When I visited Rioja, Spain, I spent a week visiting wineries, starting with Lopez de Heredia, then La Rioja Alta and several others. We were unable to visit one of the wineries because it was being renovated. The good news is, now it's open again, after a grand rebuilding programme, restoring the castle, stone by stone.
Hurry!
Because the castle has been closed for over a year - is it more like three? - the tours are now booked up for the next three months. So, if you would like to visit the Rioja region of Northern Spain, either you must rush now to make a booking, or wait a long while until the backlog clears.
I met Pablo Gonzalez-Calvo of the Export Department who was visiting his buyers. The biggest surprise was that the grand r e s e r v a wines are not from the years specified by the region's wine governing body and imposed on the vineyard. The vineyard owners decide for themselves which is the best year for their crop, which year they will hold back or reserve the best wine to be aged in barrel and bottle, matured, mixed with other wines to get the perfect balance of flavour, aroma, and of course sold at a higher price because it is better wine, from the best year, and keeping it stored costs money and delay on profit from the investment. Pablo proudly says, "We decide!"
(Yes, I had to separate the letters of r e s e r v a because the English spell checker wants to turn the word to reserve. The r e s e r v a wines are of curse, reserved. Spanish is a lovely, easy, user-friendly language to learn. Just add or remove the a or o on a word and you can translate.)
What do you learn on a vineyard tour. On your first, second or third tour in your life, if you don't already know, you will learn that criantha is the basic or table wine and r e s e r v a is reserved and a grand reserved is even grander or more special. Each time you take a tour, one more fact goes into your brain and your understanding or wine making and wine labels increases, making buying a wine or choosing it in a restaurant has a greater chance of giving you what you enjoy and value for money. You can also spot a bargain, and, whether you like it or not, you will appreciate tasting or even just seeing something special or unusual.
At a tasting, you discover what you enjoy more. Either it is worthwhile, depending on your budget, to have the better wines whenever you can, or on special occasions, or when one is given away for free at a tasting. Alternatively you may decide some or all of the more expensive wines are not worth the money, so no need to hanker after them. You can then be confident that the cheaper wines are better value and quite good enough for you.
Eton Vintners
I was invited to a tasting of his wines at a shop called Eton Vintners which is just around the corner from Windsor castle which we passed on the way home. (Windsor and Eton are adjacent. The bridge over the river Thames connects them. Windsor, famous for the castle where flags show if the royal family is resident, and Eton famous for the school.) If you are in England and plan to visit the area of Windsor, get on the Eton Vintners mailing list and go to one of the tastings. They have a discount scheme for regular buyers.
He had brought along several bottles for us to taste and told us all about each wine. We had some bread and cheese and a rather gristly salami to go with it. I and my teeth and tongue all preferred the bread and cheese.
The Marques de Murrieta Website
The website can be read in English, or Spanish. It has sections on the history, visits and buying wine.
I loved their description of the founder. I particularly liked the later quotation:
Calvo - Spanish surname from the Middle Ages, originally meaning bald.
Crianza - basic or table wine which can be drunk young (pronounced criantha)
Gonzalez - Spanish surname meaning son of Gonzalo. Second most common surname in Spain after Garcia.
Marqués - Spanish for Marquis (not to be confused with the French word marque which means brand)
Pablo - Paul
r e s e r v a - reserve or reserved for ageing in the barrel and later longer in the bottle
More information on the wines and this new opportunity to taste and buy at the castle where you can do a tour from:
Marques de Murrieta
Estates and Wines
marquesdemurrieta.com
pazolbarrantes.com
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.
Hurry!
Because the castle has been closed for over a year - is it more like three? - the tours are now booked up for the next three months. So, if you would like to visit the Rioja region of Northern Spain, either you must rush now to make a booking, or wait a long while until the backlog clears.
I met Pablo Gonzalez-Calvo of the Export Department who was visiting his buyers. The biggest surprise was that the grand r e s e r v a wines are not from the years specified by the region's wine governing body and imposed on the vineyard. The vineyard owners decide for themselves which is the best year for their crop, which year they will hold back or reserve the best wine to be aged in barrel and bottle, matured, mixed with other wines to get the perfect balance of flavour, aroma, and of course sold at a higher price because it is better wine, from the best year, and keeping it stored costs money and delay on profit from the investment. Pablo proudly says, "We decide!"
(Yes, I had to separate the letters of r e s e r v a because the English spell checker wants to turn the word to reserve. The r e s e r v a wines are of curse, reserved. Spanish is a lovely, easy, user-friendly language to learn. Just add or remove the a or o on a word and you can translate.)
What do you learn on a vineyard tour. On your first, second or third tour in your life, if you don't already know, you will learn that criantha is the basic or table wine and r e s e r v a is reserved and a grand reserved is even grander or more special. Each time you take a tour, one more fact goes into your brain and your understanding or wine making and wine labels increases, making buying a wine or choosing it in a restaurant has a greater chance of giving you what you enjoy and value for money. You can also spot a bargain, and, whether you like it or not, you will appreciate tasting or even just seeing something special or unusual.
At a tasting, you discover what you enjoy more. Either it is worthwhile, depending on your budget, to have the better wines whenever you can, or on special occasions, or when one is given away for free at a tasting. Alternatively you may decide some or all of the more expensive wines are not worth the money, so no need to hanker after them. You can then be confident that the cheaper wines are better value and quite good enough for you.
Eton Vintners
I was invited to a tasting of his wines at a shop called Eton Vintners which is just around the corner from Windsor castle which we passed on the way home. (Windsor and Eton are adjacent. The bridge over the river Thames connects them. Windsor, famous for the castle where flags show if the royal family is resident, and Eton famous for the school.) If you are in England and plan to visit the area of Windsor, get on the Eton Vintners mailing list and go to one of the tastings. They have a discount scheme for regular buyers.
He had brought along several bottles for us to taste and told us all about each wine. We had some bread and cheese and a rather gristly salami to go with it. I and my teeth and tongue all preferred the bread and cheese.
The Marques de Murrieta Website
The website can be read in English, or Spanish. It has sections on the history, visits and buying wine.
I loved their description of the founder. I particularly liked the later quotation:
“To invite a person into your house is to take charge of his happiness as long as he is under your roof”.
Brillat-Savarin, French gastronome
A few translations:Calvo - Spanish surname from the Middle Ages, originally meaning bald.
Crianza - basic or table wine which can be drunk young (pronounced criantha)
Gonzalez - Spanish surname meaning son of Gonzalo. Second most common surname in Spain after Garcia.
Marqués - Spanish for Marquis (not to be confused with the French word marque which means brand)
Pablo - Paul
r e s e r v a - reserve or reserved for ageing in the barrel and later longer in the bottle
More information on the wines and this new opportunity to taste and buy at the castle where you can do a tour from:
Marques de Murrieta
Estates and Wines
marquesdemurrieta.com
pazolbarrantes.com
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