Rose Murray Brown MW, respected wine writer in Scotland, was celebrating three modern Scottish wine pioneers – in her ‘Scottish Connections’ virtual tasting with consumers in November.
Included was 🍇Manga del Brujo 2017 from Scot Norrel Robertson MW @escocesvolante – the tasters loved the smoky blackfruit peppery toasty blend of old vine Grenache, Syrah, Tempranillo & Mazuelo from up-and-coming Calatayud region in Spain: £14.99 @theoxfordwinecompany @alliancewine @borderswines
Rose also noted that Norrel recently became one of the first Scottish Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino.
EL ESCOCÉS VOLANTE, MANGA DEL BRUJO GARNACHA, SHIRAZ, TEMPRANILLO, DO CALATAYUD, SPAIN, 2017
Producer Profile Norrel Robertson is a master of wine, consulting and making wine around the world.
Norrel also owns a little patch of land, high up in the rugged landscape of Calatayud, where he tends to gnarly, old Garnacha vines in poor mineral soils: poetic symbolism for this rebellious Scotsman who won’t be tamed. To look at his labels is to realise his irreverence for the local law. With his wild winemaking techniques, Norrel is making his mark on this region with raw, fantastically assertive Garnacha wines.
Viticulture Manga del Brujo begins as bush vine grapes in the slate studded Jiloca valley at 2,600 feet above sea level. The wild mountain herbs among the vineyards give rise to the distinctive varietal aromas and garrigue character in the wine.
Winemaking Careful temperature controlled fermentation and the collaboration of New World trained winemakers and local knowledge has produced a full bodied, distinctive Rhone blend which marries the Old and New World in terms of style but with a slant towards a meatier, more structured wine. The key to this wine is the long time spent working with the fine lees to obtain length and complexity.
Oak Treatment Time: 5 Months Type: American and French % wine oaked: 100 Tasting Note Deep purple with ruby red rim. Pronounced aromas of black fruits, cracked pepper, smoke and toast. Full bodied with well balanced tannins. The palate displays dense black fruits, cherries with a long smoky/toasty finish. Mineral and complex.
Food Matching A great wine to drink with classic game dishes but will also accompany punchy dishes such as ragout and spicy tomato based recipes.
Download your copy of the official Wines from Spain Vintage Report 2019. Includes in-depth regional focuses, harvest figures and conditions, plus an overview of the whole country.
By Miguel A. Torres – 4th generation and President Familia Torres and GOCV member since 1990.
The other day I saw Greta Thunberg’s speech to the United Nations, and I was again impressed. What this young Swedish activist has achieved in the past year is outstanding and very necessary. Hopefully now the message has arrived to politicians, companies and individuals: we must decarbonize our worldwide economy in order to contain the global temperature increase at 1.5 degrees between 2030 and 2040, and this requires the involvement of everyone. We have to reduce our emissions drastically and doing a ‘little’ better is not enough. Sometimes I have the impression that people don’t realize how serious the problem really is. Maybe now after this abnormal and high temperature summer in Europe with abnormal and extreme rain patterns, people start to realize that something is going on (or actually going wrong) and that everyone has to change his or her lifestyle.
“…doing a ‘little’ better is not enough. Sometimes I have the impression that people don’t realize how serious the problem really is.”
Miguel A. Torres
Practically all vine growers in the world already noticed climate change 1-2 decades ago, as vines are very sensitive to temperature changes. At Torres we have seen an increase of 1,3 C in the average temperature in our region over the past 40 years and now the beginning of our harvest is as an average 10 days earlier than 20 years ago. The problem is that the different parts of a wine grape do not necessarily mature at the same rhythm. When the weather is warmer, the fruit of the grapes will become riper and sweeter earlier. But the seeds and skins ripe slower, which causes a growing imbalance in maturity.
So the key word and work is to delay maturation. To achieve that, as a vine grower you basically have 3 options:
In the first place to implement viticulture practices that help delaying the ripening of the grapes; through experimenting we saw that different training systems, cover cropping, canopy management, plant density, different rootstocks and even the use of shade-nets help to delay maturation.
The second option is to plant vineyards in cooler areas, for example at a higher altitude, as every 100m you go up, the temperature will go down by almost 1 C. We have already planted more than 100 hectares in the Pre-Pyrenees at almost 1.000 meters and the results are excellent.
And the 3rd option is to replant towards grape varieties that are so-called ‘late-ripening’ varieties, which is a big advantage as they carry the ‘delayed maturation’ standard in their DNA. In this sense worth mentioning is our research project about ancestral grape varieties that we started 30 years ago. This project was actually set-up to bring back forgotten varieties out of a sort of cultural heritage responsibility; almost an exercise in viticultural archaeology. As a lucky side-result, we also found that some of these forgotten grape varieties are late-ripening varieties and moreover some of them turned out to be very resistant to drought and heat.
Grape variety collection at Familia Torres Vineyards
So, all in all these are all of course very helpful adaption measures, but at the same time we all need to drastically reduce our emissions and help to de-carbonize our planet. Not only action is needed from governments and companies to fight against climate change with clear and ambitious goals, but we all should also contribute as individuals. By making lifestyle changes, as small as they might seem, everyone can contribute; for example, using less air conditioning/heating, changing to LED light bulbs, or eating less meat, is something everyone can start today. Every company should have a decarbonization program in place, but I think here the key is to work together.
Therefore at the beginning of this year Jackson Family Wines and Torres started a new initiative called ‘International Wineries for Climate Action’to make the collaboration between wineries regarding climate change easier.
The idea is that IWCA will be a trigger for other wineries to join and accelerate or to start the implementation of carbon-emissions-reduction-programs. We are now 6 months later, and it is great to see that already several wineries are in process of becoming an IWCA Applicant or a full Members.
I very much hope that the vision of the biologist Dr. Jamie Goode (who spoke at the Familia Torres Climate Change Course in April of this year) will be a reality in a few years:
“to make carbon emissions socially inacceptable, whether they are produced by companies or individuals.”
Dr. Jamie Goode
This certainly involves a change of paradigm, but here the question is: would consumers accept a considerable tax increase on fossil products? Would that stop growth?
The Gran Orden de Caballeros del Vino would like to express its gratitude to Snr. Miguel A. Torres for providing GOCV members with this compelling insight into the essential and urgent issue of climate change and its impact within the international wine industry.
Rioja is Spain’s flagship of wine production and each year one hundred of the best wines available in the UK are rigorously selected by a panel of exerts, including GOCV member Beth Willard, who shares her insights and experience below.
Image courtesy of Wines of Rioja UK
It’s always
exciting to be surrounded by a few hundred bottles of Rioja. A little daunting,
perhaps, when you know you have to taste all of them and pick out only the very
best from an already high quality selection but that was the challenge we faced
as judges back in May at the annual Rioja 10×10 competition. Not only has this
become an important way to highlight outstanding examples of Rioja wines in the
UK market, providing valuable third party endorsement, but it has also put a
focus on the diversity and innovation in a region so often only talked of in
terms of history and tradition.
Rioja 10×10 judging ¦ London, May 2019
I faced the task of tasting through the Crianza category – a huge number of wines – which threw up a myriad of styles. I believe there are more opportunities for the UK to push this category to mirror the success and dominance of Crianza in Spain. For everyday drinking, the winning wines offer just the right amount of fruit, spice and oak…perfectly balanced.
The difficulty in tasting through so many wines in this category was the underlying quality which made it even more challenging to select just a handful of the best.
It was also very encouraging to see so many single variety wines (not just Tempranillo), and in particular there were some excellent examples of Garnacha from old vines in some of the higher areas of Rioja. It is pleasing that wines from specific regions, vineyards, and even single vineyard sites are reaching the market more and more, quite rightly putting a renewed focus and energy on the rich tapestry that is the terroir of Rioja. It was exciting to taste so many wines whose main message is not just the ageing process and potential but rather the expression of the Riojan vines.
I’m already looking forward to seeing what the 2020 competition will deliver…
Other GOCV members that were invited to take part in the 2019 judging for Rioja 10×10 include: Tim Atkin MW, Sarah Jane Evans MW (vice-chair); Pierre Mansour; Nick Room (chairman); and Beth Willard.
To find out more about Wines of Rioja UK’s 10×10 Tasting (strictly trade & press only) visit: www.riojatasting.com
