New Spanish Wine Appellations
MAPA, the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Fishing and Food has announced Ribera del Arlanza and Tierra Del Vino de Zamora as Spanish wine appellations. The two regions are now official wine D.O. (denomination of origin).
Being in the Wine biz I, of course, immediately after having read this ran to my map of Spanish appellations to try to figure out where these two regions are situated. The D.O. Ribera Del Arlanza is situated some 40km south of Burgos city. The main grape variety (95%) is …tempranillo (tinta del pais), not so surprising. Then the second most planted grape is Garnacha (2%). There is a little bit of Mencia, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Petit Verdot and Albillo for their rosé wines. For the white wines they use Viura, but very little white wine is produced.
To be honest with you, I haven’t tried many wines from this area so it is a bit difficult to say what a typical Ribera del Arlanza wine is like. But the wine I have tried (which is really just one…) I really enjoyed. The wine I tried is called Monte Aman Crianza: this is a red wine made from 95% Tinta del Pais and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. This Spanish wine is aged 12 months in American new oak and 12 months in bottle before released onto the market. This much affordable wine, is a smooth, elegant wine with a perfect balance and integration of the wood in the fruit…was that understandable? I can really recommend trying it also because it is a wine you can afford drinking everyday – those are the wines we like!
Well, to continue my story about the new D.O.s I am heading over to D.O. Tierra del Vino de Zamora. Where is it? I ran off again to my dear map (which I have in my bedroom so that the last thing I see before I fall asleep are the Spanish appellations, I know it’s very sad..).
This Spanish appellation is situated in the north eastern province of Zamora. Where is Zamora some of you may ask? Well it is not far from the border with northern Portugal in Castilla – León. The D.O. straddles the Rió Duero. The main grape varieties are Malvasia, Verdejo and Moscatel though they also grow a small percentage of Albillo, Palomino and Godello. The red varieties are Tempranillo and Garnacha and small percentages of Cabernet Sauvignon. I have started to investigate the wineries from this new Spanish Appellation so keep your eyes open. I found one winery that seems to make some really great wines all made 100% of Tempranillo. I have to finish my research and the winery promised me some samples so I’ll let you know soon what I think and you might see their wines at www.excelwines.com soon.
Anna
Tags: appellation, d.o., MAPA, red wine, Ribera del Arlanza, spanish wine, white wine, Zamora