Holy grail of Tinta Romé found at last

 Search this Blog for Tinta Romé and you will see that we have been a little bit obsessed with this obscure Andalucian variety for a few years, ever since we came upon a bottle by Dimobe at El Museo Del Vino in Malaga, El Lagar de Cabrera.

This was a pale red, low alcohol wine perfect for pasta. The sheer originality of this Tinta Romé among all the heavy Spanish reds from Tempranillo, Garnacha, Graciano, Mencia, Monastrell, Moristel & co. was interesting. How often have we heard it said that because it it hot in Spain, wines tend to be high in alcohol. If that is tha case, what about Greece and Georgia we ask?Their wines are not nearly as high in alcohol and yet the climate is just as warm if not warmer.

There were numerous wild goose chases to find more of this lovely wine ending up at the Dimobe depot in Moclenijo, Axarquia

in the hills beyond Malaga where we were given half a dozen bottles free of charge. They were admittedly past their best but still enjoyable.

Our next sortie was to Sedella where an excellent blend of Tinta Romé with Garnacha and one or two others - effectively a field blend but with a majority of Tinta Romé is made by the great Lauren Rosillo of Sedella Vinos. We searched for his vineyard but never found it. No one in Sedella could tel us where it was or even whether the winery had been completed. Rosillo's 'Mediterranean Mountain Wine' is fortunately available at Malaga's Pablo Picasso Airport Lavinia duty free shop.

Our third effort was more productive. Once again we drove past Malaga along the now old Urbanisacions which are of a hideousness as to make Torremolinos look like Bel Air or at least Coral Gables. Keeping our eyes fixedly on the road, we drove past Velez Malaga until we found the road leading up into the hills, nay mountains of Axarquia towards Archez, Competa and Sayalonga, the true home of Tinta Romé.

The weather was unseasonably miserable, lending a dismal aspect to the scenery.

This part of Spain has never been wealthy but as we climbed upwards the number of abandoned terraces told a story of a hard life and grim struggle eventually abandoned. We fancied ourselves as Ruskin before Torcello, overcome with a sort of extasy at the desolation.

Then gradually we came upon the vineyards. Planted on almost purple soil interspersed with olive trees but without a weed in sight, the ancient vines poked their heads above the ground ready to become individual bushes when the growing season began.

How these vineyards are worked is a mystery. As in the Mosel and Ahr, one suspects workers have to abseil down the slopes. Donkeys have been known to assist but it must be excruciating work.

Strange structures we fancied to be raised vegetable beds in gardens could also have been Moorish graves. They are in fact beds for drying grapes for Malaga Dulce.

Archez is one of those villages with streets almost too narrow for traffic. Probably charming and picturesque when the sun is shining but a bit mournful on a day like ours. As in Sedella there was a sudden burst of English this time from a mother and daughter, clearly Ex-Pats.

Municipal Orange trees cheered things slightly. There were attemps at establishing various 'Rutas' (wine, olives etc) to encourage tourism. As they say, one winery is an attraction, five wineries are a diversion and fifteen a destination.

On entering Archez, we had seen inscribed on a house 'Bodegas Hnos. Lopez Martin', the very people fabled still to be producing Tinta Romé.

We had corresponded with them and checked that the Bodega would be open of a Saturday afternoon but there was seemingly no answer to our ringing adjacent bells at the two front doors. Then there was a faint rustling and a quiet voice and eventually a gentleman emerged from the gloom behind one of the doors. We explained our mission. Without wasting any words the brother we shall call Fafner (in the nicest possible way) fetched a bunch of keys and led us down the hill to the cellar winery under the house. Opening the door, he revealed his treasure trove.

Not only do Hermanos Lopez Martin make Tinta Romé but they also make a Rosado Semi Dulce from the same grape and something almost as obscure, a dry white from what is called Montuo as well as Montua on the back label and is otherwise known as Chelva. 'Wine Grapes' has it as either Mantuo or Mantua by the way. Together with these is a Malaga Dulce from Moscatel of course.
 

 By now, Fafner had been joined by Fasolt, the appropriately more loquacious brother who gave us a taste of all these wines.

We were dumbfounded. The Tinta Romé tasted nothing like the light version from Dimobe. There were some peculiar notes we were getting. We made appreciative sounds but were internally in turmoil. The Tinta Romé from Sedella had also not resembled our first example but we put this down to being a blend with Garnacha etc. The Tinta Romé from Lopez Martin had a small amount of Jaen Prieto according to the label (see note) - but too small to change the very nature of the wine so drastically.It wasn't unpleasant. Drinkable, certainly. Original however. Unsurprising given that its evolution has been almost as separate as that of the flora and fauna of Madagascar. Tinta Romé is hardly available in any shops as far as we can tell. Presumably it is all consumed locally. There is rumored to be another producer or maybe two up the road at Competa...

We bought 3 vintages of Tinta Romé, each with a different Abv;

09/042009                     12.7%
17/04/2007                    14.0%
19/4/2002                      14.3%

Interesting too the fact the very date of the bottling was stated.

Fasolt took our order and labelled the bottles in front of us with a simple old wooden contraption. None of the wines cost more than €4.00. Fafner kindly took our case back up the road on the trolly and so we bore the Holy Grail back to base. (That's enough Wagner - Ed.)

The Rosado Semi Dulce had not been extraordinary. The Malaga Dulce good but not so very much out of the ordinary either. We have transported the reds, the white and the rose back to London where we will be tasting them under different conditions, aerating the wines and having some food to accompany them. Let us hope for a miracle; the lovely Lopez Martin brothers deserve it as well as us.

Note: Jaen Prieto doesn't appear in 'Wine Grapes' but there is Jaen Tinto (a synonym for Mencia), Jaen Prieto Blanco (one of the many synonyms for Cayetana Blanca - strange because Prieto means dark or Black) among other Jaens in the index. Perhaps Jaen Prieto is one of these?

Bobal

On a recent trip to Valencia we took the opportunity of checking out the local wine. Reds tend to be from Bobal, a grape that in the 1980s held 11th place in the list of the world's most planted varieties. At that time there were over 90,000 hectares planted (mostly in Spain - mostly in Valencia, Utiel-Requena and Manchuela. Now the figure has fallen to 85,000 while the reputation of the grape itself has risen.

This re-valuation of Bobal on the Grape bourse is due to the fact that it is different from other Spanish varieties in that it makes light wines of good acidity and lower alcohol.

Utiel-Requena had always fascinated us; the names sound like something out of 'Il trovatore' (which actually takes place in Aragon much further to the north). Valencia itself is Spain's 3rd city but somehow a bit off the beaten track. For that reason there have been unbelieveable efforts in the last decade or so to put it on the map, involving public spending on an epic scale. Just in time for the crash, a magnificent Science Park, Opera House, airport terminal

and Concert Hall were built by architects including Santiago Calatrava. These buildings are now rather underused but they will still be there for the turn-around in the Spanish economy which is bound to come later if not sooner.

These public works also included impressive Autopistas and the incredible high-speed train network but despite all this spending, our visit to Requena (100km from Valencia) reminded us of the old Spain in both the good and less-good senses.

Just an hour from that fantastic Opera House, we saw street urchins rifling rubbish bins in Requena. Perhaps they has thrown out a school textbook by mistake and were only trying to retrieve it but somehow we doubt it. Requena is small. Compare their theatre!

But Requena is all about Bobal. The earth all around is a lovely orange pink and the plants are pruned low for bush Vines it seems as we didn't see too many trelisses or wires in the vineyards.

 Bobal is as we heard, on the up and we certainly applaud the kind of diversity which results in lighter wines.

We arrived in Requena in mid-afternoon when everything was still closed but we had a nice walk through windswept streets

noting the hansome building in the centre of town, the Estacion de Viticultura y Enologia, the Calle Subida a Bodegas, the Ruta del Vino, even a winery down a side street complete with stainless steel tanks visible through glass windows

and last but not least the Bodega Benito where we hoped to get a free tutorial on the best wines from Bobal and maybe buy a bottle or two and if lucky, something else local made from a varriety we had never heard of: perhaps a Moravia Agria in purezza.
 

While waiting for the Siesta to come to an end, we popped in to what looked like a worker's cafe and had a glass of Bobal with some tortilla.

This eclipsed memories of Bobals past. Buoyed by optimism, we took up position outside Bodegas Benito ready for them to re-open at 17.00. the advertised hour came and went so at 17.30 we made our way back to Valencia, still with no sign of Benito's re-opening.

Back home we called Bodega Benito and discovered that if we wanted anything other than Bobal or the familiar repertoire of other Spanish wines, we would have to go to the actual place of production, i.e. for Moravia Agria we would have to go another hour down the road to Manchuela. How's that for Campanalismo?
 

As we saw at the Real Wine Fair in London in March, there is diversity enough in Spain. It just needs people to bring it to our attention. The way things are going, we think this is inevitable - later or sooner.

The Real Wine Fair, London March 17th 2013

Quite big but manageable, this 2nd 'tasting of organic, biodynamic and natural wines' at Tobacco Dock in East London had a good proportion of fascinating discoveries for Slotovino. It was also an opportunity to meet in person the great winemakers whose produce have given us and so many others such pleasure and stimulation.

Before coming on to the discoveries, we would like to list the Greats who took the trouble to come to London and unfailingly answer questions and be nice to annoying people like us.

First was the scion of Mas de Daumas Gassac, Samuel Guibert.

The famous property lists over 20 grape varieties and we asked him 'how come?'. The answer was charming. He said his parents travelled a lot and wherever they went they used to like to collect cuttings of local grape varieties and bring them home. How wonderfully seredipidous and unscientific. It doesn't prevent Mas de Daumas Gassac making some of France's best wines. Perhaps it even helps it! O si sic omnes.

Another legend was Fulvio Bressan himself. We had a long conversation with the giant of Gorizia. He is a passionate and emotional man ready to see the wrongs of the world and put them right. We ended with embraces and warm feelings not only about his marvellous wines. Of course the two are connected!

There were the people from Binner and Frick, Domaine de Montrieux, Trinchero, Foradori, Pincic, Zidarich, Skerk, Afros, Montevertine, de Bartoli, COS and Hatzidakis and many others. Only Thierry Navarre was missing this year..

Now to the pioneers of Heritage varieties, autochtonous grapes, those brought back from extinction and so forth. Our first great find was Bodegas Bernabe Navarro. Sr. Navarro was on hand to tell us about his property in Alicante. He grows grapes such as Merseguera, Rojal, Forcallat and Garnacha Peluda (Lledoner Pelut).

We tasted the first three of these and found them exceedingly good and fresh.

La Armistad is 100% Rojal,

Ramblin Del Arco 100% Forcallat 

and La Vina de Simon, 100% Merseguera. It is much rarer in Spain than in Italy for example to find producers working with local varieties. This was a discovery indeed.

We have mentioned the elusive Spanish grape Moravia Agria before in this blog and has found a blend in which this represented 60% called Buena Pinta at the late lamented Blue and Green, produced by Bodegas y Vinedos Ponce, Manchuela. With a visit to Valencia coming up we had planned to hire a car and zoom off to Iniesta, about 100 miles away to visit Juan Antonio Ponce and see if we could find any 100% Moravia Agria. Who should we find practically at the next table to Bernabe Navarro but Sr. Ponce himself! As well as saving ourselves the 200 mile round trip, we got to meet this wonderful man, taste his wines and learn that in a year or two he plans a 100% Moravia Agria. Thank you Real Wine Fair!

Also completely unexpected was our encounter with the Sr. Eulogio Pomares and his wife of  Zarate Family, Saines Valley, Rias Baixas (Galicia).

Here we were introduced to wines from varieties such as Tinto Caino (wierd even for us),

Loureiro Tinto (soft and lovely) and Espadeiro (both wierd and wonderful). Rias Baixas produces 99% white wines and only 1% Red, Sr. Pomares told us. Indeed at a London International Wine Festival a couple of years ago we asked a representative on the Rias Baixas stand about red wines and he knotted his brow and had to ask colleagues if there was any. he even opined that if there was it couldn't be any good. The Zarate stand proved him very wrong indeed.

There had to be discoveries among the Italian exhibitors and our first was at AA Fondo San Giuseppe, Brisighella, Emilia Romagna. Sr. Stefano Bariani, Sra. Bariani and Signorina Bariani were on hand to tell us about a quintessential Slotovino grape, a rarity indeed -

 'Centesimino'. We only realised just how rare this was when we attended Vinitaly in April and met another of handful of producers making wine from this grape which is also known as 'Sauvignon Rosso' (see our Blog on Vinitaly - when it comes!). That was La Sabbiona of Oriolo del Fichi, Faenza.

The story behind the name Centesimino is nice. One Pietro Pianori found a vine in his garden and propagated it. His vines escaped the Phylloxera plague and all modern plantings are taken from them. Pianori's nickname was Centesimino (little cent) because of his way with money. It now has the blessing of the official register of Italian grapes although the version by La Sabbiona is still known as Sauvignon Rosso.

Georgia was perhaps the biggest story at the fair; the more we learn about this fascinating country there more there is to discover. We had met John Wurdeman at previous fairs.

He seems to be an inexhaustable promotor not only of his wines, 'Pheasant's Tears' but also those of his colleagues. Mr. Wurdeman is an American from the Virginia whose story is so picaresque that at the age of 35, it could fill at least one novel. He studied Polyphony and Painting and has a fascination for Georgia, so much so that he moved there, married a Georgian girl and has become Mr. Georgian Wine in no time at all. He speaks of all the different families who have made wine through thick and thin over centuries whom he has now encouraged one by one to make a go of it commercially.

Their products are all unique, using many different grape varieties and methods. His practised and fluent seminar at the fair on Georgian wine was required listening. There was a decent and attentive audienc: those who had not attended were missing something important.

Georgian wines on show were more than ever before - 12 producers (Greece only fielded one). The point is that there are many Georgian producers who have never 'modernised' and so are eligible for the Real Wine Fair, their wines being organic and natural. Cutting edge within ancient practices indeed. The wines of these producers were obtained for 13 varieties;

Aladasturi
Chinuri
Chkhaveri
Kakhet
Khikhvi
Kisi
Mtsivane
Rkatsiteli
Saperavi
Shavkapito
Tavkveri
Tsitska
Tsolikouri

Wines made from these grapes were for the most part produced in raditional Qvevri amphorae buried in the vineyard for up to 6 months. The resulting wines have immense interest and personality unlike the wines of other states in the larger region which may also come from an impressive variety of indiginous grapes but tend towards the bland in comparison, at least in our humble opinion.

Coming up to making our choices for the 2012/13 Slotovino Awards it is going to be difficult to imagine Mr. Wurdeman and Georgian wine not being winners in a number of categories and predictions.