Drinks of the Month
Wine of the week: Rafala Tinto Tempranillo
It may be so-called flaming June but the weather is anything but summery this weekend so I’m abandoning rosé for the time being and thinking about red.
This Rafala Tinto Tempranillo 2018, from Castila is perfect for this time of year being appetisingly juicy and not too heavy despite its 14% ABV. And it’s organic which is an unexpected plus at this price. At just £7 (from the Co-op) it’s an absolute steal.
It would go with a pizza, it would go with a curry and it would be be perfect with a barbecue, assuming the sun breaks through.
If you like an even fuller-bodied red you’ll like the Firebrand Old Vine Grenache 2019 (14.5%) from Australia’s Riverland that the Co-op is selling for £9.50. It has the hefty wallop of ripe fruit you expect from an Aussie wine but avoids being excessively jammy. There's a good back story abouit it on the Co-op website. Think beef - burgers, steaks and BBQ.
Tierra Hermosa 20° (Veinte Grados) 2010, Andalucia
Today’s Guardian column was all about getting out of your wine drinking rut which in the case of Spanish wine most likely means Rioja.
In fact there are a wealth of other wine regions in Spain which offer rewarding drinking, one of them being Andalucia.
I wouldn’t have known about Tierra Hermosa had it not been for the British owner Harry Hunt who badgered me (in the nicest possible way) to taste his wines and write about them. I wouldn’t have done so of course if I hadn’t liked them - or at least not in such enthusiastic terms - but fortunately I do.
Although further south than regions like Rioja and Navarra the Hunts’ vineyards, which are situated to the south of Alhama de Granada, amongst the Sierra Tejeda mountains, are unusually high at an altitude of 1200 metres which gives their wines a delicious freshness.
The Tierra Hermosa 20° a blend of Tempranillo, Syrah and Garnacha has an exotic dark fruit character that would make a good pairing for the Moorish food of the region - and that of North Africa opposite. I could imagine drinking it with a lamb tagine or with Iberico pork but in fact it’s flexible enough to adapt to all kinds of dishes - the acidity would make it a good choice with Italian food too.
There’s also a straight tempranillo called Neblerio which is perfectly enjoyable but not as complex IMO though, like the 20*, it won a gold medal in Canada’s Intervin wine awards last year.
Both are imported by Moreno Wines and widely availble in independents including Corks of Cotham and Grape & Grind in Bristol, Fingal Rock in Monmouth, Hanging Ditch in Manchester and Red Squirrel Wines online (see full list of stockists here). The Veinte Grados costs about £9.95.
Cune Gran Reserva Rioja Imperial 2005
It’s easy to overlook the familiar in favour of the esoteric, particularly when you’re a wine writer but it’s hard to think of a bottle that consistently gives more pleasure than Cune’s Gran Reserva Imperial Rioja.
OK, it’s not cheap but even the recommended retail price of £26.99 is not a great deal to pay for a wine that you can rely on to impress. After all most champagne special offers bring them down to this sort of price and most people think that makes them a good buy.
Gran reserva, for those of you who are not familiar with the term, is the top wine classification of the Rioja region. A wine that has been aged for five years, a minimum of two in oak and a further three in bottle. This wine is already over eight years old
Having enjoyed the 2001 and 2004 (which I've just discovered was voted Wine Spectactor wine of the year) I was a little apprehensive about the 2005 - an unusually hot vintage - but it has the same seductive, soft, velvety fruit that other gran reservas struggle to preserve. The Rioja authorities categorised the vintage ‘excellent’ but then all their vintages are rated at least ‘good’.
The obvious food pairings would be roast lamb, feathered game like pheasant and pigeon and sheeps’ cheese but we enjoyed it with a very intensely flavoured fish stew at a friend's last night and it sailed through.
It’s widely stocked so it’s worth checking wine-searcher.com for the best current price. Winedirect.co.uk and Eton Vintners have it for £24.95 and D. Byrne of Clitheroe who are not online for £22.99*. You might be able to find the 2007 (a "very good" vintage according to the Consejo Regulador) a little cheaper but having won the Wine Spectator's endorsement the 2004 will cost a lot more. If you can even find a bottle . . .
* Apologies for earlier, lower prices which related to the reserva not the gran reserva.
Santa Maria del Cami Binissalem 2012, Mallorca
Majorca produces serious wine? Go on, you’re kidding! No I’m not as it happens. This luxuriant red from Bodegues Macia Batle - surprisingly stocked by Marks & Spencer - is a great buy.
Mallorca has apparently been producing wine since 123BC - who knew? - and Binissalem is a recognised DO (Denominacion de Origen) in the centre of the island around the town of the same name. The wine is based on the the indigenous Mante Negro blended with Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah - a Bordeaux-ish blend with an Iberian twist.
At 14% it wears its alcohol lightly - the oak is beautifully in balance with the fruit.
One of the recommended wine matches of Thai beef salad is a bit bizarre, though. I’d drink it with roast lamb but it would also pair well with a good steak or with a hard sheeps' cheese. And it should age, despite the suggestion you should drink it within the year.
I haven’t tasted the 2011 recently which is the vintage featured on the website but would have thought that it was still worth a punt at £9.99 if you come across a bottle in your local branch.
But fill your boots with the 2012 next time M & S has a 25% off deal.
PS I've just heard - through the invaluable Twitter - that Macie Batle's wines are also available at Inverarity Morton in Glasgow.
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