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La Rioja and Ribera del Duero

There’s something about coming into the Rioja region of Spain on the Camino Francés and seeing all of the vineyards. Differing systems of trellising, but everything from vast acreages planted in Tempranillo, to small pockets of vines in areas protected from winds that fly across the region in the spring. The adjoining regions of Navarra and Rioja, to the west of Logroño, makes for an incredible view of vineyards, that slowly turn into wheat fields as you keep walking.

A protected vineyard in Rioja

As I worked my way through Rioja I sampled amazing Crianzas, or wines that have been in oak for at least a year, as opposed to Reservas which have been aged for two years, at least one of which reds to have been in oak, Gran Reservas have been aged for two years in oak, and three in a bottle.to be honest, at the places you are eating and drinking as a “peregrino,” or pilgrim of the Camino, I haven’t seen a lot of Gran Reserva action.

Finally, in Burgos, which lies west of the Rioja region, I started sampling wines from the Ribera del Duero. Ribera del Duero is one of my favorite wine regions of Spain, and lies directly south of Burgos. The wines have some amazing dark cherry aromas, good acidity and medium tannins, with dark fruits and leather on the palate.

Not a bad way to walk across Spain!

Wine and The Way

For many, walking the Camino Francés  is a pilgrimage of discovery and reflection, and a reward unto itself. I am walking the Camino for the next 35 days or so to combine two loves, a love of chances for reflection, and my love of wine. As I walk, I will be taking the time to think about things, but also I will be on the lookout for good wine, and opportunities to share those wines with people in the future, on one of my tours.

Seant-Jean Pied-de-Port

The Camino Francés  starts in Saint-Jean Pied-de-Port, in the south of France, It is also home to one of the smallest of AOCs of France, Irouleguy (pronounced Ee-Ru-La-Ghee) comes from the Northern Basque Region, and includes the town of Irouléguy  and St.-Jean, in its entirety. About 70 percent of the wines are red wines, some 20 or so are whites, and the rest are rosés.

Irouléguy and local cheese and sausage from Basque Country in southern France

I start the Camino tomorrow, but found time to buy a lovely Katttalingorri 2105, organic (biologique) red. Plum and ripe fruit on the nose, and medium tannins, the wine opened up nicely after about an hour. This particular red was a blend of 65 percent Tannat, and 35 percent Cab Franc, which are the two typical varietals used in red wines from this region and Irouléguy. It also paired fantastically with a local Basque sheep cheese and a meat and cheese sausage from the region. One of my favorite things about traveling to these different regions is not only trying the new wines, but finding how intertwined the wines are with local foods. Cheers to northern Basque Country and Southern France, and Buen Camino!!

Wine, Speculation, and the Gift of Not Listening

The Casablanca Region and Kingston Property

When my friend Ellen Brittan, of Brittan Vineyards, talks with my students about business and marketing, she suggests that vineyards and wineries need a story to tell, or they will just be any other winery. Kingston Vineyards, in the Casablanca region of Chile is one of those places that truly has a unique story. Its founder. Carl John Kingston, came to Chile from Michigan in 1906 looking for gold, and when that failed, worked on finding places that were good for copper and then trying to sell the mining rights to those places to mining companies. As a result of one of these failed transactions, he ended up with several thousand acres in the Casablanca region of Chile, which lies between the coastal town of Valparaiso and Santiago, Chile.

The Kingston property was not a vineyard right away, and in fact, the bodega is a relatively recent development. As one staff member said, the family is willing to try new things, and willing to fail – a characteristic of the willingness to speculate that seems present even today with the fifth generation of the Kingston family. Among the most successful ventures was, and is, a dairy, that even now supplies around twenty percent of the milk consumed in Santiago, Chile. In 1998 they planted wine grape vines, and about five years later released their first wines, which were Pinot Noir and Syrah. (Source: https://www.kingstonvineyards.cl/pages/historia).

Harvest crew, just before lunch break

The Kingston varietals were red, which is notable, because of the fact that up until then all of the grapes that had been planted in Casablanca were either table grapes or white wines. To some the degree, the Kingston family had to become winemakers of their grapes, because most people did not believe that it was possible to make good red wines from black grapes. Today, the family makes a few thousand

Kingston wines

cases, and sells the rest to other bodegas in the area for their wine. But they have most definitely proven that the terroir, just a few kilometers from the coast of Chile, supports red wine making, as well as some great whites, including the Sauvignon Blanc that was being harvested when we arrived.

History is littered in both good and bad ways with reasons why people never did things, or reasons why they have always done another. As we drove down the dusty road through the vineyards, the coastal fog began to lift, and showed us the beauty of the Casablanca Valley and the sounds of the harvest echoed through the vineyard – all of which made the wines smell and taste even better. A toast to speculation, even in the form of grapes, and to asking why it something that is not usually done, can and should be.

The new Kingston tasting room

Aranjuez and Tannat

One of the strategies often discussed in the wine industry, when it come to wine varietals, is how to make that transition from large production levels of  “ good cheap wine” from

Aranjuez wine making facilities

Chile/Bolivia/Argentina, to customers being willing to pay more for wines perceived as premium wines.  This has been the mission for Malbec from Argentina, or Carménère from Chile. As I have traveled around South America, when I tell people I am down here for the wine, the eyebrows always rise when I include Bolivia among the countries I am visiting. In part, it it is because there is little wine production in the first place, but also because there is no identifiable varietal as there is with Argentinian Malbec, Chilean Carménère, or even the Tannat of Uruguay.

Gerardo Aguirre, Jr., one of the family members and associates of Aranjuez.

Single vineyard tannat and award winning Juan Cruz

Bolivia has different forces at work in establishing its viticultural identity. On the one hand, wine has been made for hundreds of years, using local varietals that were planted from seeds of European varietals. This locality is important, and yet there is also the feeling that Bolivia needs to establish a varietal identity. Some would argue for Moscato de Alexandria, which represents around three-quarters of the grapes grown in the country. Bodegas Aranjuez planted Tannat in 1999, and has won gold medals alongside some of the premier Tannat wines of Uruguay. They argue that this should be the signature grape for Bolivia, because it suits the region best.

The tour of Aranjuez is impressive – the growth of the bodega in terms of size and production over the years is equally so. They are focused on expanding along three lines, but focused on the quality of wines. They have established as their foothold, the Tannat of Juan Cruz,

Newer plantings at Aranjuez

which is spoken of with reverence, while at the same time offering blends and single vineyard productions. After being in the Cinti Valley, it was a very different, large scale experience to tour Aranjuez, as they took in their Petit Verdot harvest. More vines are being planted, a new tasting room opened, and tastings being done to cultivate wine tourism.

Knights of Spumante

It’s been particularly enjoyable to get to know some of Argentina’s Spumante. While I had some in Patagonia, some of the best is being made in the Mendoza region, and Cruzat has been on of my favorites. We arrived at Cruzat just as they were harvesting some of their first Chardonnay and Pinot noir grapes, and we were greeted with the smell of fermenting grapes and baked bread smell that one hopes to find in a sparkling wine-making facility.

 

As a Latin Americanist, I am fascinated by the status of South American wines being “new world” wines, putting them in the same category as Oregon and Washington wines. The latter are truly new, in the sense of the last 50-60 years of modern wine production, while South American wines easily go back to 450 years of production. Cruzat’s emblem is even a family emblem that goes back to the Knights Templar.

Cruzat is solely a Spumante winery, as sparkling and still wines must be made at separate facility, as sugar is not allowed in the latter, by regulation. Because of this, they also do custom crushes for other brands who produce still wines at their own facilities. The Extra Brut was amazing, the Nature was also lovely, and while I tend not to like the sweeter varieties, those at the table who did, seemed to enjoy the Demi-sec as well. Cruzat uses the Méthode Champenoise for production, and plays around a lot with blends, but only of Pinot noir and Chardonnay, as Pinot Meunière is tough to grow here. They play around with some interesting straight varietal productions of Chardonnay and a Pinot noir, as well.

A side note: As someone who teaches about wine, and knows just enough about wine to get myself in trouble, it is sometimes painful to sit through someone who is using old theories on how to taste wine. I don’t have anything to say about how to make sparkling, but we spent a fair amount of time talking about the sweet vs. acid tasting regions of the tongue, which most of science now agrees don’t really exist. But, I know better than to show up a wine tour guide, and also remember the blank looks I’ve gotten, when I have not kept my mouth shut. So despite the machinations we went through in getting the Doux past our “sweet taste-buds” on the tip of our tongue, as we then imagine how much sweeter it tastes after we allow it to do so; the Spumante was excellent.