Sacred Drop Channel
– Thoreau
My dream has always been to work in the wine industry. Yet it was only recently that I took the first steps to make this dream reality.
Join me on my travels as I study, taste, and demystify these sacred drops and the fascinating culture behind the wine.
Our journey begins in La Rioja, Spain.
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A visit to the beautiful Priorat wine region of Spain
For those of you who are not familar with Priorat, as I wasn’t previous to my move to Spain, Priorat is one of only two designated origins that qualify to use the term DOCa/ DOQ, SpanishDenominación de Origen Calificada (DOCa) (Denominació d’Origen Qualificada (DOQ) in Catalan). Priorat’s DOCa/DOQ is considered to be the highest qualification level for a wine region according to Spanish wine regulations, alongside Rioja DOCa. What this means is that wine producers are technically held to a higher standard of quality than those in the rest of Spain. However, this is not to say that there aren’t other regions of Spain that make amazing wine. This is simply a qualification method within the European Union.
Priorat is a terraced, hilly wine region near the city of Tarragona, Spain, south of Barcelona. It is characterized by its unique terroir of black slate and quartz soil known as Llicorella. To get a better idea of the Priorat region, please see the map below.
Map of Priorat RegionThe Priorat region is famous for its Cariñena and Garnacha (Grenache) grape varieties. However, wine producers are also allowed to use Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Shiraz (Syrah), among other varieties. Four white varieties are also authorized: Garnacha Blanca, Macabeo, Pedro Ximénez, and Chenin.
Interestingly enough, compared to the over 600 wineries in the La Rioja DOCa, the Priorat DOCa/DOQ has approximately 96 wineries and produces only 1% of what La Rioja does each year. This is due primarily to the challenging conditions of the land, the soil, and the weather, which together work to cause extremely low yields. In order to properly grow and cultivate grapes on this difficult land, true, honest dedication is required. Most wine producers give up and leave to seek more fertile land; those that stay behind, like the owners of the three vineyards we visited, live the life of vignerons and eat, live, drink, and breathe life into this region.
We visited three vineyards during our two-day visit to the Priorat region: Agnés de Cervera, Cellers Capafons -Osso, and finally Celler Burgos Porta. Each of the three wineries was distinct in its own way.
Agnés de Cervera- La Solana Vineyards
Agnés de Cervera, which is located in El Molar, is a medium- large winery; once the project of Osborne, it is now run by a family. Its well-known winemaker Fran Vernet makes top quality red wines such as Lytos and Kalos. Agnés de Cervera is located in the southwestern part of Priorat. I fell in love with the Kalos 2009 wine and had to take home some of this beauty-in-a-bottle!
Celler Capafons -Osso OasisThe second winery on our tour was Cellers Capafons-Osso, located near the town of Falset. Cellars Capafons-Osso’s owner and winermaker, Francesc Xavier Capafons, provided us with a five-hour-long tour through the two wine regions of Montsant and Priorat. The tour included a stop at a natural water source hidden in the mountain to save us from the extreme heat. It also included a great explanation from a viticultural standpoint concerning the land, the plants, and the vines. This ended with a tasting of eight wines, including some amazing ones with ratings of over 90 points, at a tasting room in the owner’s own traditional style home.
Cellers Capafons-Osso’s red wine Mas de Masos was an incredible one, and one that I would recommend trying. The winery also produces a Garnacha Blanca, a white Garnacha (Grenache) called Auseta, that I found easy to drink and fresh. I decided to take the Auseta 2010 home with me.
The third winery that we visited was Celler Burgos Porta, in Poboleda. Salvador Burgos, part-owner, vigneron, and winemaker, gave us a great tour and tasting of the wines which he and his wife and partner, Conxita Porta, produce. They market their delicious wines under the name Massinen, and all are rated over 90 points. Check out our visit in the above Youtube video.
(While the tour is in Spanish, I have summarized it below.)
In this video, Salvador talks about how, while Spain is second in production of wine worldwide behind France, it is one of least wine-consuming of the wine-producing countries in the world. He then moves on to discuss the type of terroir, the slate and quartz soil known as Llicorella, which we all were able to feel in our wine tasting. We also talked about “Poda en Verde,” green pruning, which refers to removing canes before they have hardened, and which is done to better control production. At the end, Salvador speaks of his favorite tool as a winemaker, a tool which allows him to push down the cap in the fermentation tanks to help extract color and aromas from the grapes.
This video was created to focus on the wonderfully authentic visit to Celler Burgos Portia of Poboleda, Priorat, Spain near Tarragona. Salvador, the owner and Conxita, his partner and wife have created an authentic experience full of passion and knowledge for their beautiful poppy covered vineyards and winery. They have great wines,under the name Massinen, all over 90+ pts. I ,personally, took home a bottle of the 2006 Mas Sinén Negre, which for me had the freshness of the Llicorella soil and well-rounded beautiful fresh fruit of the Garnacha, Shiraz and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes.
Finca Mas Sinén, Celler Burgos Porta Winery in Poboleda, DOQ PrioratPriorat, while not as well-known a region in the world as La Rioja for producing wines, it is a region with enormous potential. Most of the wineries are small family owned wineries that are run by either one or two people who wear many hats, such as the owner/vigneron/winemakers of Celler Burgos-Porta and Cellers Capafons-Osso. The wines they are producing are just now reaching the UK and US markets and are worth an enormous amount of attention. If you haven’t tried a Priorat or Monserrat region wine, please, go out and try these incredible wines.
If you are in the Barcelona area and are able to spare a day or two, it is well worth the trip south about an hour and half to visit these amazing vineyards and landscapes. I can’t wait to go back! Cheers! Prost! Salud! To your health!
For more information all these wines visit them at:
Agnés de Cervera:http://www.agnesdecervera.com or call for a reservation: +34 977 054 851
Celler Capafons-Osso: http://www.capafons-osso.com/ or call for a private reservation in English at +34 654 519 385
Celler Burgos-Porta: http://www.massinen.com/celler_burgos_porta.html or call for a reservation in English at +34 696 094 509
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2007 Marques de Caceres Crianza
Bodega: Marques de Caceres
D.O./Zona: La Rioja, Rioja Alta, Cenicero
Country: Spain- España
Type of wine: Tinto con Envejecimiento en Roble - Red with aging in barrel
Alcohol (vol): 13%
Price: 7-10 Euros (Spain), $15 approx. cost in US
Varietals: Tempranillo, Garnacha and Graciano
Color: Ruby redwith yellow edges
Nose: Red berries and vanilla
Mouth: Licorice, vanilla, oak and red berry taste. Has quite a bit of tannins, this wine would need additional time open before being served.
Elaboration: Aged 6-12 months in French and American oak barrel
Recommended with grilled dishes and rices, perhaps even work great with Pizza. Serve at 16-18 degrees C (around 65 degrees F)
Score: 8.9/10 Best value wine
I will be gone during the Christmas season but promise to come back with some great new videos in the new year! Happy Holidays!
Enjoy! If you’d like to see more or would like me to taste a particular wine, please email me at sacreddropseeker@gmail.com or leave a comment below. Thanks for joining us today!
(Source: sacreddrop.com)
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2005 Garmendia Selección, Ecological-Organic Wine
Bodega: Bodegas y Viñedos Garmendia of Grupo Altube, Santa Rosalia Estate
D.O./Zona: Vino de la Tierra, Castilla y Leon
Country: Spain- España
Type of wine: Tinto con Envejecimiento en Roble - Red with aging in barrel
Alcohol (vol): 14%
Price: 25 Euros (Spain), $35-40 approx. cost in US
Varietals: Tempranillo and Merlot
Color: Ruby Purple with blue tinges
Nose: Licorice, vanilla, berries,chocolate and cafe con leche (coffee milk)
Mouth: Licorice, prunes, chocolate, red berry taste. It is a full bodied wine that is well-balanced and elegant with a med-long persistence on the tongue. You can taste the Merlot but it is not overpowering the Tempranillo, which is nice becuase you get the best of both worlds in this wine.
Elaboration: Aged 24 months in Fench oak barrel
Recommended with meat dishes such as a marble steak and served at 16-18 degrees C (around 65 degrees F)
Enjoy! If you’d like to see more or would like me to taste a particular wine, please email me at sacreddropseeker@gmail.com or leave a comment below. Thanks for joining us today! -
This is the wine we will be tasting for this weekend’s Sunday wine tasting, Garmendia Selección 2005 from Castilla y Leon. Should be a great one! (Taken with picplz at Logroño, La Rioja in Logroño, Spain.)
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Welcome to the start of my Sunday tastings for the next few months. I want to begin with Clunia 2009 from Bodegas Principe de Viana which is made from tempranillo variety with 12 months in French barrel. The grapes are hand picked from a vineyard located at an altitude of 900 meters near Burgos.
This 2009 Tempranillo recently won a Silver Tempranillo award from the Tempranillos al Mundo award ceremony held this past November in NYC.
9.1/10: Great value for money at 14 dollars in the US or 9 Euros in Spain.Please continue to join me for the next few Sunday tastings! Cheers!
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“We are standard” are playing at Biribay. With Leyre enjoying the great music! (Taken with picplz at Biribay Jazz Club in Logroño, Spain.)
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The start of my Sunday tastings, 2010 silver medal winner of Tempranillos al Mundo in NYC. From same family of wineries that owns Principe de Viana. (Taken with picplz at Logroño, La Rioja in Logroño, Spain.)
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The Wine Harvest has begun in Rioja Alta!
In this video, you can see at Bodegas La Emperatriz , located in Rioja Alta, how they have started the harvest of the white grapes and doing an analysis of the grape must to check the sugar and therefore the alcohol content of the soon to be wine. The sugar content is measured using a handheld refractometer. When held to the light, you can see the approximate Brix of sugar that will give a predictive amount of Alcohol once this must has undergone fermentation. This is also judged and monitored by the Consejo Regulador in order to qualify each and every batch that comes into the winery. They are there measuring the amount of grapes in kilos per hectare and then qualifying it based on the Brix level.
The grapes that mature fastest tend to be the white grapes and therefore, the harvest generally begins with the white grapes and within a few days, the red grapes depending on their maturity and location will be picked next.
These grapes will be pressed first, the first pressing, a light pressing that will release the first juice will be set aside to be made into a higher quality wine and the second pressing will be used for the the next best wine. This is common practice in most all wineries.
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Wine History 101: What is wine and how it came to be
While recently reading a book called About Wine by J.Patrick Henderson, I was interested to learn more about the history behind the wine I drink so often. I thought it might be interesting to share with you wine history in a nutshell.
According to Henderson, wine was first consumed in Persia (modern-day Iran) in 5000 to 6000 B.C. Wikipedia states that archaeological evidence exists for other early wine production at about 6000 B.C. in Georgia, and about 4100 B.C. in Armenia.
The Persians first made their wine from dates and other fruits available in the area. It wasn’t until 3000 B.C. that Vitis vinifera, a species of grape native of the Black and Caspian Seas was used by the Egyptians and Phoenicians to make wine.
In 1000 B.C. the Greek empire spread wine making throughout the Mediterranean region of Europe, Italy, France, and Spain. Because wine was the center of many spiritual and religious ceremonies, the Greeks created a deity, Dionysus, in honor of wine, and no festival could be complete without wine. At this time, however, wine was made from raisins or late-harvested grapes; these methods resulted in heavy, sweet almost syrupy liquid wine.
It wasn’t until the Romans started to develop technological advances in viticulture (grape growing) and enology (study of wine making) that wine started be aged in barrels for up to a century at a time. As the Roman empire grew, so did the expansion of vineyards and wine practices into countries such as Spain and Portugal.
During the Middle Ages, it fell upon the Catholic Church to develop and maintain the secrets of viticulture and enology—a practice which, under Pope Gregory the Great, made the church quite profitable and also encouraged the expansion of wine production and vines throughout Europe. The Church closely controlled wine making, and it required all grapes to be pressed in monasteries, for which the church would require a 10% “donation” of production. The wealth created by wine production allowed the monks to dedicate themselves to studies of viticulture and enology. As the church grew, so did the cities that formed around these monasteries. It was during the reign of Charlemagne (768-814) that medieval viticulture and enology reached its peak.
It wasn’t until the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and the great European Renaissance that the Church’s authority was disputed, most notably by Martin Luther. By the end of the seventeenth century, the Church had lost most of its political and economic power, and the majority of the vineyards passed to private hands.
The nineteenth century, the golden age of wine, was not only the greatest and most advanced period for viticulture and enology, but also the most devastating period in the history of wine making.
During that century, Louis Pasteur, the famous microbiologist, had identified that the fermentation of grape juice into wine was a result of action by microorganisms. It was also during this time that Phylloxera, a topic I had discussed earlier in this web site,destroyed the vines of Europe.
Phylloxera, a root louse, or aphid, a small sap-sucking insect that feeds on roots and leaves originally from the eastern United States, was brought over to France on a merchant ship. In 1868, it affected all of southern France and by 1874, had reached Germany. It was during this time that many French winemakers had established vineyards in Spain, on the other side of the Pyrenees in hopes to save the vineyards. Nevertheless, by the late 1800s, Phylloxera had spread to all wine-making regions of Europe. It wasn’t until the introduction and use of rootstock from North America that the European revival of the wine industry began once again.
During this time and into the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, those with economic means took their vines and knowledge of European wine making elsewhere, planting vineyards in other places in North America, as well in South America, Australia, and South Africa.
It was also during this time that World War I halted the production of European wine making, and Prohibition in 1919-1933 created a decline in the demand for wine. However, after World War II, returning U.S. servicemen came back with a newly acquired taste for European wine, and by the 1950s, wine interest and consumption was again on the rise. In the 1960s and 1970s, the New World took steps towards naming wines after grape varieties, as compared to the traditional European naming system involving geographic denominations such as La Rioja and Bordeaux. Public taste in North America began to move from sweet, fortified wines to dry table wines, marking the beginning of the wine market we know today.
