticity to consumers’ dinner tables, giving them (and us) a chance to appreciate more aesthetically provocative wines. Winemakers are no longer simply producing coconutty, transparently flattering wines and expecting success. In fact, regions like Galicia are going in the opposite direction, breaking out of the hidebound winemaking mode and taking aim at a higher aesthetic: zingy freshness and drinkability.
Using grapes like mencia, albariño, and godello, northwest Atlantic-influenced regions like Galicia are spearheading the Spanish take on oceanic freshness, with pioneering winemakers like the Palacio family, Telmo Rodriguez, Raul Perez and Paul Hobbs, who has partnered with Galician winemaker Antonio Lopez, taking Spain’s dynamic wine scene to the next level.
The old-vine mencia, from the rugged vineyards of Bierzo, Ribeira Sacra, and Valdeorras, is Spain’s tribute to Beaujolais sensibility, with a bit more depth. These are usually crunchy, medium-bodied wines with bright acidity and savory tannins, exuding authentic, fresh, flinty red and blue fruit and a cool herbal note reminiscent of a pure and well-made Loire cabernet franc. The use of indigenous yeast and some whole clusters also capture the fresh and authentic side of mencia, adding a wild yet ethereal, tangy and racy character.
The Palacios consistently make great mencias that we rate very highly. But if you are looking for value from mencia and some field blends, then the Envínate Ribeira Sacra Lousas Viñas de aldea Vinos Atlánticos 2019 and the Losada Vinos de Finca Mencía Bierzo Altos de Losada La Bienquerida 2018 are great choices for your shopping cart. The massive success of these revived old mencia vineyards, on their elevated, steep slopes, prove that all the hard work of both Bierzo’s cooperatives and winemakers has paid off.
In central Spain near Madrid, around the extensive mountain ranges of Sierra de Gredos, new waves of highly drinkable wines made by avant-garde winemakers like Dani Landi and Fernando Garcia continue to illustrate wonderful Mediterranean freshness with old-vine garnacha. In the elevated granite-soil vineyards, the best wines from this area are Spain’s answers to Chateauneuf-du-Pape. If you are seeking value, then the Comando G Vinos de Madrid La Bruja de Rozas 2019 is an excellent reference point, with its fresh, succulent fruit toned by Mediterranean spiciness.
Telmo Rodriguez’s project, Pegaso, is another example of the racy, drinkable and minerally engaging side of garnacha in Cebreros, putting it on the map after the success of Priorat, where wines like the Terroir al Limit Priorat Les Manyes 2018 show how elegance, zest and nuance come through in a garnacha peluda (“hairy grape”) wine.
We still adore classic Riojas and the more traditional side of Spain. The best old-vintage Reservas and Gran Reserva Riojas bear every hallmark of well-crafted, beautifully aged wines, and come with fetching complexity and savory fruit. Oak and oxygen do not turn them into vanilla essence or vinegar, but rather spice up the fruit, mellowing the hard-edged tannins and giving them unparalleled complexity. Wines such as Lopez de Heredia’s Reservas of Bosconia and Tondonia vineyards, Murrieta’s Castillo Ygay, and La Rioja Alta’s Gran Reservas are among our favorites from this category.
A TASTE OF RIOJA: James interviews Telmo Rodriguez to discuss his latest releases, including our top-scoring wine, the Rioja Las Beatas 2018.
Today, many top producers from the traditional camp are fine-tuning their styles and making wines that are more eclectic and vibrantly fruity. La Rioja Alta Winery is one of them.
“Several years ago, when some of our wines were released, the color was probably too old and sometimes with some hints of oxidation, too,” said La Rioja Alta’s president, Guillermo de Aranzabel. “That doesn’t happen anymore. When we release our wines, they are very fresh. However, they are still traditional in style.”
De Aranzabel added that one his winery’s greatest challenges is to differentiate positive modern trends from timeworn fashions. “We don’t use grapes like cabernet sauvignon because we think that is just fashion, not a trend,” he said. “However, wine with more [vibrant] color is a trend.” For that reason, they also stopped using viura in their red wines.
BREAKING AWAY
Many overly manipulated “traditional” wines in Rioja still bewilder consumers with their overripe fruit, high alcohol and painful extraction process. We can’t say Spain is completely breaking away from these wines, but we feel that more and more producers from Rioja and Ribera del Duero have awoken from their vanilla oak dreams and started making more authentic, terroir-transparent wines. At the very least, they are making wines that kiss the fruit. But the top producers are taking an additional step up as they seek personality from the terroir through more restrained and calculated winemaking.
In Rioja, Artadi is one of the first to make a single-vineyard wine from the region, and owner-winemaker Carlos López de Lacalle continues to seek finesse. Now, his wines are more “Burgundy-like” than 10 years ago, with even finer, high-quality tannins.
One of de Lacalle’s top offerings and one of the first single-vineyard wines, the Artadi Alava Viña El Pison 2018, was a highlight of our tastings this year. From an old, 2.4-hectare vineyard lying at 480 meters with clay-limestone soils, it is a beautiful expression of tempranillo, with fresh layers and subtle, nuanced complexity.
“For me, the capacity of aging is a matter of balance, not a matter of quantity,” de Lacalle said. “If you find the balance, then the wine will age. And a wine that ages also need to be drinkable when it’s young.”
As an unswerving follower of terroir-defined wines, de Lacalle believes that overextraction leads to super tannic wines and a certain amount of standardization. He told us that the presence of oak at Artadi is now also limited, and that the wines are racked off from the barrels when natural malolactic fermentation is finished.
“We feel that right after malo, all these wood aromas and tannins start to be present in the wines,” de Lacalle, said, adding that this change began in 2016 as a way of preserving more primary aromas.
With the focus on single-vineyard bottlings, de Lacalle also believes that Artadi is doing what almost everyone else is now doing in Spain – producing more site-specific wines. Even Rioja, the hub of Spain’s traditionalists, is embracing the new approach.
In 2017, Rioja’s Consejo Regulador complemented the traditional barrel-aging categories by introducing new geographical indications that highlight the origins of the wine. The designation “Viñedo Singular,” or singular vineyard, for example, now applies to site-specific wines from vineyards at least 35 years old. Telmo Rodriguez’s Compañia de Vinos Telmo Rodriguez Rioja Las Beatas 2018 is a great example of this – a rare, expensive wine from Rioja and the ultimate expression of a 1.9-hectare plot. It’s defined by its purity, restraint and engaging minerality, with a magical length that does not want to end. It’s also the only 100-point wine we rated this year from Spain.
Of course, the new designations by no means make for a perfect system. Marcos Eguren of Sierra Cantabria said he doesn’t believe the age of a vineyard necessarily correlates with higher standards, having seen some 35-year-old vineyards “whose quality is much lower than those that are only 10 years old.” He believes most established vineyards and terroir can shine on their own, without setting an age threshold.
Indeed, not all the vineyards in Rioja are the same, and there are, of course, certain vineyards with better overall terroirs that have a record of making higher-quality wines. It is difficult, if not impossible, to level the playing field, but the new emphasis on the origin of Rioja wine at least gives full flavor to terroir over other elements.
TASTING ARTADI: Owner-winemaker Carlos López de Lacalle talks about the Artadi Alava Viña El Pison 2018, one of our top choices from Spain.
BODEGAS MUGA RELEASES: Eduardo, Isaac and Manuel Muga discuss their latest wines with James.
CHALLENGING VINTAGES
This year, many of the Spanish wines that made it to our Hong Kong office’s tasting tables come from the 2017 and 2018 vintages. A few winemakers in Rioja and Ribera del Duero told us they were very challenging vintages. However, we feel the quality is still consistent. The cool, rainy 2018 produced juicier, fruit-forward wines that are easy to appreciate now, whereas 2017 was a bit of a mixed bag, with the best having richness and the structure, although they are also elegant and fresh. 2017 was a much lower yield in both regions because of periods of frost as well as hot and dry weather.
In Ribera del Duero, the iconic producer Vega Sicilia is known for the lengthy aging it gives its wine in wood. But they are also conscious of the virtues of elegance and finesse, especially in the highly demanding 2017 vintage.
“2017 was warm and dry, but also we had the frost, and we had some hail. It was a very challenging vintage where we thought we’d do less extraction,” said Gonzalo Iturriaga, Vega Sicilia’s technical director. “I think it is a trend that people are looking for more freshness.”
Against the odds, they made a beautiful wine from this vintage. The Vega Sicilia Ribera del Duero Valbuena 5 2017 is rich but gorgeously fresh and long, with racy tannins. Iturriaga believes the large foudre they use helped the wine attain its poise.
“The foudre helped quite a lot. It gives more complexity and helps to work on the length in the mouth,” Iturriaga said. Starting in the second year of aging, they use wooden vats from 85 to 220 hectoliters in size, and Iturriaga told us that it was from this point that the texture of the wine starts to change, bringing in more finesse to the wine. “Even for 2017, which was a warm vintage, with the second year of aging the wine really became fresher and more elegant,” he said.
2018, on the other hand, was cooler and rainier in both Rioja and Ribera del Duero, leading to fruitier, crunchier and balanced wines, underscoring their freshness and juicy drinkability. It was a generous yield, and it delivered lower alcohol and density to the final wine.
In northern Rioja, the rainy conditions of 2018 encouraged mildew and rot, but the most consistent producers, like Muga and La Rioja Alta, were ready to place quality before quantity.
“Before the harvest, it was warm and a little bit hot, so the final result was wines with some Mediterranean characters, and the fruit was quite present, but it was very difficult at the end of harvest,” said Eduardo Muga of Bodegas Muga, referring to the October rains that hit their operation. Bodegas Muga focused on its Reserva label and a small quantity of the Reserva Especial in 2018, and no Torre Muga or Prado Enea were made.
“If we look back at the last 20 years, usually in each decade there are probably three or four years where we only focus our effort on a single wine,” Muga said.
La Rioja Alta winery made a similar decision – to not make their Gran Reserva 904 and 890. “We felt the quality of the grapes in 2018 wasn’t good enough to endure long-time aging in barrels,” winemaker Julio Saenz said. “There was good fruit, but not enough complexity.”
But whether from the hot and dry 2017 or the more fruit-forward, approachable 2018, top producers managed to pull off some quality wines, even if they had to sacrifice quantity. After those two challenging harvests, 2019 should be a vintage that pays off in spades.
“2019 was very balanced, and it was a very good vintage,” said Muga, who also told us they are finally going to produce their full range of wines.
READ MORE 12 MONTHS OF ORGANIC RATINGS: UNCOVERING NATURE’S FINEST
VEGA SICILIA: James and Associate Editor Zekun Shuai taste an array of vintages with the winemaker and owner of the Ribera del Duero producer.
Rioja’s Consejo Regulador apparently has confirmed Muga’s optimism, saying that the vintage will be an “excellent” one after evaluating more than 4,500 samples from the region. The “excellent” verdict has only been given to four other vintages over the last 20 years – 2004, 2005, 2010 and 2011.
We feel many of the Crianza wines we tasted from the acclaimed 2019 vintage are more structured, with good concentration and round, if not polished, tannins. These wines give us reason to expect more from the Reservas and the single-vineyard bottlings in our tastings next year.
“Today Spain is producing better wines than ever,” said Pablo Alvarez, the owner of Vega Sicilia.
Vega Sicilia’s Iturriaga concurred, adding that “it is one of the best moments for the industry and for wine lovers, where you can discover plenty of different things. And you drink great wines at great prices.”
We couldn’t agree more. Diversity of styles, great value and the momentum toward delivering freshness and precision are all aspects that are invigorating Spanish wines.
Yet, we still expect more from the upper end. The most highly rated wines this year, with 95 points or more, only comprised 6.8 percent of the wines we tasted, compared with 7 percent last year. However, wines we rated 90 points and up comprised 87 percent of the 1,500 wines we tried, meaning the majority showed excellent quality without achieving greatness.
Given Spain’s unshakable status of value, consumers should feel assured when they buy and drink most of the wines scoring 90+ points for everyday consumption. We just can’t wait to taste more from Spain next year, and hope that more top wines are coming out of this fabulous wine kingdom.
– Zekun Shuai, Associate Editor
The list of wines below is comprised of bottles tasted and rated for this report by the tasters at JamesSuckling.com. They include many of the latest releases not yet available on the market, but which will be available soon.
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