Vinos Tito Tasting

Vinos Tito are a Spainish wine company run by Raffa Salazar and Antonio Lorente. Two Spanish men who fell in love with two Irish women and never left Ireland!  Their sole ambition now is to source some of the more diverse styles of  Spanish wines  to bring  into Ireland. I was at their portfolio tasting recently and here are  some of their wines that really shined for me..

Valdesil. Vilamartin De Valdeorras
Montenova 2010
Made from the Godello grape in the Galicia region this wine is a great alternative to a Albarino .The unique climate and diverse range of soils in Valdeorras show in the style of  their wines giving them a lovely mineral quality.Nice body and lingering finish.Try in with shell fish or tapas. Worth seeking out at 14.99
                              

Vina Cubillo Crianza
Rioja 2005
This Rioja house was founded in 1877 and is one of the oldest in Haro. The wine spends 36 months in oak barrels before it has bottle ageing. It is one of the most traditional Rioja I have ever tried as you can almost smell the cellar from the wine. It is dry with a touch of spice and needs red meat to be appreciated. They have changed very little  in how it is made over the last 137 years many conditions are fulfilled for their wine to retain the quality which makes them live on in the memory of those who have tasted them in the past
Worth seeking out at 18.99

Bodega Jimenez Landi
Mentrida
Sotorronderos 2009
Mentrida is a short distance southeast of Madrid where they have started producing some wonderful Garnacha based wines. Jose and Daniel Jimenez Landi are two very talented wine makers who took over this property in 2004. They farm biodynamic and  Sotorronderos is a great example of what this area is all about. The wine shows wonderful dark fruits and elegant tannins with a lingering finish
Works great with any lamb dish.
Worth seeking out at 21.99

Enjoy,
Julie
JUS DE VINE, PORTMARNOCK

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El Lagar de Isilla Verdejo 2010

New to Cellars this week is this 100% Verdejo from Rueda. This winery focuses mainly on Ribera del Duero wines and this white is new to their portfolio. In fact we have stocked their Joven for the last few years so I was looking forward to trying this. Rueda is just south west of Ribera with the Duero river flowing into it.It is a relatively new DO, only receiving it's status in 1980. An area that is famous for it's white wines with Verdejo being the most widely planted variety although Sauvignon blanc and Viura are also quite common.
Opened it for tasting in Blanchardstown last sunny Friday and it walked out of the shop. Pale gold with green flecks and a very aromatic nose; full of pears and apples. Tingly fresh on the palate with tropical fruit flvours and red apples. Clean and crisp with great finish. Try with chicken salad, crab, prawns or any shell fish. Only €12.99 and "My Choice of the Week"
Till Next Time
Clare
Cellars, the Big Wine Warehouse

Picarana 2009, Abillo Grape Variety from Madrid

The Terroir Fanatics

Last week Raffa from Vinos Tito (Spanish wine specialists) popped into the shop with Fernando Garcia the wine maker from Bodega Maranones (and a big Amelda May fan!) to show me some of their exciting range of wines from Madrid, all made in very small quantities. Fernando belongs to a group of young Spanish wine makers known as the Terroir Fanatics. He farms organically, picks all the grapes by hand and works with old vines up to 80 years old.

We tasted the Picarana(name of a bird) 2009 white wine, made from 100% Albillo grape.This is a relatively neutral grape variety  with an interesting glycerol level that brings smoothness to the wines in which it is used. He makes about 5,000 bottles and ages the wine in big oak barrels and leaves it on the lees for 7 months. The wine has lots of body and structure  and is very well balanced with a nutty dry finish . For me, it is definitely is one of the most serious Spanish white wines that I have tasted this year, and I was not surprised to hear that Jancis Robinson gave it wine of the week recently.
A classy wine worth seeking out for €17.99. The wine will work well with most meaty sea food or a nice roast chicken.

Enjoy,

Julie
JUS DE VINE, PORTMARNOCK

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Martin Codax Albarino in Berlin!



"Not another Riesling, pleease!"

   After a busy month of all work and no play, a weekend away was badly needed so a last minute brainwave saw us booked onto a flight to Berlin to ring in the New Year.  Determined to try to get to the end of as many bottles of Riesling as possible over the weekend and with my two trusted and willing comrades in tow by the Sunday we were Riesling-ed and Schnitzel-ed out of it! A change of tack was needed so we headed to the nearest tapas bar in Mitte and settled in for the night. Still happy to veer away from Sauvignon Blanc(their tipple of choice) but on the condition that neither the word trocken or halbtrocken be seen anywhere near the bottle... we really had over done the "when in Rome". It was one of those amazing dark taverns lit solely by candlelight with tiles on the walls and napkins all over the floor, ironically typically Spanish! It would have seemed weird to order anything from their extensive list but a Spanish wine. We went for the Martin Codax Albarino which was ridiculously good value on their list at €20 and one we sell in Cellars so knew it would put a smile on the girls' faces! Straw yellow and bright in colour. A nose full of apples which I thought might be a problem as slightly reminiscent of the last Riesling we had drunk but had a lovely vegetal or herbal undertone. On the palate it was so fresh there was a slight zing to it. Full-bodied with some lemon flavours and minerality on the finish. Quite dry but lovely balanced acidity which worked really well with the tonne of seafood we ordered!

Feeling a little tender on our way home we decided our next weekender might be to Spain and an authentic Spanish tapas bar. Definitely more a patatas bravas than a sauerkraut kind of girl...

Great start to 2011, thanks girls xx

Till Next time

Clare

Cellars, the Big Wine Warehouse

Celeste by Miguel Torres

I had been neglecting my mother for the last couple of weeks so to make amends we went for a bottle of wine after work in The PortHouse, Dundrum - as posted on previously by Evelyn. It was heaving for a Wednesday night and a combination of bad eye sight and a dark corner seat led me to a hasty decision on the wine list but a very hasty beneficial one.
Celeste by Miguel Torres, Ribera del Duero, Crianza was a wine I stocked about 3 Decembers ago and had forgotten. Not for any other reason that the selection of wines from this region has become quite broad and prices more affordable.
We drank the 2006 Celeste. It pours this rick blackberry colour. The nose is an array of dark berry fruit, cherry, blackberry with tobacco, vanilla and liquorice.

Trish Deveney aka: Mum

The palate starts like a fruit bomb and falls off to elegant tannin, dark chocolate and some oak.
It went great with the complimentary Pinchos especially the tortilla on French stick???.. Not sure what the Spanish equivalent is but it tastes delicious.
Celeste Crianza 2006 will be available in Deveney's as a result of a Wednesday night in The PortHouse.
Definitely one for the Tempranillo club.
O&O
Ruth.

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Protos Joven, Ribera del Duero '07

Nerja is beautiful, great weather, quaint Spanish streets, very few tacky nightclubs or aprons displaying the female anatomy.
Despite all of the above, the holiday was a bit of a disaster. David had forgotten to pack some good humour, I had forgotten my patience and Declan had forgotten his immune system - maybe a holiday wasn't such a great idea!!!
There's always a silver lining - Coto de Imaz Reserva was €16 a bottle in a restaurant and Protos was a couple of Euro less.
Protos Roble '07, Ribera del Duero is a great value Northern Spanish red that offers almost everything - in my opinion.
A big but classy red. Black dark berry fruit - cherries and blackberry with a mild smokiness and a black liquorice twist. The finish is meaty and smooth with no harsh tannins.
This is an ideal roast meat red but try it with manchego cheese and chorizo sausage.
Available in Deveney's of Dundrum @ €15.00
Ruth.