Articles Tagged with: Vinosdeespaña
Home / Blog Archives

The Caves of the Rioja

As you walk the Camino Francés, you strategically take a day off here and there – mine are usually in larger cities, where there is amazing food and wine to enjoy. In the case of Logroño, that is an easy stop to make. First of all, there is Calle Laurel, which is a whole street dedicated to tapas bars, where the tradition is to go in, order ONE tapa and a glass of wine, sore moving on to the next one, and doing the same, and the next, and the next.
A second reason to stop is because Logroño is in the heart of Rioja wine country, and there are plenty of bodegas to visit, and wine to drink. One of the bodegas I went to with a guide named Roberto, was to Bodegas Lecea in San Asensio ok. San Asensio is an interesting town of hundreds of homes, almost all of which have a cave dug underneath them for winemaking purposes. This was done for hundreds of years, up until recently, and now Lecea is the lone remaining bodega that does that. As you walk around you you can see homes, and then next to them, mounds of dirt and rock, from the digging of the caves, and then chimneys and vents that allow the bad air and gasses to escape.

A cave vent from underground.

Underground, you see greatly varying caves – some massive, and some small. Where you see a barrel, it is one that has been hauled underground and assembled and sealed once in place. But the favored fermentation tank for later caves were concrete

Oak barrel assembled in cave.

tanks. Think about the work that that would take… digging out the cave, providing venting, and then getting the materials underground to build set of fermentation tanks several meters underneath the house.

Concrete tank built underground in cave

We often talk about things like Protected Denomination of Origin as a way to make sure that quality is assured, and Rioja and Priorat have done that well, in Spain. But a hidden side of that improved quality through requiring standards and having regulation, is that some of the old ways of doing things become impossible, and such is the case in San Asensio. As Rioja DOCa regulations came in, quantity requirements were made, and oak barrel regulations came in. Wine had to be moved in and out of tanks and barrels, and this just proved to be too much, if you wanted to make and sell wine in this new Rioja reality.
Now, commercially, only one remains, and that is Bodegas Lecea. All of the other growers of wine now belong to a cooperative that allows for the scale, movement, and time in oak, but above ground. The family of Bodegas Lecea continue to use not only their own cave, but have now bought others as well. They buy a property and the house, and with that home ownership, comes the rights to the cave underneath. Under the ground, they punch a hole into the next cave, complete repairs that are usually needed after decades of lack of use, and then expand their wine-making into the next cave. They now have four joined caves in which they make wine, which is incredible to think about.

This almost feels like an afterthought to write… but the wine is pretty damned good, too!

The Camino Aragonés and Garnacha

Camino 2022 Beginnings

I started walking the Camino Aragonés, and then  will join up with the Camino Francés, my second time walking the Camino de Santiago. As I walk, I will also be doing an occasional wine blog, as I stop and talk with people in wine regions. I hope to finish the Camino in mid-October, and then explore more wine regions in Portugal and other parts of Spain. There are many paths to the Camino, but the

most traditional is the Francés, which starts in southern France, and then stretches across northern Spain to Santiago de Compostela. There is a rich history of the Camino, dating back to the 9th century, and possibly even before that, which you may find here https://makespain.com/camino-de-santiago/

Camino Aragonés and Garnacha

In 2019, after spending time in South America visiting bodegas, I walked the Camino Francés, from St. Jean Pier de Port to Santiago de Compostela. In 2022, I started in the northern part of Aragón, in part, to learn a bit about wines from that region. I actually started in the Pyrenees, at Canfranc Station, which is known most historically for being an escape route used by resistance leaders who were helping Jews escape Hitler´s labor camps during World War Two. As I headed south of Canfranc, dropping out of the Pyrenees, I came to the City of Jaca, and as I explored, I found some incredible wines.
Garnacha is common in this region of Spain, and some would argue that this is where it actually comes from – The Kingdom of Aragón. There are different was to try and determine where grapes come from, and one of them is by looking at where they were established in the relatively modern era. If we follow this method, then it may not be Aragón that is the provenance of Garnacha or Grenache, it might be from regions in France. However, with DNA testing, another method is to look at the earliest and most numerous sub-variants of a grape are present, historically speaking. And if that is the case, then Aragón certainly has a very good case for being the originator of present day Garnacha.
I started the Camino Aragonés in Estación Canfranc, and dropped down into Jaca, Spain in a couple of days. In Jaca I tried a flight of wines from Aragon at Langa Vinoteca, two of which were Garnachas and two of which were blends. The 2018 Campo de Borja from Fagus de Coto de Hayas had dark cherry notes, medium tanninsand a very nice finish. The Secastilla 2017
Garnacha was a high altitude, limited production wine that had rip your face off tannins and a smoking 15% ABV. Nice peppery  and savory notes that I like a lot, once I got over all that had happened in my mouth just prior to that.
I then did two blends, and the Grillo y Luna 2014 was another 15% abv, but a Syrah/Cabernet Sauvignon/Garnacha/Merlot blend. The palate started with plum and herbaceous qualities, and finished off spicy and peppery, with some pretty strong tannins, even after 8 years. The final wine
was a 2011 Blecua from the Somontano region of Huesca, Aragon, and a Cabernet Sauvignon/Tempranillo/Syrah/Merlot blend, and a reasonable 14% abv that didn’t quite smoke the back of my throat like the previous two wines had done. Dark plum and burnt rubber on the nose, plum and savory notes on the palate. The tannins were significant, but softer and rounder, given the vintage.

Next, I will be on my way across Aragon to Navarra, starting in Pamplona, as I join the Camino Francés. I will post occasional blog posts, as time and energy permit, while on the Camino. If you’d like to see day to day pics of the Camino, follow me on Instagram at Jeff D. Peterson (injeffinitely) and for occasional short wine posts, follow me on Instagram at Vinum Docet (vinumdocet).

Langa Vinoteca

 

 

 

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!

Navarra and the First Copas

The first leg of the Camino takes you over the Pyrenees to Roncesvalles, after which you descend into Pamplona and the Navarro region of Spain. One of my favorite sites coming out of Pamplona was seeing some of the first “copa” style vineyards of Tempranillo. They are shaped in a copa, or “glass/cup” style with four branches low to the ground. After that, every year the vines are trimmed back, so that new growth produces low-lying crops they must be handpicked. You see many new vineyards being trellised and machine picked, but I appreciate the beauty and care put into the old vines.

Copa style viticulture

I left Pamplona on the Camino Francés, which takes you over the Alto de Perdón, and into the beginnings of Navarra wine region. Mostly Tempranillo and Garnache are to be found, and most of the region is planted in red wine varietals. The wines I tried were not overly tannic, but with some earthy flavors to them, and mostly Crianzas. And one of my favorite parts of the Camino is being able to eat and drink across Spain and experience the incredible synergy between the wines and the food.