Anyway, what I’m really saying is that you will eat wonderfully at these places in that Michelin-starred way, but I’d like to move on to say a bit about the few places that I eat with any regularity. The place nearest to home that we go to is Cervecería Juan on calle Islas Canarias, 60, where they have amazing and cheap seafood and other dishes, and where the owner, presumably Juan, rules the roost with great panache. Rather than issue a bill, he looks at your table and announces a sum of money. I’m never quite sure whether I should be glad to be paying so little or that I should feel he’s making a comment on my scruffiness. Anyway, it’s small, it’s neighbourhood, it’s always full.

I also like Lágrimas Negras on Av. Francia and its younger sister restaurant Cómo Quieres Que Te Quiera on Av. Serrería, for their wines by the glass, their knowledgeable enthusiasm and their adventurous menús del día. Here is where I often find myself at semi-work lunches, meeting people for the first time and wanting to be in elegant surroundings but not appear too flash. I find myself at L’Azud further down Av. Francia for much the same reasons.

The happening neighbourhood of Valencia in gastronomic and other terms is definitely Russafa. It’s always good to dine around here as there’s inevitably a bar nearby for before and/or afterwards. Calle Sueca is the arterial street, and on this street we go to several places. La Lluerna for it’s fabulous wine list and even more fabulous wine-pricing strategy, that amounts to a standard 3-4 euro mark-up across all prices rather than the usual 100% or more – be sure to make a reservation as it’s getting more and more popular. We are also great fans of the Chinese restaurant at calle Sueca 65, great food at incredible prices, and my wife gets to practice her Chinese to the hilarity of the staff and other diners. Everything’s good, but you could go off menu and ask about their fiery spiced chicken with nuts, the oysters are good value and tasty, too. On this same street is the smart Italian Il Ritrovo and in calle Cádiz parallel you’ll find Basilico. I’d also recommend wandering around the neighbourhood and dropping in wherever takes your fancy.

Everyone knows Casa Montaña down in El Cabanyal towards the sea. This is a grand old tavern with more modern dining area, great wine list and high quality traditional, old-fashioned tapas, which can add up in price if you really get stuck in. I go heavy on the wine and less so on the food.

Finally, I urge everyone who visits Valencia to go to L’Albufera to take a boat ride and enjoy the birdlife on this huge lagoon, Spain’s largest lake. The paellas in El Palmar are decent tourist fare, but I recommend that before or after the boat you head to El Saler and Casa Carmina, where I was taken first the technical secretary of the regional rice authority, no less, he insisting that it was the best rice restaurant around, and I see no reason not to agree with him.

There’s no accounting for tastes, but those are some of the restaurants where I take people who come to visit us, and here I offer them to a broader public for consideration. At least the bill shouldn’t be too hefty if you hate them. I like to kick-start the evening with a swift daiquiri in the Aquarium, where the regular customers may look fairly ancient, but they are no fools and they know that here they make the best cocktails around.

Cheers,

John Maher

[original article published on Catavino.net]

Apart from that, I suppose I think in terms of touches to the tiller rather than radical change, the looking out for more aromatic whites, perhaps the odd barrel-fermented beast, and the bringing into play of the full range of possible red wines. Funnily enough, in winter this takes me towards the more classic regions with their structure and rigour, whereas in summer I am drawn to fruit and explosive immediacy. Though this time of year also finds one more unforgiving of failings in white wine – since they tend not to be overchilled, the besetting sin of summer whites. However, I am not with those who now forsake white wine and stick rigidly to red until the thermometers start throbbing dangerously again. Maybe fewer bottles from Rueda and more from Galicia. My thoughts stray to the likes of something oak-aged like the Louro do Bolo Godello 2007 from Rafael Palacios, or the La Val Albariño crianza sobre lías (aged on the lees).

Similarly with reds, the changeable weather brings everything into play, from the elegant but possibly less exuberant wines of the more temperate parts of the country to the don’t know their own strength extroverts that thrive under the sun. There are remnants from the monthly selection I occasionally order from Todovino that I opted to leave to try again at this time of year. I’m looking forward to reacquainting myself with Piedra Selección Tinto 2002 from DO Toro, originally received and enjoyed in September 2008, but just thought that despite its age another year might see it soften further. There is also a bottle somewhere of the Cillar de Silos 2006 Tinto (Ribera del Duero), and it will be interesting to see how that tug-of-war between fruit and minerals is coming along, and finally the Sierra Cantabria Cuvée Tinto 2005 (Rioja) from March 2009 was fine in winter, but had an elegant freshness about it that should hit the spot during a cool autumn evening after a warm day.

So, there you go, my advice is to knock back a sherry or two (I’d love to get my hands on Decanter’s Gold Medal winner Bodegas Fernando de Castilla Antique), open a bottle of agreeable white wine under the pretext that you need to add a glass to what you’re cooking, then exert the cook’s prerogative by having a bonus glass. Then you could enjoy whichever red wine tickles your fancy on a given evening, before rounding it off with an oloroso (maybe Sánchez Romate’s Oloroso Celestino). Sip this while wondering wistfully what happened to the summers of yesteryear.

Cheers,

John Maher

[original article published on Catavino.net]

Casa del Pinar, Los Cojos (DO Utiel-Requena)

English weather has not made historically for good wine ‚Äì Tacitus wrote of the inclement autumns, ‚ÄúThe sky is overcast with continual rain and cloud, but the cold is not severe.‚Äù *¹

As a consequence, the British made a virtue of necessity and became the most discerning wine consumers and connoisseurs (the list of wine-tasting sages is extraordinary: Jancis Robinson, Michael Broadbent, Oz Clarke, Jan Read, and many more). They also emerged as creators and shapers of great wine styles, such as Bordeaux, Port, Sherry and Champagne. Without British involvement these wines would lack their distinctiveness and their quality. Britons were also involved in the planting of Syrah grapes, originally from Syria and Lebanon, on the banks of the Rhone where they produce extraordinary wines. My own initiation into the mysteries of Syrah came when I was having dinner with the cigar king, Zino Davidoff, at the Lion d’Or restaurant overlooking Lake Geneva. My host recommended a Lebanese wine – Château Kefraya – the purest essence of Syrah from the motherlode, the Bekaa valley. Few wines have made such an impression on me. I was seduced by the elegant yet potent blend of aromas and a wild, mature, sweet spiciness. I thought of Davidoff when I first came to taste the Sanfir crianza from Casa del Pinar. This is a small “château” which also incorporates some charming casas rurales. It is owned by Philip Diment and Ana Castillo, an Englishman and his Spanish wife, who moved to the Mediterranean having owned some of London’s first and finest tapas restaurants.

Production is low, 25,000 bottles of their crianza and reserva all told. The aroma is dense and combines the scent of raspberries, blackberries and blackcurrants. There are added notes of vanilla and cinnamon alongside the exquisite sweetness of mature tannins achieved by constant stirring of the lees. Maceration, in new 300- and 400-litre oak barrels, follows the best contemporary practice as carried out in the Napa Valley, Priorat and Hawkes Bay. All this brings us a red wine of rare elegance, maturity, suppleness and vigour. This is a wine which is capable of holding its own against wines of its type from anywhere in the world, as is indicated by the fact that to date all the Casa del Pinar wines that have been entered in competition have garnered awards, including bronze and silver medals in the International Wine Challenge in London.

Website: www.casadelpinar.com
Label: Sanfir 2001
Type: crianza
ABV: 14%
Grapes: Syrah, Tempranillo, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Bobal
Approx. price: €10–12
Bodega: Casa del Pinar
Address: Carretera Los Isidros-Caudete Km 7, Los Cojos, 46354 Valencia
Tel: 962139121
Fax: 962139120
Email: diment@telefonica.net

*¹ Publius Cornelius Tacitus (55‚Äì117) was one of the most important ancient Roman historians. This observation is from The Life and Death of Julius Agricola, a biography of his father-in-law Agricola, Roman general and governor of the province of Britannia from 78‚Äì84 ad.

[original article published on Catavino.net]

This area has established itself at the forefront of quality wines in the Comunitat Valenciana. In a triangle encompassing the villages of Moixent, Font de la Figuera, Fontanars dels Alforins out towards Ontinyent you’ll find a slew of bodegas doing good things. Heretat de Taverners, Los Frailes, J. Belda, Dominio Los Pinos, Celler del Roure, El Angosto, Torrevellisca, La Viña de la Font de La Figuera Cooperativa, Pago Casa Gran, among others. Here the traditional red variety is Monastrell, and this variety remains at the core of much that is being done, but the locality has embraced experimentation. Alongside renewed enthusiasm for previously neglected local varieties such as Garnacha Tintorera, there is Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Chardonnay, Sauvignon Blanc and more. Heretat de Taverners are delighted with their Graciano, the most southerly wine made from this generally unsung Rioja grape. Los Frailes bases its wines on Monastrell (“Bilogía is 50% Monastrell and 50% Tempranillio, “Trilogía” is 70% Monastrell, 20% Tempranillo and 10% Cabernet Sauvignos), but the bodega recently launched MOMA, an equal blend of Monastrell and the hybrid Marselan for which they have high hopes.

The area has come a long way since Manuel Olaechea of Dominio Los Pinos told me that when he planted his international varieties Viognier, Muscat à Petits Grains, Sauvignon Blanc, etc.) in the early 90s he was regarded as peculiar by the locals and ostracized by the authorities. In fact he was instrumental in showing the possibilities for quality wine in this privileged location, and he also blazed the trail for organic wines, based on the fact that the climate is particularly effective in minimizing pests, so that very few chemicals are needed, anyway. The Los Frailes wines are also organic, and these are wines that have gone this route the better to cultivate the land and make their wines, not merely to capture a niche market. Los Frailes has added a state of the art modern wing and visitors centre to the grand eighteenth-century house. The celebrated Celler del Roure has moved from a garage-style production to a brand new bodega. El Angosto has recently added wine to a broader spread of agricultural activities and the great old house is full of ancient farming implements – very much of the earth rather than the laboratory. The humble-sounding Cooperativa Vinícola La Viña just had its Cabernet Sauvigno/Tempranillo blend (marketed as El Molinet in the USA and Casa l’Angel in Spain) named by “Decanter” as one of the “ten best Spanish new wave wines”. Daniel Belda has been mentioned before on these pages as the rescuer of Verdil, with Torrevellisca following his lead with their own Verdil monovarietal, but he has also explored many other viticultural and commercial possibilities. One of the latest latest is myWine, which allows you to make your own wine, from pruning the vines and harvesting to the bottling and labelling, choosing your wine variety and working under the guidance of specialist winemakers. Total cost over for two people is 6,517.24 euros plus VAT in 18 monthly installments. I’m saving up already. Have a look at the website for more information, but also for an image that conveys how attractive this part of the country is. Then come down here for a day or two and visit some or all of these bodegas, who have been wonderfully hospitable whenever I’ve been lucky enough to come. Fontanars also boasts a restaurant with quite a reputation, Casa Julio.

Cheers,

John Maher

[original article published on Catavino.net]

Bodega Vicente Gandia, Chiva (DO Valencia)

Fusta Nova is a sweet wine made with Moscatel of Alexandria by Bodegas Gandia. This company is one of the largest exporters of bottled Spanish wine. It was founded in 1885 by a Valencian, Vicente Gandia, and nowadays is an international company run by José María Gandia, the founder’s grandson. They have bodegas in Utiel-Requena (the Hoya de Cadenas property in Las Cuevas) and Valencia (Chiva). They produce, in addition to millions of bottles of branded wine, a range of quality wines (the reds Ceremonia and Generación 1 – see page 56) and, best of all, Fusta Nova, an excellent “vin doux naturel”.

Though there are divergent opinions as to the bodega’s overall style and its use of its position in the market, it is undeniable that this is one of the most professional winemaking outfits in Spain. To sell millions of bottles year after year in such difficult and demanding markets as the UK, the wines must be free of any weaknesses, and to achieve this you need to run a tight ship, which Bodegas Gandia does. It is true to say that for the consumer it can be confusing to navigate the different styles, a common characteristic of bodegas that are both high volume brand producers and have a range of quality wines. But the truth is that we have before us a great wine: Fusta Nova (“New Wood” in Valencian). Everything about this wine suggests intelligence and good taste, from the initial concept to its development, not forgetting its Valencian name (a masterstroke that associates the product uniquely with its birthplace and makes it difficult for similar wines to challenge it).

Fusta Nova is made with grapes carefully selected from old vines. The “mosto flor” (free run juice flowing from grapes crushed by their own weight without any mechanical pressing) is cold fermented with the grape skins at 15–16ºC – this skin maceration is carried out to get the freshest and most intense fruit flavours (Moscatel, pear and quince). The Moscatel grape, as Gandia have shown, can then be enhanced further with time in barrels of new French Alliers oak, from where it gets that full, silky taste, with a hint of toasted wood and walnut. Alliers oak adds these subtleties to the Moscatel, typical of fine-grained oak from the forests of France’s Massif Central, and the three months it spends in barrel are just right, since aromatic varieties like Moscatel are quick to oxidize, noticeable above all in the colour. Fusta Nova has a limpid brilliance, it needs to be drunk cool, and goes as well with foie gras at the start of a meal as it does with cheesecake at the end.

Website: www.vicentegandia.com
Label: Fusta Nova
Type: sweet wine
ABV: 15%
Grape: Moscatel de Alejandría
Approx. Price: €7–8 (50 cl)
Bodega: Vicente Gandia
Address: Ctra. Cheste-Godelleta, s/n, 46370 Chiva, Valencia
Tel: 962524242
Fax: 962524243
Email: info@vicentegandia.com

[original article published on Catavino.net]

There passed a weary time. Each throat
Was parched, and glazed each eye.
A weary time ! a weary time !

But unlike other wines down the ages, Fondillón’s journey was not done. Nor has it been reduced to a quaint curiosity with little to offer the contemporary wine drinker. The February 2008 issue of the “Wine Advocate” gave a 93-point rating to Primitivo Quiles Fondillón Gran Reserva Solera 1948.

So, what is Fondillón? In a nutshell, it is an unfortified, semi-sweet, Monastrell-based “vino rancio” (a style of wine obtained by means of intentional oxidation, or maderization, generally achieved by prolonged periods of ageing in wood or exposure to heat), made from grapes which are left to overripen on the vine before fermentation, resulting in a sweet wine that is very high in alcohol (the finished product comes in at 16-18% ABV). It is then aged in giant wooden barrels for no less than eight years and often more than twenty. The process slowly oxidizes the wine, adding complexity and refinement. The original brilliant red turns slowly to amber until the result is not unlike its fellow “vinos nobles” of Madeira or Sherry in colour and style, so that it is hard to believe that this wine is not fortified and is made solely from red Monastrell grapes. In the words of the “Wine Advocate”: “Dark amber/brown in color, it has aromas reminiscent of an Amontillado sherry including almonds, ginger, dates, and assorted dried dark fruits. It finishes sherry-like but without the alcohol and the bite. There is nothing else quite like this uniquely styled dry wine.”

There are other peculiarities relating to Fondillón. The two leading producers from the town of Monovar, Bodegas Salvador Poveda and Bodegas Primitivo Quiles, make oustanding Fondillons. But the Quiles Fondillón is made using a sherry-style “solera” system blending younger wine with older casks of wine, while the Poveda Fondillón is made from specific vintages as with Port. These two houses are responsible for saving Fondillón for posterity. Sales volumes cannot provide an exciting commercial return, but this piece of living history is central to the identity of these bodegas and this area. Other Alicante producers have begun to make their own Fondillons. These are all similar in style to the two mentioned, other than Fondillón Casta Diva Solera 1978 from Gutiérrez de la Vega, which is an intense ruby red and far sweeter (also lighter in alcohol at 14% ABV), in reflection of the winemaker’s different take on the historic style (also rated at over 90 points by “Wine Advocate” and at 88 by “Wine Spectator”). It is also sold at over 100 euros a bottle, while the others generally come in at twenty-something, though Salvador Poveda earlier this year launched a new blended Fondillón – “Sacristía” – combining wines from various vintages between 1930 and 1980, with premium packaging and price. This old fellow with the amazing stories of royal patronage, and helping fend off scurvy on sea voyages before the use of limes, is picking up a few new tricks. Here’s wishing this particular Ancient Mariner a long life ahead with many more tales to be told and no more albatrosses around his neck.

Cheers,

John Maher

[original article published on Catavino.net]

Naturally, there is a lot more Spanish wine in the UK than the other way around, but even so, it is often hard to find wines that are outside the mainstream. Such is life, and then the challenge is to track them down. As I wrote in my reply to the comment on Valencian wine, my first port of call is the normally www.wine-searcher.com (free version as yet, rather than the “Pro Version” which I’m saving up for), where you just put in the name of the wine and the country you’re looking for it in, and out comes all sorts of information. For example, Andrew Chapman, the designer of the cover of “Valencia Land of Wine” is someone I’ve worked with a fair bit over the years. For this particular job, he suggested part payment in wine, which I thought showed both discernment and commitment to the project. But how to get Valencian wines to him down in Brighton?

By great good fortune, wine-searcher.com came up with Cooden Cellars a couple of times when I looked for wines mentioned in the book, and they happened to be very close to Brighton, in Eastbourne just down the road, and even to deliver free there. I promptly made an order comprising three bottles of “Les Alcusses” (DO Valencia, from the southerly Clariano subzone, an intense blend of monastrell, syrah, merlot, cabernet sauvignon and tempranillo – GBP7.13 each in early 2008), the second wine of Pablo Calatayud’s Celler del Roure, whose star wine “Maduresa” was instrumental in convincing smart Valencians to drink their own wines. There followed two bottles from Bodega Mustiguillo “Mestizaje” (50% bobal, plus tempranillo, syrah, cabernet sauvignon and merlot, GBP10.50), another apparently overexuberant blend that just happens to work a treat, and which I’ve mentioned before, and at twice the price their sleeker and more sedate “Finca Terrerazo” (70% bobal, 25% tempranillo, 5% cabernenet sauvignon, GBP21.50). Then a couple of bottles of Rozaleme from Utiel-Requena (70% bobal and 30% tempranillo), not bad going for Eastbourne to have a bobal blend, and a good value at GBP6.50 each) and a bottle of Sequiot (cabernet sauvignon, tempranillo from Vinos de la Viña in DO Valencia, a wine I’ve yet to try. Finally, just to show that I’m not entirely limited to Valencian wines I threw in a bottle of Emilio Lustau’s Don Nuno Dry Oloroso (GBP5.95). Funnily enough, Andrew’s reply mentioned that he’d been a fan of “Les Alcusses” from his own local off-licence for ages, without ever realising before that it was from the Valencia region.

Looking through wine-searcher.com across all countries, it’s good to see that there are plenty of wines from the Valencia DOs out there in the USA, Germany, UK and elsewhere. I’m guessing that it will still be a while before I can order English wines from the comfort of my armchair for my friends outside the UK. I’ll keep trying, though.

Cheers,

John Maher

[original article published on Catavino.net]

This led me to point my computer towards a couple of online wine sellers when I got home to Valencia. I first visited Vinos-Valencianos, which I’ve browsed before but never bought from. It has an interesting array of bottles from all Valencian denominaciones de origen, but you can only buy unmixed cases of six, which is not what I wanted on this occasion (even if delivery is free). I then went to Lavinia, which I have bought stuff from a few times before, but their regional offering was a bit high end (kicking off around the 20 euro mark and rising), which I wanted to avoid both out of meanness and to keep this as a personal rather than corporate exchange. I had a further look and ended up at Vinissimus, which was just what I wanted. You could mix your own selection and there were less expensive wines along with the luxury stuff. I picked a few in a hurry, and it was only when I’d finalized the order that I noticed that I was top-heavy on Alicante wines. My selection was:

• Cristal¬∑l√≠: a light, elegant sweet moscatel from the mountains of Alicante, 9.30 euros,
• Mestizaje 2007: a heady blend of 50% bobal with cabernet sauvignon, tempranillo, syrah, cabernet sauvignon and merlot for good measure, from the grand Bodegas Mustiguillo, which is in Utiel-Requena but has its own Vino de la Tierra El Terrerazo status, 9.95 euros
• Salinas Mo Monastrell 2006: monastrell, garnacha tintorera, syrah and cabernet sauvignon from the new Alicante Bodega Sierra Salinas part-owned by Yecla‚Äôs Bodegas Casta√±o, 6.80 euros
• Al Muvedre 2007: old vine monastrell made in Alicante by Riojan flying ‚Äì or ‚Äúdriving‚Äù as he insists ‚Äì winemaker Telmo Rodr√≠guez, 4.70 euros
• Enrique Mendoza Selecci√≥n Pe√±√≥n de Ifach 2003: cabernet sauvignon, merlot, petit verdot, because I recently climbed the magnificent Pe√±√≥n and we had to have a Mendoza, 12.75 euros
• Laderas de El Sequ√© 2007: monastrell, with some cabernet sauvignon and syrah, and another Alicante wine project involving winemakers from outside the region excited by the possibilities here, 4.90 euros
• Impromptu 2007: I reckon that it‚Äôs not a bad idea to pay a little more for an interesting white wine and this is a sauvignon blanc from another ambitious young bodega, Hispano-Suizas, in Utiel-Requena, 17.75 euros

I don’t know what the recipient will make of these wines, but looking again at what was a quick buying trip rather than a deeply thought-through selection, I think that it suggests that there’s a real buzz about Alicante, with winemakers and investors being drawn from all over Spain to join the party, and that DO Valencia may lagging behind its neighbours when it comes to eye-catching wines. It also strikes me that it is the thrusting new bodegas that have worked to get their wines into online wine stores. I’d have liked to include a traditional wine from a long-established bodega, maybe Raspay from Primitivo Quiles, but I couldn’t see anything along those lines. But what I put together isn’t a bad snapshot of what’s going on out there. A bit of bobal, plenty of monastrell, often in interesting conjunction with international varieties, red predominating over white, it could have done with a dry moscatel and a cava to give it greater range, but there you go. All in all, it’s a selection that I’d be happy to receive, and I hope it helps turn a business rival into a personal friend.

Cheers,

John Maher

[original article published on Catavino.net]