That September Wednesday was pouring rain when I was bringing all my stuff to the Spanish restaurant Costa del Sol. Great start, I thought. I specifically worried about carrying the beautiful map of Spain and not to get it wet. But somehow we managed and the first class could started.
We were still missing one couple – that came slightly later. They were trying to harvest their own grapes before the rain starts and came 
tired and upset. All that hard work whole year, and now this rain destroyed almost everything! What wasn’t taken care of by the weather, racoons finished. Oh well, they certainly could use to sit down and share some good wine!
Our first of total three Spanish wine classes started by talking a little bit about history of Spain and its wine making. Why the Spanish wine heritage goes back to at least 3,000 years, yet we really started to notice some Spanish production here in United States in the late 70-tees, beginning of 80-tees?
We talked briefly about the Spanish wine laws and requirements for D.O. (Denominacion de Origen), and what must and doesn’t have to be on the Spanish wine label. Much easier than perhaps in Bordeaux!
After the introduction of the whole course, the slideshow was leading us through different native Spanish grape varieties, their specifics, about different types of soil, climates and conditions in which vines grow.The very first wine we tasted was Txomin Extaniz Txakoli 2010, owned by the Chueca family. Txakoli. Probably some of the driest white wine
s I have tasted so far came from the smallest appellation on Spain, located at Getaria in the Bosque region.
Grapes for this wine grew on the high hillsides on top of the Atlantic Ocean. Great, quite unique, crisp white wine made from both white and red variety of Hondarrabi. Fun coincidence was that Mila, our server, came from that same region herself and Txakoli was her favorite wine!
From there, we took a sharp turn all the way to the west peak of the Spain, Rias Baixas, where the vines also grow on top of the Atlantic Ocean. This region is mostly famous for Albariños, and I have chosen La Caña Albariño (new project of Jorge Ordoñez in cooperation with local growers).
Oro de Castilla, spectacular Verdejo, introduced us to Rueda, a region between Toro and Ribera del Duero. Are white wines produced in Rioja? Absolutely! Although Rioja white wines make just 10% of total production, Muga Blanco represented a lovely blend of Viura and Malvasia from one of the most known regions of Spain.
Portal Blanco introduced us to the region of Terra Alta – on the eastern part of Spanish map. Terra Alta neighbors with another famous Spanish wine region, Priorat. This wine is made from Garnacha Blanca (I tasted this grape for the first time as well), Sauvignon Blanc, Macabeo and Viognier. Another successful white from our wine class portfolio.
From Terra Alta we “traveled” west to visit Madrid. Not the capitol, but the vineyards surrounding Madrid, that many Spaniards don’t even know about. Yet, it is a significant wine producing region with many valuable old Garnacha vines. We will later visit Madrid again for its red wines, this time we tasted Zestos Blanco, wine made from Spanish native grape variety Malvar.
To the south of Madrid is a region of La Mancha. Mainly internationally known for the story of the famous Spanish novel Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes. Although La Mancha is a windswept, battered plateau, with a very unusual sandy soils – it remains a symbol of the Spanish culture with its vineyards, sunflowers, mushrooms, oliveyards, windmills and Manchego cheese.
This large, flat region is comprised of five provinces. Highly agriculturally oriented, wine-production has been an essential part of life here for centuries; so much so that it is considered the largest vineyard on Earth.
I love red wines from La Mancha for their very distinguish characteristics that comes from its unique terroire. And yes, we will taste red wines from there in our other classes. But this time, we tasted Paso a Paso Verdejo, probably one of not many 100% Verdejo wines from this part of Spain. And, what is also interesting to note, probably one of the best priced Verdejo wine from all Spain.
To finish the line of white wines, we crowned it by a true jewel. It came from the Andalusian region of Spain, highly elevated vineyards overseeing hot Málaga. History of this beautiful city goes back 2,800 years, making it one of the oldest cities in the world. Not many people know that Málaga is a birthplace of famous Pablo Picasso, since he lived most of his productive life in France.n.
 Botani, outstanding white wine (the only dry wine of the winery) is made from Moscadel De Alejandria, grape that is mainly used for production of raisins in this region. This wine to me is one of the best miracles of winemaking – just like in Germany, where you can make delicious dry wines from sweet Riesling grapes. This project started in 2004 as a join venture between Jorge Ordoñez, one of the most prominent importers of Spanish wine into the US, and the late Alois Kracher, whose son Gerhard succeeded him as technical director in 2008. One of Botani’s dessert wines (made by the traditional drying of the grapes) Jorge Ordoñez, No.3 Viñas Viejas 2006 just recently won the regional price for the Best organic wine in the world by Decanter magazine! 2010 was the first vintage made by New Zealand’s Oenologist Alistair Gardner, who was invited to this project to oversee the dry wine production.  The first wine class was finished with the first 2 reds – coming from the region of Ribera del Duero. Both wines were made from Tempranillo (aka Tinto Fino), yet both had completely different character. The grapes for Vizcarra Roble grew in predominantly sand, clay, limestone and gravel soil, while Barco de Piedra’s vineyard is located in slightly lower altitude, with the soil composed of river stones on top with limestone subsoil. Both wines spent a very limited time in the oak – to showcase their true fruit character. The Spanish tapas, prepared by Costa del Sol’s chef Javier matched perfect our selected wines. Not a big fan of whites and still think that you didn’t miss much? Wait till we get to reds next week…. |
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