Wine Fictions

 Sometimes we are not the ones finding a wine. Sometimes wines find us. The other day I have decided to check a wine shop around where I live in order to get a couple of alcohol free wines and see what else would call my attention. Being a shop belonging to one of the biggest supermarket chains in Germany, I have to confess that I was not really expecting anything that would get out of the common. Still, when having a look at the wines which will be out of stock, I have come across this natural wine produced by Bodegas Volver . With a rather appealing label and an even more attractive price ( I have paid 5€ for it) it was one of the wines that I have decided to try. Decisive was also the fact of not being too common to find this kind of wines in such a mainstream shop.  A pure monastrell tremendously fruit driven revealing very ripe berries and slight notes of chocolate well balanced with decent acidity and good integrated tannins, this wine is quite surprising as I was expect...

 Following the latest ProWein Fair in March, the alarms have been raised: the wine world is facing a crisis without precedents.  Less consumption, increasing prices mainly due to the inflation and the Russian aggression on Ukraine and the excessive production are seen to be major problems.  Even though all these issues also worry me and make me think on the best ways to present wine to a younger generation which is now arriving to the market, there is another common idea in the articles ( at the end of the post I offer a list of them) I have read which have awoken me some concern: the idea that part of the crisis in the German market comes from foreign wines. They are cheaper, they do not respect the same quality parameters that we have to, they receive bigger subventions from their governments, and the list of complaints keeps on in what seems to me as a simplistic right wing propaganda program.  In a moment that the political situation in Germany reveals clear sign...

I am compulsive. With things that I really like I am tremendously compulsive.  As soon as I finish a book, I always need a new one near by to just keep feeding my thirst for more and newer worlds. Whenever I listen about the announcement of the winner of any of the literary prizes that I do follow, I feel something growing in my chest that can only be calmed down when being in possession of a book by the author.  That is exactly what I feel about certain wines or wine styles, such as this Gemischter Satz that I have just recently tasted.  Being a wine exclusively made in the hills surrounding the Austrian capital, Vienna, it is incredibly charming to say that it is possible to drink a wine coming from such a major city. Idyllic pictures like this can easily be found or experienced. Another aspect that has also called my attention is the Gemischter Satz concept. In English it would be translated as a Field Blend. Backing to the old times where there was not such a big foc...

As I finish a good book, I often have difficulties to get inside the next one, as if I am in some sort of literary hangover, still filled by the worlds previously given to me. That was the case as I have finished Mia Couto's O Mapeador de Ausencias and struggled to enter the genius Un amor by Sara Mesa. Even though I felt deeply identified with the narrative presented by Sara Mesa, I have experienced quite some difficulties during the first 40 pages. Moving from Mozambique to the depth of Castilla was quite a change. The same happens with wines. When I come across a tremendously good wine during a tasting I often have difficulties to objectively taste the following one as the dominant notes of the former one tend to persist. That is what happened with this La Servil from Bodegas Cerrón.  A 94% Monastrell mixed with some other small authoctone grapes such as Blanquilla or Rojal this is a powerful and seductive red, showing good ripe berries flavours deliciously spiced by fine...