No wine snobs here, just enthusiastic drinkers of all wines
One of the oldest grape varieties in the South of France, its production has been on the decline in the last century. This is a shame as its flavour profile is right up my street: ‘soft wine, low in tannins….., bright, red berry fruits……, floral and strawberry-like perfume.’ There is hope however, as it is … Continue reading Cinsault Grape Variety
I have a friend who is a fan of crisp clean French wines and she’s recently got me into Rose Wines from Provence. These wines are fruity but subtle and very easy to drink. Turns out Provence is known for their summer rose wines. They account for 6% of all rose wines worldwide. Below is … Continue reading Côtes de Provence AOP
More traditionally associated with Austria and Hungary, where it is known as Blaufrankisch, this red wine grape is now being cultivated in the Ronda area of Malaga, Spain. It definitely has a different flavour profile from the traditional Spanish reds. More mineral and peppery, less fruit. I’ll have to check out some Austrian versions to … Continue reading Lemberger Grape Variety
Great article below from Spanishwinelover.com about yesterday’s bodega: Grupo Jorge Ordoñez. Gives an insight into the life hiutnies taken by our key wine makers.
If you are a white wine drinker in Spain then this is a region you need to know about. Based in Galicia, where many a good white wine comes from, in the North West of Spain. This region is famed most for it’s whites made from the Godello grape. They also do red wines made … Continue reading D.O. Valdeorras
This is a great link if you ever find yourself with a wine expert and can’t understand a word they’re saying. Just look it up in this easy to use glossary of wine terms at winemag.com. All sorted into alphabetical order. Click on image to open glossary
It is difficult to get good information about this Spanish grape variety. The problem is there are many grapes in Spain with this name: albillo mayor, albillo real, albillo toro, albillo criollo ….. To be honest I’m still not sure if they’re genetic variants or all the same grape. The best article I’ve found is … Continue reading Albillo Grape Variety
Below is an interesting article by wine-searcher.com on this grape variety most associated with Sherry. It’s not a grape I’ve paid much attention to as I don’t like fortified wines or sweet wines. However in the last year I’ve had two dry whites made exclusively from this grape and enjoyed both. Apparently it is hard … Continue reading Pedro Ximenez Grape Variety
This is not a wine area that I know at all. Based in the area south of Cordoba, it was news to me they cultivated wine. This is probably because the area is known for its sweet dessert wines, which I don’t like. However I recently tried a nice dry white Wine from this region, … Continue reading DO Montilla-Moriles
The Catalan region of Spain has 10 Denominación de Origen (DO) wine areas including one, Priorat, which is a level up at Denominación de Origen Qualificada (DOQ). The DO Cataluña seems to be a catch all for those wines not made in these regions. That doesn’t mean there are some great wines under this DO. … Continue reading DO Cataluña
