This weekend we are back in Spain. Saturday we’ll be pouring four Spanish wines that run the gamut from a crisp Albarino to a rich old vine Grenache. For dessert, we’ll slip across the border into Portugal for a bit of Madeira. It’s a great line up. Come join us.
2016 Kentia, Albarino Rias Baixas $12
A lovely unpresumptuous Albarino form the North West of Spain. The Kentia has ripe fresh fruit with a bracing acidity that cascades across the palate. Notes of apples, lime, peaches, flowers, grass lead to a cleansing minerality on the finish.
2015 Avancia, Cuvee de O Godello $15
This cuvee expresses Valdeorras’ unique slate soils and indigenous clones of Godello. Sur lie ageing and large format barrel fermentation impart a weight and complexity. The wine has fresh aromas of white flowers and expressive fruit. The palate offers juicy Meyer lemon and pear flavors that deepen slowly as the wine opens up showing an emphatic stony character on the incisive finish.
2016 Bodegas Muga, Rosado $16
60% Garnacha, 30% Viura, 10% Tempranillo
Muga makes one of the most distinctively delicious rosados in Rioja. From the cooler sides of the valley that Mugas grows its great reds, this rosé has complex aroma of white-fleshed fruit with stones. In the aftertaste the olfactory notes are transformed into something finer and more complex in which, as well as lychees, apricot and faint reminders of the bakery shop. The tart fruit is still to the fore, the overall taste is softened by the fine, elegant, well-integrated lees.
2013 Bodegas Alto Moncayo, Veraton, Campo de Borja $28
Garnacha
Made by Australian winemaker Chris Ringland all from Old Vine Grenache planted on mountain hillside vineyards. The Veraton is aged in 60% new French oak and 40% new American oak for 17 months and bottled without filtration. This is a blockbuster, 100% Old Vine Grenache cuvée, with a deep-purple color, great intensity, loads of blackcurrant and black cherry fruit, with licorice, lavender and touch of graphite and earth. It is full-bodied and powerful.
Cossart Gordon Madeira 5-year-old Bual $25
Cossart Gordon, founded in 1759, is a Bual specialist, only bottling Madeira from this noble grape variety, which producing a slightly spicy and medium sweet style of Madeira. The 5-year-old shows lovely candied fruits and a rich buttery toffee quality, with refreshing acidity and even some saline notes as well. It is smooth and lush, with loads of glazed apricot, maple, vanilla and cream flavors.
Madrona Wine Merchants offers free wine tastings featuring 4-5 selections on a theme every Saturday from 2 until the bottles run out and on Sunday we offer a mini-tasting of two wines all day from 11-5.