It's not every day you run into a Dane making wines in Spain. Nicholas Hammeken founded his winery in 1996 after honing his marketing and sales skills for years in the UK and falling in love with Spain. The Hammeken Cellars labels wow with their spunky, fun attitudes, and his value-driven wines are lively and made for early drinking.
Read MoreWith heat blast down on us during these mid-August days - and even nights, I keep reaching for thirst-quenching whites. I have an extra row of whites stacked in my refrigerator, and a few delicious bottles from Rias Baixas are always amongst them. Here are three excellent, flavor-packed choices that I recently enjoyed.
Read MoreI was taken by Enate's Chardonnay 234 last December, so I was very eager to taste some wines from the bodega this spring. As with the vintage 2019 Chardonnay, the value on offer here is tremendous. I love the inclination of Spanish wineries to release wines when they are ready to drink. This is a fine example of a bold red wine that is brilliant now and that would have shown very differently if released on a more "modern" schedule of 12 to 18 months post-harvest.
Read MoreThis quartet of limited-edition, Tío Pepe sherries is sublime. Their complexity to value ratio is sky-high, especially with the Quatros Palmas Fino. Whether as sets or as individual bottles - and especially the Quatros Palmas, these wines should be destined to be collectors' items. Alas, they are bottled in clear bottles, which allow us to see the color gradations deepen from Una to Quatros but do nothing to protect the wine from improper light exposure. Perhaps the expectation is that those in possession of these gems will know how to store and handle them. If they can resist them, that is.
Read MoreFew people would think to plant a vineyard for red wine in the middle of the Palomino vineyards of Jerez, which is Sherry country, on Spain's southwestern coast. Unlike the 80% of Spain's vineyards that sit at high altitudes, these vineyards near the sea sit in a sunny, intensely hot area. That didn't deter Luis Pérez from planting there in 2002. Then in 2011, he followed with another vineyard - this one planted the closest to the Mediterranean - dedicated to one of the region's old black grapes, Tintilla de Rota.
Read MoreSpanish wines offer such excellent value and style diversity. They’re great to hit up for the holidays, even if your celebration may need fewer bottles than usual in this crazy year. As I always do, I marvel at the complexity of Sherry, one of the most under-appreciated wines around these days. Both this Sherry and this Chardonnay merit a “*” as personal faves!
Read MoreThe Torres name is one of the most powerful in Spanish wine, not to mention quality Spanish wine. Given the enormous range of wines in numbers of labels and in price points made by the Torres family, this is all the more remarkable. With the Torres name, you buy consistently good quality, whichever the wine.
Read MoreIt's unusual to see an "Organic Wine", so I jumped at the chance to taste the Crianza Xtrème Ecológico. Additionally, both of these 2015 releases come from the original LAN vineyard, Lanciano, which sits along the Ebro River on the border between Rioja Alta and Rioja Alavesa. While LAN's overall quality is extremely good, including the wines made from grapes outsourced grapes, the wines from Viña Lanciano are always a particularly nice treat.
Read MoreNortheastern Spain's Cariñena region takes its name from a black grape variety supposedly "born" - or at least originally discovered - there, even if a different black grape variety, Garnacha, is the dominant grape in the region today. While it follows easily enough that a region known for its red wine production may also make rosado, or rosé, it might be surprising that there's white wine crafted there, too. In the end, this all seems very natural. After all, wine - from anywhere - is full of contradictions!
Read MoreSo, it was with a particularly keen interest that I popped the cork on my first white from Grupo Pesquera. In fact, it’s the only white wine that the Fernández family makes, and it’s 100% Airén.
Read MoreTorres 2014 Priorat Salmos: The vibrant mouthfeel and perky acidity were the first things I noticed about this infusion of Carineña, Syrah and Garnacha. Then, I felt the smooth, gilded tannins welling up on the palate along with the rich, concentrated body.
Read MoreI found these three wines immensely impressive. To start with, they are all delicious, and moreover, each offers such an immense quality-to-value ratio that the pricing is thoroughly hard to believe. I’d buy any of these three with great confidence.
Read MoreBodegas San Valero 2016 Garnacha Rosado Origium Cariñena: This is the kind of rosé I adore, and it’s a plus that the wine is much less expensive than many of the less interesting, pale, leesy and vaguely ripe pinks that are so sadly prevalent today.
Read MoreAn arínzano is an agricultural estate that showcases unique vineyards, and this winery was the first estate in northern Spain to be endowed with the prestigious Vinos de Pago classification. The term pago is a nod to the Greek “pagus”, or property. The idea behind these wines is that they are entirely unique because of their provenance, or terroir, in wine geek speak. In sum, pago equals prestige, as the classification is set up.
Read MoreTerras Gaudo 2015 Albariño O Rosal: Waxy, succulent and silky, this is a different class of Albariño. It is astonishingly mouth-filling and creamy for a 12.5% abv wine.
Read MoreThis wine really started to shine on the third day after I opened it. Once fully opened, this wine is a mosh pit of smashed mulberries and smoky spices wrapped up in a velvet coat of smooth, even sumptuous tannins with a fine point of chewiness on the medium finish.
Read MoreGarnacha in Cariñena? Yes, confusingly Cariñena is now more about Grenache than Carignan. But such changes could be expected in a region that – literally – drips with history. In 1415, King Ferdinand I of Aragon declared his love for wines from Cariñena, saying he preferred them “above all others”. (Presumably he was talking about wines made from Cariñena.) In 1773, Voltaire wrote in acknowledgment of a gift of wines from Cariñena, "If this wine is yours, it must be acknowledged that the Promised Land is near."
Read MoreCVNE 2011 Rioja Reserva Viña Real: I tasted one ounce of this wine each day for three days before I wrote a note on that third day. I would decant it at breakfast and leave it until dinner - with zero trepidation.
Read MoreIt is the time of year I start thinking of summer-y wines: wines for lighter cuisine and wines for sipping in the sunshine. Albariño from Rías Baixas tackles both jobs with gusto. Here are two I’ve tasted recently from the freshest vintage on the market.
Read MoreFive generations ago, the Gonzalez Byass brandy legend awoke in the southwestern outpost of Spain’s Jerez. Today, the “everyday” Soberano is distilled in a continuous distillation system while the Lepanto brandies are carefully curated in pot stills imported from Cognac.
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