Sensational Natural Values from Spain -- Alt Penedès, Sierra de Gredos, Mallorca, and More!*
9/23/15 -
(A thrilling array of Spanish wines under $20 are arriving as we restock for fall, all of which vastly exceed their price point in elegance, interest, and downright deliciousness.)
People often ask us how we decide which wines to stock in the store. Organic farming, biodynamic methods, unique terroirs and growers, and natural winemaking with no additives are the qualities that dominate our list of criteria, store-wide. Perhaps the most impressive, albeit subjective, virtue that we find in many of our favorite everyday wines is elegance and structure that defy their price ranges. Put another way: they taste more expensive than they are! This is the definition of a value.
Founded in 1924 by Josep Mata Capellades and owned and operated to this day by the two generations that have followed him, Recaredo is renowned for intricate, bone dry, long-aged Cavas from Demeter certified biodynamically farmed Xarello vines in the Alt Penedès. Self-described "Xarellists," their expertise in ushering the charisma out of this fascinating, introverted, yet terroir expressive variety is applied to their still white wines as well (and bottled under the Celler Credo label). There are a number of fascinating still wines from Recaredo to come, but for now we are savoring the 2013 vintage of Miranius, which is Xarello (with a bit of Macabeu) - steely, mineral, structured, and improbably complex at $15.99.
Xarello vines and calcareous clay soils at Recaredo (Coster del riu Bitlles, May 2015).
Our selection of wines from the Sierra de Gredos, a wonderland of old vine mountain Garnacha west of Madrid, is disproportionately large (in a good way). Production in the rugged region is tiny and the viticulture heroic, resulting in relatively expensive wines that live up to their price tags. Today, however, we offer three bottlings from the vineyards around San Martin de Valdeigleisias, the easternmost edge of the Gredos and the source of our most enduringly popular Spanish value: Bernabeleva's Camino de Navaherreros, pure Garnacha from old vines on sandy granitic soils, made in a fresh, lifted, and layered style by winemaker Marc Isart. The Camino is a serious and expressive wine at a very low price with limited production; consequently, it runs out fast and we are left scrambling every spring for replacements for its many addicts. Stock up now and allow it some time to open!
Marc Isart serves up a tank sample of 2014 Camino de Navaherreros (left); old vine Garnacha at Bernabeleva (right).
A pair of 2013s from Bodegas Marañones, down the road in San Martin, more excellent biodynamic values from Loxarel (also in Alt Penedès), an array of autumnal wines from the fabulous Garnacha Blanca grape, along with zero added sulphite wines from 4 Kilos on Mallorca and Barranco Oscuro in the heights of Granada round out the offer. Read more about them below and grab one of each at a great discount. Cheers! Ariana Rolich
