New Arrivals from Spain, with Rafa Bernabé & Recaredo!
10/3/13 -
The store is awash in delicious Spanish wines this fall! We are particularly pleased to welcome the vivid, textured, and nuanced reds from Rafa Bernabé in Spain's resurgent Alicante region. Rafa's importer, Jose Pastor, explains that Bernabé was long respected in the central Mediterranean region as a maker of more modern, showy wines from Monastrell and international varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon. He subsequently fell in love with the kind of natural wines that are pure translations of both terroir and grape, opening his mind to the possibilities presented by clay amphora, whole cluster fermentations, and varietal wines from overlooked indigenous grapes like Merseguera, Fourcayat, and Rojal. Rafa farms his pebbly limestone soils organically, sulphurs minimally at bottling, and makes many wines in small amounts - 30 different vinifications last year, according to Pastor. Native yeast fermentations and minimal intervention create plush, herbal, earthy, and layered wines with remarkable clarity and zest. We wish we could have them all, but for now we are pleased to offer three standouts from recent tastings of the lineup: a fresh and rosy amphora-fermented Rojal, a spicy and show-stopping Garnacha Peluda, and the prettiest old vine Monastrell we've tasted.
Additional recent arrivals take us to Cava country and the rigorously farmed, exceptionally fine biodynamic wines of Recaredo in Penedès. It is always fun and interesting to taste still wines from our favorite producers of sparkling wines like Cava and Champagne, but in the case of Recaredo it is a great pleasure. Miranius is a still white wine with all the complexity, chalky mineral breadth, and rich but bone dry Spanish fruit that we love in Recaredo's Cavas. Tasting it next to the 2007 Brut Nature Cava is both a rewarding study of the best wines in Penedès, and a deeply delicious experience.
Certified organic Bobal from Utiel-Requena, carbonic old vines Garnacha from La Calandria in Navarra, Pedralonga's excellent red wine from Albariño country, another fascinating still wine from a Cava producer (Gramona), and the return of Bermejos sparkling Malvasia round out the offer. Cheers! -AR
