The trends in the wine sector are so many and so diversified that trying to make a decalogue of major trends would fall short. In addition, we would have to break them down into sub-trends within each trend. Even with contradictory trends, as befits a complex and diversified sector such as the wine sector.
While the appellations of origin adapt their regulations to the new times, many wineries make their wines outside the appellations of origin. The recovery of autochthonous varieties has taken another step towards the recovery of ancestral varieties, almost extinct and practically unknown. Beyond organic and biodynamic viticulture, we are already talking about regenerative viticulture.
Along with the recovery of traditional production methods, many wineries are developing new production techniques, such as lowering the alcohol content to deal with climate change.
And so we could continue with great trends in viticulture, oenology, marketing, smart labels, new packaging such as canned wine, etc.
Do not miss these unique bottles that are included in The Wine Guide 2023, directed by Lluís Tolosa with the collaboration of Ferran Centelles, Meritxell Falgueras, María José Huertas, Alicia Estrada and Zoltan Nagy.
-Have you tasted Cerrón? -the sommelier throws this question at me just as I ask for a recommendation-. It is a winery that is on everyone's lips.
-No, why is it trending?-I am usually interested when someone tells me the name of some producers I don't know.
-They are showing that the character of the Jumilla monastrell can be kinder, less tannic or harsh.
This conversation was repeated, among mojamas, paprikas and michirones, in the two restaurants that I visited when I traveled to Murcia a few months ago.
Carlos, Juanjo and Lucía Cerdán are the protagonists of this story, responsible for the freshest face of Jumilla and fourth generation wine seller. The great-grandfather planted the vineyard. His parents stopped working in the cooperative and were the first in the area to work organically, which is why they were called crazy. They created the Cerrón brand, which is the name of the mountain where the first generation planted the vineyards at the beginning. With this family tradition behind him and with his great-grandfather's inheritance in his possession (the Gran Cru de Fuente-Álamo), the fate of the Cerdán brothers was promising.
In Los Yesares, grapes from very old vineyard plots, pre-phylloxera, are used. With aging in widely used wood, they manage to maintain the fresh red fruit and the floral character. It is fine and has pronounced acidity. A style far removed from the typical concentrated and dense Jumilla. Curious and at the same time paradoxical, discovering that Cerrón sets a trend for recovering the style of before. Only 4,600 bottles.
On my last visit to the DO Ribera del Duero, I was invited to classify the vintage in a blind tasting by the Regulatory Council. Together with several colleagues from all over the peninsula, we were also able to get to know the area in depth, visit different wineries and taste wines from many wineries. Being face to face with nature, surrounded by a sea of vines and sleeping around that landscape, made me He made us see the luminous sublimity, which is visible in the dark.
Bodegas Virtus was relaunched in 2012 thanks to Íñigo López de la Osa Escribano, together with his wife Francesca Franco, who is the shelter for the whole family. Consequence of the previous generational change of Paloma Escribano, heiress to a long winemaking tradition, being one of the first queens of entrepreneurial glasses in Ribera de Duero, forged her fame based on projecting superior quality in her wines and being a visionary in innovation and sustainability .
The name of the winery is inspired by the word virtue, synonymous with power, power and strength. They own the vineyards around the winery and in different hundred-year-old hawthorns in Sotillo de la Ribera, Hontoria de Valdearados, Villálvaro, Moradilla de Roa and La Horra, all of them above 750 meters above sea level. They make friendly and seductive wines. The Virtus Gran Reserva is fresh and its acidity lengthens the palate. The notes of black cherry, spices and sweet tannins crown it as the king of noble wines. Limited production of 3,600 bottles, insufficient for those of us who love wines with Ribera spirit.
The new Roda I Blanco has been one of the great novelties of this year, in the trend of the new great white wines from Rioja. It has also been one of the best tastings this year in Barcelona. Agustín Santolaya, general director of Bodegas Roda, gave a tasting that could well be a master class in wine communication, with in-depth technical explanations, simple language and a strong emotional charge.
It is the first white wine from Bodegas Roda after 35 years dedicated to the Tempranillo variety. It was born after four years of testing and tasting, from old viuras and small proportions of white Garnacha and Malvasia from Rioja, the traditional varieties with which the great white classics from Rioja are made. They are varieties grown in the headlands of the old vineyards where the Roda I Tempranillos are born, which is why the name of this wine is Roda I Blanco.
Meticulous and perfectionist preparation, usual brand of the house. Passage through a selection table, maceration with their skins and fermentation and aging for 18 months in French oak bocoyes, with subsequent refining for 18 months in the bottle.
It connects with the classic Rioja whites in colour, intensity, maturity and aging vocation, but it is modern in its freshness. Elegant, complex and voluminous. Creamy and fatty. Sensations of peach, honey and quince, balanced with fine refreshing, citric, vegetable and mineral notes, with perfectly assembled wood. Promising first vintage, to enjoy great vertical tastings when their next vintages come out.
This wine is many things. Let's start with the mystery of its name: it belongs to the Secret Collection. A trilogy of tempranillos that aspires to express the typicality of the Ribera del Duero and its diversity of soils in the area of Soria and Burgos.
The disseminator Almudena Alberca, the only Spanish woman with the title of Master of Wine, after more than 17 years making high-quality wines, is in charge of the technical direction of Entrecanales Domecq e Hijos, the group to which the Viña Mayor wineries belong .
It is known that the Golden Mile is the most prestigious area of the DO Ribera del Duero. The winemaker from Salamanca is in love with early harvests to avoid excess maturity, preserve the aromatic profile and achieve a lower PH. This wine comes from eighties vineyards at an altitude of 950 meters, on a sandy soil on a bed of limestone rock in the province of Burgos, close to the border with Soria.
Discreet destemming, gentle pressing of the grapes and four days of cold maceration before fermentation are the key. And it continues with the enigmatic fermentation in concrete eggs due to the small quantity produced, only 5,100 bottles. A silent aging in French oak barrels of 500 liters for 12 months to later spend 18 months secreting in the bottle. In the glass the intricacy is discovered. A covert ruby with a very latent nose, a stealthy texture and sealed tannins. Purity of forest fruits, garrigue and notes of violets. Because as Oscar Wilde said, "the secret of life is in art".
José Pariente is a benchmark winery in the DO Rueda, which opted for the white Verdejo variety and works it organically and with the utmost respect, basing its agriculture on tillage. In his philosophy, tradition and technology dance to the beat, never forgetting the good work of previous generations.
This barrel-fermented Verdejo comes from vineyards that are over 60 years old in the La Seca district, planted on quartzite boulders, as well as from Hornillos de Eresma vineyards, planted on more sandy soils. Fermentation takes place in French oak barrels of 500 and 228 liters, with subsequent aging for 10 months in barrels.
The wine is expressed clean and bright with a yellow tone that tends to gold due to its aging time. The nose is fragrant, fresh, intense and complex. Aromas of tropical fruit, green apple, dried herbs, aniseed and fine toasted notes stand out. Its mouth is wide, tasty, balanced and with an acidity that sharpens the mouthfeel and ensures long life, with a balsamic and mineral finish.
Currently, it is Martina Pariente who defends the principles on which the family has been based. Her concern makes each wine a great project, where nothing is left to chance.
I have included this barrel-fermented Verdejo wine in the category of trend-setting wines, because if Verdejos have always been enjoyed by many consumers, in this case we are talking about more gastronomic wines and we have more and more of them on offer.
In a wonderful little book by Honoré de Balzac, Tratado de la vida elegante, speaking of artists and fashion, the Frenchman writes that "artists never follow fashion, they impose it. For them, fashion must be something without force: those indomitable beings They shape everything in their own way." This is how I see Raúl Pérez, more than an oenologist he is a wine philosopher who has developed his own metaphysics. The rule is that there are no rules, you just have to get the wine to express the spirit of the terroir.
A resident of Valtuille de Arriba, Raúl Pérez was largely to blame for the success of Álvaro Palacios in El Bierzo. The joint work started the claim and rise of Mencía in this territory. Raúl's restless spirit has led him to search for authentic vineyards both in Spain and beyond our borders. In the end, back in León, but now the historic vineyards of a modest and little-known variety.
The Prieto Picudo variety has traditionally been used in León to make semi-sparkling, low-alcohol rosé wines. The challenge of the variety has been to become an adult vinified as red wine. The long aging in oak seems to suit the Leonesa very well and in wines such as Los Arrotos del Pendón, from a hundred-year-old vineyard, we can discover a serious red that after two years in oak continues to maintain the color and fragrant aromas of the variety. now enriched with a powerful mouth that points personality. Show authenticity, this is the best fashion.
The search for measure is what is required to create a Tempranillo aged in Spanish oak barrels. Something that should be common, is totally original and innovative given the almost absolute use of French and American oak.
The difficulty is finding the perfect oak, suitable for oenology. Because to make a Spanish oak barrel you need an oak tree with a trunk clean of branches and knots that is at least 7 meters tall. They have finally been located in the oak groves of Burgos and León, where man has hardly intervened.
LAN has been carrying out aging tests in Spanish oak since the 2014 vintage, to innovate and give new nuances to its wines, but also as a return to origins, since the Romans already made barrels with Spanish oak wood in the Iberian Peninsula.
LAN 7 Metros is born from 45-year-old vines from La Canoca, in the upper part of San Vicente de la Sonsierra (Rioja Alta), and from 38-year-old vines from the Paulejas estate, in Viñaspre (Rioja Alavesa). The 2019 harvest is a warm year with little rainfall. It resulted in less vigor in the vineyard, compact clusters of small grains, and a high concentration of aromas and polyphenols.
Aged for 18 months in 72 Spanish oak barrels and rested for 12 months in the bottle. At first, red fruit with fine notes of coffee and cocoa. Then the differential nuances of aging in Spanish oak appear: balsamic, cedar, freshly cut wood, resins and menthol, with well-integrated wood and soft, round and sweet tannins. I love how LAN is repositioning its brand.
