#WBW70

I don’t drink enough Spanish wine. There is no reason although it does seem to be easier to buy French, Italian, Australian, New Zealand, South Africa etc etc. The announcement of the resurrection of Wine Blogging Wednesday by Catavino felt like a great reason to go out and buy some Spanish wine so I could take part. BTW Ryan and Gabriella – nice to meet you at the Wine Bloggers Dinner in London!

I chose wines from Epifanio Rivera from the Ribera del Duero because I had seen them in a decent wine shop round the corner from where I was working in Central London. I thought it would be neat to do a comparison between the two wines from the one producer, both from the same vintage but one – the more expensive one – being from a low yielding vineyard. And they were in the sale at 20% off, always a temptation. The Erial is made from 100% tinta fina and the Erial Tradicion Familia is made from tempranillo. However the Tradicion Familia does have much more complexity to it, a reflection of the fact the grapes come from 80 year old vines and are aged for 6 months longer. Detailed tasting notes can be found on Adegga.

Additionally a few days ago I got a chance to taste the wines of Equipo Navazos from Andalucia which were something special. There were a couple of sparklers, a number of amontillados and two pedro ximinez. The highlight for me however was the wine done in a joint venture with Dirk Nieport, the Navazos Nieport 2009.

The web site defines the process to produce the wine like this:

“Palomino fino musts sourced from a historic albariza vineyard, fermented in butt with indigenous yeasts that impregnate the vines and the fermentation vessels themselves, aged for almost ten months under a layer of flor thanks to the action of more indigenous yeasts that take control immediately after fermentation, and of course with not a single drop of added alcohol”

The aromas and palate almost defy description. If you want a wine to challenge your ability to identify aromas and flavours and categorise them, then get hold of a bottle. This wine truly represents Catavino’s encouragement for those of us taking part in #WBW70 to try something “different”.

My attempt to write a tasting note can be found on Adegga along with tasting notes for one of the sparklers and one of the PX.