JOE GO TO SPAIN: Part 1 - How does a food and wine trade mission work?

I pondered this very question in the time leading up to my recent trip to Spain. As well as several others: How many stateside colleagues would be present? How many producers would I be meeting with, and would any of them have decent product to sell? Who pays for all of this? Besides the round trip ticket and hotel accomodations for 4 nights, would the time spent be worthwhile?

As it turns out, we were 10 Americans, a few importer reps, a few distributor reps, and a few retailers, spanning the continental United States from Philadelphia to Seattle. I met with 6 producers a day for two days, inside a room at the Chamber of Commerce in Terrassa. Many of us met with the same producers, sort of what I imagine speed dating to be like except the participants are wine producers/export directors/brokers on one hand and importers/distributor reps and retailers on the other. And instead of 5 minutes we generally had an hour per appointment.

From what I understand, such missions are paid for by the local chamber with some significant subsidies from the regional (in this case the Catalunyan) government as well as the EU. If I heard correctly, each winery representative needs to pay 80 euros to participate, along with 50 euros for each meeting. So to schedule a full day's worth of meetings would run about 380 euros or approximately $500 US. Not exactly cheap, but I suppose worth the cost if a good importer is found and a lasting business relationship forged.

And the wines? If you're thinking to yourself, that if you need to go and spend money to find yourself an importer, your wines probably are not very good or interesting, then in most cases you would be correct. That having been said, there is always a need for commercial wines, available in commercial quantities, which are drinkable and relatively inexpensive. I came here seeking cava, and now I have at least a couple of possibilities to work with. Additionally, there were some hand made wines, produced in smaller quantities, which were quite good. One producer boasted some terrific pansal blanca (a variation of the xarel-lo grape grown in the Alella D.O, north of Barcelona.) Usually xarel-lo is picked green and way underripe for cava and even white wine production, though this wine was round, harmonious, mouthfilling and full of delicious fruit, with a silken texture. It reminded me of Chenin. This same producer made a red wine from an indigenous Catalunyan varietal called sumoll. It was intensely dark fruited and wild, while still retaining its acidity in the warm Mediterranean climate. Might be a good bet for production in California.

Also, a Priorat producer neighboring Clos Erasmus and Val Llach had wines to sell that were actually priced reasonably, not overoaked, and produced from organically cultivated grapes.

So yes, some new discoveries were made, and the time spent in Terrassa was worthwhile.

Next up: Cava history and cava production at Raventos i Blanc.

HIGH ALCOHOL - Not always a bad thing

I tasted a few wines in the past day which, at over 14.5% abv, could be considered 'high alcohol' for red table wines. In fact, I tasted many such wines, as I tasted a large number of domestic reds yesterday. Most of them were of no interest to me. Overly fruity, oaky, burnt from heavily toasted French oak, lifeless from lack of acidity, you name it. A range of what many picky palates would call out as flaws in modern winemaking.

However, two wines stood out for their relative sense of balance. One was Spanish, the other from the Suison Valley (southeast of Napa Valley). Both had 15.5% alcohol, something you'd no doubt note after drinking a few glasses, but tasting the wine, perhaps is somewhat less noticeable.

The 2005 Val Llach Val Llach is classic, modern Priorat. With its bold aromas of cassis, blackberry jam and sweet mocha it probably will not win over those who generally do not enjoy big, brawny, intensely fruity Priorat. Typically, I'm the first to hate on Priorat (for that matter, throw in Ribera del Duero as well). Overly ripe fruit and way too much new oak seem to rule the day. However, this particular Priorat, produced by the president of the Priorat D.O., just worked for me. Yes, it's big and not shy about utilizing some new oak, but that llicorella (slate) minerality is there, as well as nicely balanced acidity. Gonna go out on a limb here and guess that this is one of the few Priorats I like due to a.)CARIGNAN makes up the majority of the wine, and as we all know carignan is just delicious and/or b.) the vineyard site really is top notch, with an incredibly steep slope composed largely of black slate.

Abe Schoener, best known for his Scholium Project wines, also makes slightly more accessible, lower priced wines under the Ten Brick label. The 2007 Tenbrick Pinot Noir Suison Valley shows intensely flavored, red fruit, of a candied quality, that I often associate with Russian River pinot noir. Like the very few decent Russian River pinots out there, this wine has real acidity to balance the intensely ripe fruit flavors. It also shows lively, with a natural, tense structure that shows its stuff mainly mid-palate and towards the end taste. That's the way I like it. As one might expect in the location, near Fairfield and heading towards on the Amtrak line towards Sacramento, the grapes have no problem with ripeness - alcohol is 15.5%.

While both of those earned my respect, they probably would not earn my dollar. For the price of the Val Llach (about $75) I'd go with an '07 JJ Prum Wehlener Sonnenuhr Riesling Auslese, using the extra $15 or so for a bottle of good muscadet. And for the price of the Ten Brick Pinot Noir, I'd go with a bottle of '06 Louis Claude Desvignes Morgon Javernieres.

Further proof that, though I respect good winemaking in new world and trendy, stylistically new world leaning regions, more often than not I'll continue spending my money on the classic, and often times less fashionable, wines out there.

More sabor from Spain

One of our reps with a terrific book of Spanish wines - from wacky and funky, to traditional and regional, to cool and modern - came by today to sample a few things. Here are the wines:

Pere Ventura Cava Brut Nature

Brut nature= no dosage. It is an increasingly popular movement in Penedes, and for good reason if this wine is an indication of how exciting the quality can be. Touch of toastiness on the nose, leading to the crispest, driest, most precise tasting cava I have ever tasted. A real winner.

Sanstrave 'e' Cava Brut Nature Gran Reserva

48 months on the lees. Much more yeastiness on the nose, which also had a very prominent, funky, yellow miso aspect to it. It was similarly of the earth on the palate. Not much in the way of fruit here. Not so good.

2005 Vina Ijalba Blanco

Produced from Tempranillo Blanco, from a mutated section of their Tempranillo vineyard. Ijalba functions as a nursery for rare Rioja varietals, and makes some pretty exciting stuff. This wine is explosive on the nose - loads of quince and a hint of red fruits. Very textural, fleshy palate, and once again explosive. It is like dry Chenin that doesn't need a lot of time to come around; it's already delicious. Apricot and tangy red currant fruits were full and mouthfilling.

2006 Odysseus Rosat

This could be Spain's most expensive rosado. It had red fruit, with pomegranate leading the way, on the nose. A bit stinky as well. Grippy and palate coating, it reminded me of a 2002 Kir-Yianni Akakies I drunk quite a bit of 4 years ago, with less acidity but a very similar funkiness. Thing is, the Akakies is half the price.

2006 Valduero La Uve Toro

A bit bubblegummy on the nose. But fresh dark fruit, moderate tannins and a bit more liveliness than the nose would suggest made for a pleasant enough Toro. I often can't stand wine from this D.O.- too one-dimensional and clumsy. The fact that this was fermented in stainless (probably preceeded by a carbonic maceration) clearly helped to make this more to my liking.

2006 Martin Berdugo Ribera del Duero Joven 2006

Reductive, reductive, dark fruit. Lacking in purity, overly aggressive tannins. Poorly made wine.


2004 Vina Ijalba Graciano

Easily better than their 2003 Graciano, which was pretty damn good itself. I'm going to go out on a limb and say this is one of the 2 or 3 most interesting young Spanish red wines I've ever tasted. Very aromatic, with white pepper and floral notes, a touch of Indian spices as well. Cote Rotie-like. Blue and purple fruits on the palate, with very fine grained tannins. Impressive, and for under $25 a real steal.

1998 Valduero Ribera del Duero Reserva

Black cherry jam and blackberry nose leads to more of the same on the palate. Well-integrated tannins and acidity, pure fruit, terrific intensity and length. Still very primary, but beginning to hit its stride. I'll have to get a few bottles to drink in 3 or so years. This wine spends 30 months in barrel, 2/3 American oak and 1/3 French, both previously used.

2003 Sangenis i Vaque Priorat

Priorat is typically not my thing. As recently as one and a half years ago, yes. Now, I either hate the wines as most are so sickly fruity and over-extracted, or shrug my shoulders at the wines that are ok but still pricey and not quite exciting (a la Palacios Les Terrases). Though this particular Priorat is not my style, it was distinctive. Very dark fruited, with the intensity of many $50-$80 Priorats, sans cloying fruit. Good minerality (slate here is more red than the blue stuff that dominates many of the estates which produce and export Priorat to the US market). Not my style but I respect this wine. And it retails for about $30. Which follows the inverse correlation between price and quality I'm continuing to observe in estate's offerings througout Priorat.