There is a sub-title for Viñateros, the large Spanish Wine Tasting, the London event of which was held at the Royal Horticultural Society’s Lindley Hall on 25 February. It is “A Spanish Wine Revolution”. I don’t think that overstates anything. There really has been a revolution in Spanish wine. As one attendee I was chatting with said, Spain is the New South Africa. I know exactly what he meant.

That revolution perhaps got off a little on the wrong track in the 1990s, when every Spanish wine boasted 200% new oak, a few international grape varieties, a bottle you could hardly lift, and at least 14% alcohol. In Spain there is a manifesto written by a group called Club Matador, comprised of a couple  of hundred movers and shakers in Spanish Wine. You could sum it up as “Back to the Future”. Forget the Cabernet Sauvignon and 200% new oak. Spain’s future lies in looking at her past traditions and reintroducing and reinterpreting them for the modern wine drinker. This is what these growers are doing and this is, more than anything, why they have genuine relevance and authenticity.

Those so-called “modern” wines of the 1990s and early 2000s still have a following, as such wines do the world over. But the reason my fellow Spanish wine lover made that comment, likening Spain to South Africa, is because there’s a newer dynamism abroad in Spain. It was there back in the 1990s, but perhaps it was a little drowned out by all the hype for the “modern” wines. It involves rediscovering the value of autochthonous grape varieties suited to the terroir and climate. It reflects the new perspectives of a new generation, something very evident at this London event. It also involves a recognition that Spain can do far more than macho red wines.

I also think that the change in outlook reflects a much warmer and greater appreciation of what the pioneers of Spanish wine really achieved. How many of Spain’s finest producers recall with love their trips into the vineyards with their grandfather, or a favourite uncle, who ignited a flame within them, despite their lack of means to create wines like their grandchildren can fashion today, with greater knowledge and resources. The past is not just autochthonous varieties suited to the terroir, tinajas and old bush vines or steep terraces. It is a past of people too.

That the Spanish wine scene has not only survived, but has thrived, through a period of real economic hardship does say something about the passion and tenacity of those involved. I hope that as we progress towards an uncertain relationship with the rest of Europe, we can continue to enjoy the exciting wines, from far more than the once dominant classic regions, here in the UK, wines brought to us by a select group of equally passionate, equally expert, wine importers (some of whose names will appear below).

Because of the sheer number of wines tasted and the number of other events coming up (though I write this two days after the postponement of Raw Wine in London) I shall need to balance very carefully your desire for detail alongside the necessity for making my coverage short enough for you to enjoy reading it. This is why, on reflection, I have decided to cover Viñateros 2020 in two parts.

If I seem to be not quite on top form right now it is because I’m battling with a bout of illness, which has curtailed my tastings schedule and dramatically slowed down my writing. I have five articles in the queue despite missing several events this week. Hopefully they will all appear before too long.

ZÁRATE (Galicia)

This estate is located in the famous Salnés Valley, within the Rias Baixas region of Northwest Spain. In fact the estate is set in the grounds of a 16th Century manor. The wines are typically “Atlantic”, with vines grown on weathered granite, subjected to the wind and rain which blow off that ocean. These are exemplary wines, all of them.

Sal da Terra 2018 is comprised 60% Carballoso, a rare variety from Xil, and an interesting entry point. Nice label too. The wine is described as a collaboration between Ben Henshaw (Indigo Wine), Daniel Primack and Jamie Goode (one of several collaborations Ben has initiated). Sold! Truly. This is a fantastic wine. Snap some up. It had breadth and presence, will age but is also salty-fresh (as the name suggests), food-friendly and refreshing. I certainly want a bottle.

Balado 2018 is Albariño off granite, six months on lees. Highly perfumed and apple fresh.

Carralcoba Albariño 2018 is the same variety with nine months on lees and full malolactic. Bigger and very gastronomic, ageworthy. It’s an introduction to the less acidic style of Albariño, a bit broader and more versatile.

Fontecón Rosé 2017 blends Albariño with the local red variety, Caiño Tinto, creating a salmon pink wine in a refreshing style. Caiño is one of those Galician red varieties to watch. You may not know it but it is as much a part of the local geography, and soul, as Albariño.

Carralcoba Tinto 2017 is a single vineyard wine, planted with 100% Caiño. A sour and saline gem if you like the idea of the salty Atlantic influence in a red wine.

Penapedre 2015 comes from the Esperón sub-region and is made from Mencia. You get concentrated cherry and a really nice lifted perfume. Just 12.5% abv, and perhaps like me you appreciate this more traditional style of Mencia, rather than some of the higher alcohol, often oaky, versions sometimes coming out of Bierzo (I could almost write an article on the evolution of Mencia from bulk wine to big wine and back, to a style more like this, showing a degree of verve and elegance even).

Imported by Indigo Wines.

ALBAMAR (Galicia)

This estate is located close to the previous producer, near Cambados, in the Val do Salnés. Again, we have a small family vineyard run on minimum intervention lines. The white wines are made from Albariño whilst the reds are made from either Caiño Tinto, Mencia or Espadeiro (or a blend thereof).

The entry level Albariño 2018 is flavoursome and easy going. Double the price and double the wine, Alma del Mar 2017 is a pale Albariño, but with a nice weight and 13.5% abv. Next to it in the range sits Pepe Luis, here from 2018. It has a deeper nose, and almost pineapple-like fruit. Delicious, and my choice of the three white wines.

The first of three reds, O Esteiro Caiño 2016 (100% Caiño Tinto) shows off the savoury qualities of this autochthonous variety at a light 11.5% abv. A refreshing wine. The second O Esteiro Espadeiro 2016 is from another local variety, one often found in the old field blends you may have come across in other parts of the region. This wine is smoky, a little sour/savoury, in an interesting way.

The wine labelled just as O Esteiro without a grape name to follow is a blend of the two varieties above plus Mencia. Although ever so slightly cheaper than the varietal reds I probably preferred it, but only (again) ever so slightly. The refreshing acids made me think of drinking it cool. Very fresh.

Imported by Vine Trail.

BODEGAS PEIXES (Galicia)

The first of two connected labels (with Fedellos do Couto which follows, and whose wines I know far better than these). The Peixes wines are made higher up the Sil valley in Ribeira Sacra, and at higher altitude than the Fedellos do Couto wines, at around 700 metres asl. The soils are granite/mica and the Atlantic influence is tempered by the Continental in these more inland vineyards.

Peixes Camándula 2017 is made  80% from the Sousón grape variety, an early ripener with great polyphenols, along with Mencia, Bastardo and others. There are some white grapes in the field blend. It is relatively light and pleasantly different. Peixe da Estrada 2017 is a more general field blend, mixing fruitiness with a certain savoury quality. Acidity and granite texture are to the fore as well.

Peixes da Rocha 2017 comes from the highest vineyards, at around 800 metres. The vines are over fifty years old. The bouquet is a lifted floral scent which carries the lovely fruit (high-toned plump cherry). Again, the acids provide freshness. This is a wine which deserves to become as popular as the perhaps better known red wines below.

Imported by Indigo Wines.

FEDELLOS DO COUTO (Galicia)

We are still in Ribeira Sacra here, and my guess is that many readers will already know these extremely good value wines. Although they are Atlantic Reds in one sense, partly because the rainfall in the Sil and Bibei sub-zones is pretty high, the influence becomes increasingly continental as we travel to Ribeira Sacra’s more southerly edge. I can’t resist telling you that the scenery here is stunning, and in my opinion more so than certain more famous regions not too far away.

As with Peixes above, here we have three wines, and although they do make white wines under this label, these are all reds as well. All of them are lovely, although my Jura passion does cause me to lean towards the Bastardo (aka Trousseau) when I make the occasional purchase.

Cortezada 2018 is Mencia from Sil, easy going but with delicious fruit. Lomba dos Ares 2017 comes from Bibei, off a selection of plots at lower altitude. It’s a field blend, with slightly firmer fruit than Cortezada, yet it is still a delightfully fresh wine in a somewhat lighter style.

Bastardo 2018 is very pale, slightly smoky, with a complex fragrance, though the fruit on the palate has some presence considering how pale it is. It isn’t (for me) obviously the same variety as Jura Trousseau from its profile here. It has a haunting quality, and is very long. In some ways it’s an enigma, but I mean that as a compliment. It is worth the extra £10-or-so you will pay over and above the Lomba in my humble opinion.

Imported by Indigo Wines.

SILICE VITICULTORES/FREDI TORRES (Galicia and Catalonia)

Fredi Torres is one of the most cosmopolitan natives of Northwestern Spain’s wine scene. Having been born in Galicia, he moved to Switzerland as a child. He’s made wine there, as well as Argentina, South Africa and Burgundy, and I also understand he’s been a professional DJ (and look at that t-shirt below!!!). He now makes wine, with the help of two friends, in Galicia’s Ribeira Sacra under the Silice Viticultores label, and right over on the other side of Spain, in Montsant, Conca de Barberà and Priorat, all in Catalonia.

Silice Blanco 2018 was the only white on show. Smooth and chalky, a blend of Albariño, Palomino, Treixadura (around one third each) and a splash of Godello. Just 11.5% abv. Silice Tinto 2018 is 100% Mencia off around 80% decomposed granite with schist. It has a smooth quality with texture, and a freshness increasingly missing in Mencia.

Finca Lobeiras 2016 is probably my favourite of the Silice wines (though please do not ignore the others as a result). The blend is 80% Mencia with 20% Merenzao, all fermented with stems. The site is steep limestone under clay and the vines are at least sixty years old. Ageing is in old oak barrels. The result is a dark cherry wine of some complexity which saw just over a year in wood and a further year in bottle before release. Different to the 100% Mencia, and it has real delicacy.

The Fredi Torres wines start with a red 2018 Conca de Barberà called Pomagrana. You only need to look at the colour to get the idea of the fruit he had in mind when naming it. If you like a pale, inexpensive, red with lifted fruit, acidity, and don’t mind a less than serious label, this is for you. Trépat is the (always interesting) grape variety.

La Selecciòn 2018 is from the Montsant DO, a Garnacha with a deep rich nose and smooth fruit weighing in at 14% abv but without overt weight. It’s a good lead-in to the Priorat Classic 2018. It’s made in quite a different style to the cliché of Priorat we have come to expect. It has bright acids and much more freshness. The blend is circa 70% Garnacha, 25% Carignan and 5% Syrah, plus a splash of white Macabeo, with just 13.5% alcohol. It sees around 15% new oak but isn’t overtly oaky. I would suggest that if Priorat tires your palate, give this a try.

All Imported by Modal Wines.

ENVINATE (Tenerife, Almansa and Galicia…and more)

Envínate is the project of Laura Ramos, Roberto Santana, José Ángel Martinez and Alfonso Torrente, who met whilst studying wine in Alicante. Starting out in day jobs, they have methodically built Envínate into one of Spain’s most exciting producers in a fairly short space of time.

Benje Blanco 2018 comes from the Ycoden-Daute-Isora DO in Western Tenerife. A well balanced wine with relatively low alcohol, it is all fruit and (ginger) spice. The variety, Listán Blanco, is none other than the Palomino of Jérez.

Palo Blanco 2018 is bottled from the black sand and basalt of the Valle de la Orotava, up at 600 metres asl, but the variety is the same as in Benje (although in all these wines there can be other interloper vines co-planted, you never can tell). Here all the vines are trained with the famous braiding together of spurs almost unique to the island, which is often likened to dreadlocks. It’s called cordon trenzádo (Suertès del Marquès, you may recall, makes a cuvée named after it). Fermented in concrete, ageing follows in large Italian oak foudres of 2,500 litres for ten months. This is a clean Atlantic white coming in at 11.5% abv, hitting the spot for texture and tongue-fresh salinity.

Albahra 2018 is from the region of Almansa, in the province of Albacete (Castile-La Mancha) and the grape variety is principally Garnacha Tintorera off chalk and sand. Don’t be too swift to pass over the varietal name because Garnacha Tintorera is not Grenache, it’s a synonym for Alicante Bouschet. The wine here is aged in small barrels this time. It’s a lighter wine than much Alicante Bouschet, but I don’t know whether that is down to the Manchuela and Moravia Agria varieties added into the mix, which are both certainly reckoned to be (not that I’m terribly au-fait with this pair, folks) quite acidic blending varieties.

Lousas Viñas de Aldea 2018 is a red made from 80% Mencia in Ribeira Sacra, sixteen growers providing the fruit from mostly very small plots of old vines. Lousas is the label the quartet has retained for their Galician wines. These vineyards are spread between 300 and 500 metres asl, probably counting as mid-slope here. The terroir is slate and schist, but their influence is perhaps moderated by whole bunch fermentation and very gentle foot pressing. A wine of lifted fruit and a savoury edge. Tiny production but extremely good.

Táganan Tinto 2018 We are back in Tenerife here, in fact in the Northeast of the island. The sub-region is called Ágana, presumably after the village of Táganana (here’s hoping I’ve counted all my a’s and n’s correctly). These were truly lost vineyards, ungrafted vines hiding away in clefts between rocks, in hollows and on the edge of rocky outcrops. It’s our first look at Listan Negro, blended here with four other less well known autochthonous varieties. It’s a very bright wine, vibrant, with depth but also some tannin. It’s also a wine of singular uniqueness, always exemplary yet equally brave as well.

To finish the present Envinate lineup, we come full circle, to Benje Tinto 2018, from the same Ycoden-Daute-Isora DO as the corresponding Blanco. The vines here are grown at an astonishing 1,000 metres. There is a small 5% splash of Tintilla, but the main grape (95%) is Listán Prieto, the variety also known as Criolla (Argentina), País (Chile) and Mission in the USA. It usually, at least the few I’ve drunk, makes reasonably light wines with a fragrant perfume, and Benje Tinto is no exception. It differs a little from some of the versions I’ve drunk from South America in a way that suggests the importance of terroir here. It is unquestionably both mineral and a little saline. Atlantic Ocean and volcanic soils come together nicely in a rather lovely bottle of wine. It has just the right degree of wildness without being likely to scare off too many people.

Imported by Indigo Wine

Alfonso on duty in London

VERONICA ORTEGA (Castilla y León/Bierzo)

I’d never tasted Veronica Ortega’s wines before, and this was one of the truly exciting discoveries of Viñateros 2020. She made her first vintage in 2010 after stints in Priorat (Clos Erasmus and Alvaro Palacios), New Zealand (Burn Cottage), Douro (Niepoort), Burgundy (Comte Armand and DRC) and the Rhône Valley (Domaine Combier), but fell in love with Bierzo during a stint with Raúl Perez. That is one impressive CV. So long as Veronica kept her eyes and ears open she was bound to end up making some stunning wines of her own. She has, yet they are not at all in the morbidly classical style.

Veronica farms five hectares in Valtuille, and showed six wines. The first was Cal 2017, named after the very chalky/limestone soils from which this cuvée originates. Limestone and chalk are quite rare in Bierzo, which you will recall is far better known for slate and schist. It was the only white wine on show, 100% Godello, from a 40-y-o parcel of vines. What a bouquet, incredible! Like pear drop with a hint of ginger spice or maybe nutmeg. The palate is very fresh, with the expected chalky texture and mouthfeel. I think the mouthfeel is also down to ageing, half in barrel and half in amphora. I would buy this, for sure.

Quite 2018 is made from 80-y-o Mencia vines on sand and red clay near Veronica’s base in the village of Valtuille. The name is actually a bullfighting term (her father was a famous bullfighter, apparently). This red accounts for around half of her production and is also aged half in wood and half in amphora. It is dark-fruited with more texture and more nutmeg and cinnamon spice. It would be an easy drinker, and again, I’d love a bottle or two.

Cobrana 2017 blends just 75% Mencia this time with white varieties Doña Blanca, Palomino and Godello in a traditional field blend. The vines are grown at altitude, in Veronica’s highest and coolest sites, on a mix of decomposed slate and red clay. Ageing is the same regime as “Quite”, but for thirteen months rather than seven. The bouquet is somewhat lighter and more floral (the white varieties?), and the palate is reminiscent of red fruits like raspberry and strawberry, but beneath you find more complex and deeper flavours.

Roc 2017 is named after Veronica’s deceased elder brother, a fitting tribute because it is her top red, ageworthy, with deeper colour. It comes from one special parcel of Mencia in the Valtuille Valley, from a sandy site with a stony topsoil. The grapes here are very thick skinned and they undergo a gentle ten day extraction to avoid too much extract or bitterness. The result is only medium-bodied and 13.5% alcohol. Still, it is tannic and fills the mouth with concentrated fruit. Keep at least four years, perhaps?

Versión Original 2016 If you can’t afford Selosse, you can afford this VO. Valtuille Mencia again from the same parcel as above but just from the bottom of the slope, where the sandy soil is deeper. Veronica said 2016 was a cooler vintage, and it has a certain structure with maybe less plush fruit. Bony, perhaps? But sophisticated too. It suggests elegance will come in time. It will take a few years to come around, but I’m sure it will, in three or four.

Kinki 2018 Kinki has a very different meaning in Spanish, a reference to people living on the margins in the 1990s, according to Veronica, or at least that is the inspiration for this new wine, of which 2018 is the first vintage (just 2,100 bottles). Red and white varieties are co-planted at Cobrana in the High Bierzo. Picked early, the alcohol level is only 11%. Light, pale, almost brick red, a wine to drink a little chilled. It helps to show the whole range of Veronica Ortega’s winemaking skills. I was very pleased I tried these, having only heard good things about Veronica’s wines.

Imported by Vine Trail.

VICTORIA TORRES PECIS (La Palma, Canary Islands)

I was so happy to meet Victoria, as you will be able to imagine if you have read anything I’ve written about her wines (most recently after a tasting of her range at The Ten Cases in August last year). In the article which followed that tasting I called her the new star of the Canaries. I guess that takes some justification, and I will try my best.

Victoria began making wine after her father passed away in 2014. She has retained his vines, if not his name on the label (thanks to the power of the Torres winery who, if what I am told is correct, apparently seem to think that “Torres” should be pretty much restricted to their clan in the wine world). The bodega is at Fuencalliente, at the southern end of La Palma, but her ungrafted vines, some as old as 130 years of age, are all over the island, and at altitudes ranging from beach level to 1,500 metres. This range in altitude is why Victoria says her harvest can take three months.

Las Migas 2017 might be described as Victoria’s entry level white. It comes from La Palma’s southern tip and is 100% (as far as anyone can be sure in these vineyards) Listán Blanco (Palomino). Intense and linear with a long mineral finish, it saw nine months on lees from which it derives a nice texture.

Malvasia Aromatica 2018 comes from plots on the southwest coast, the warmest part of La Palma. 2018 provided somewhat strange growing conditions, which Victoria described as “no winter and no summer”. The result is a fresh dry wine which hits you with its lovely bouquet, POW!

Listán Blanco Solera “2013” is from a solera begun by her father, Matías,  in 2013 and refreshed every harvest since. This version was bottled in 2018. It has such depth, depth you don’t always see in Palomino table wines (unfortified). It does have a slightly sherry-like (fino) touch, despite the soils here being black volcaic ash, not chalky Albariza. This is I’m sure down to the wine’s saline freshness, and the concentration of the solera.

Negramoll 2018 The bouquet here is so concentrated for such a pale wine. It has a slightly unusual sweet and sour note, but smooth fruit. It takes two months to harvest the diverse plots which comprise this cuvée, but the result is very characterful. I think this wine is not for everyone, but it is for me. I drank a 2017 last year and would like to grab some 2018, for sure. That 2017 contained 15% Listán Prieto, and I forgot to ask about the 2018.

Listán Prieto 2018 is a varietal bottling of Victoria’s “Criolla/Pais”. The old bush vines are from two plots in the northwest of the island, one at 1,200 metres asl and the other at 1,400 metres. They are harvested late, in October. The grapes from each plot are picked at optimum ripeness, so that fermentation gets going and the later picked bunches are added to the vat as they come in. This is a wine I’ve not tasted before, but it had a lovely vibrancy to it, easy going but once more, characterful.

I think Victoria’s wines turn ideas of “fine wines” on their head.  These are wines to drink, not trade, but if you drink them and open your heart and mind, you will fall in love with them.

If the previous wines don’t appeal after my rapturous praise, then you cannot fail to be stunned by Malvasia Naturalmente Dulce 2011. Victoria’s father made this, perhaps the most traditional wine of the island. Malvasia grapes are left to raisin on the vine, developing just a tiny amount of botrytis as well. The fruit is destemmed before being foot trodden in an unusual but traditional pine wood lagar, called a Tea.  It’s worth repeating what I’ve written before – that there are only three of these left on La Palma. The issue is that without consistent use every harvest they dry out and crack open. The one at the Torres Pecis estate has been used every year since 1885.

The fermentation is slow, but after foot treading in wood the must actually goes into stainless steel for this part. Fermentation stops just when it feels like it. The result is around 14.5% abv, and deeply attractive, revitalisingly sweet, thick textured, rich but salty too. Out of my price range, but stunningly good. The volcanic wines of the Canary Islands (and indeed the Portuguese Azores) really seem to strike a chord with me.

Imported by Modal Wines.

VIDAL SOBLECHERO/PAGOS DE VILLAVENDIMIA (Rueda)

It takes a bit of sleuthing to discover much about this small producer in print, but I was very pleased someone recommended I try them last week. With some producers you know the name but have never tasted the wines. In this case even the name meant nothing to me.

The Soblechero vines, all over a hundred years old, are spread around numerous plots east of Rueda itself, although the wines are not in the Rueda DO. Apparently these vines are treated as well as any at a top domaine in Burgundy. Aside from the first wine here, the different bottlings come in at well under 1,000 bottles each, and when reading the notes for the Finca wines do check out the vintages. These are the current releases. You might think this estate dates back centuries but I was surprised to read that it was actually founded in 1999.

El Escribiente Verdejo 2016 This Verdejo sees 18 months on lees in stainless steel and doesn’t go through malo. You expect a nice, simple, entry level wine, but wait…it’s served out of magnum. It has that almost neutral melon flavour and texture you sometimes get in Rueda, and indeed some citrus, but also a gentle depth. Very nice for an inexpensive wine, but we do step up in quality after this.

Finca el Alto 2012 is the first of the single parcel wines. The plot is on limestone and you get fresh mineral Verdejo texture on the tongue. Finca Buenavista 2012 is from contrasting sandy/alluvial soils off scrubby riverside terrain. Perhaps this majors on elegance. Just two barrels made. Finca Matea 2012 is off clay, aged in a larger demi-muid and Finca La Sernas 2011, a red, has power. It also comes in at 14% abv, and it’s quite a wine. This last wine is made with Tinta Fina (which usually means Tempranillo, though it is occasionally used as a synonym for Alicante Bouschet in the region, which can be confusing). The Sernas wine has plenty of tannin but also bags of fruit. Even at this age it still tastes young. These are all very fine wines, well differentiated to show the individual terroirs.

Pagos De Villavendimia La Oxiditiva Here we are back to a white wine, made from Verdejo blended with Viura, of which Soblechero has a little planted. Like all of these wines, it is a Vino de la Tierra, not Rueda DO. It isn’t fortified, but it does pump out 15% alcohol. The fruit is apple fresh and it feels as tightly wound as a spring, or as tense as a wire pulled tight. That is until you spit (or swallow), when it just goes on forever until you find some water to swill mouth and glass. It comes from a solera started in 1948…I ought to have guessed. Think a cross between biologically aged Sherry and Vin Jaune (hazelnuts, lemons, fresh but with a bitter prickle), a remarkable wine. Close to profound. About 700-to-800 bottles will be released each year, drink close to purchase rather than cellar. The wine in the bottle is old enough and you want to retain the freshness.

I was told these wines are mostly sold to expensive Barcelona restaurants (why Barcelona?) and are almost unknown in the UK. What a fantastic discovery by their importer. Try them.

Imported by Carte Blanche.

BARCO DEL CORNETA (Castilla y León)

Beatriz Herranz is another producer of mostly Verdejo wines, although she also has some Viura and Palomino. She was making wine in Gredos when she purchased her first Verdejo grapes in 2010, but was sufficiently inspired by the result that she rented winery space in the village of La Seca, in the province of Valladolid. Although this is a new venture by a young winemaker, she now owns small plots of very old vines, mostly on sedimentary soils over a limestone base. Her abilities are obvious from the clear delineation between the different bottlings she produces.

Cucú Verdejo 2018 is a pure varietal wine fermented and then aged in stainless steel on lees for 18 months. Textured, citrus fresh but with an added nuance you might not expect from the neutral vessel. The label (which I find attractive, with a frog on a lilypad) perhaps nicely illustrates the organic viticulture and winemaking practices here.

Barco del Corneta Verdejo 2016 has more depth. This might come from its ageing, on lees again, for eight months in large, used, oak this time. It’s worth mentioning that the vines are grown at between 700 to 750 metres asl, so the heat of a continental climate is sufficiently tempered by cool nights, to allow the wines to retain acidity and tension.

El Judas 2017 is made from Viura. It is grown on sandy soils, at a similar altitude, and sees 12 months in neutral French oak. I do perhaps prefer the Verdejo wines, but that is just personal preference. This is equally characterful and well thought through. I’m sorry that I have no idea about the name…there must be a story behind it?

There were two other wines on the table, which I didn’t taste, being aware that I needed to speed up a bit. But I should stress that these are excellent wines, with as much right to appear here as any of the others. I hope to come across them again.

Imported by Indigo Wine.

This marks the end of Part 1. I shall endeavour to bring you a selection of wines from a further eleven producers as soon as I am able.