Brief profile of Spanish wine

Date:June 10, 2011

Philippines Wine Shop Clark Wine Center is pleased to share with you articles, news and information about wine, wine events, wine tasting and other topics related to wine and the appreciation of wine.

spanish wine – red wine

• Valdeorras is a small area in the east of Galicia and its fresh-tasting reds – made from the native Mencia grape – are highly recommended.

• Toro produces extremely powerful reds – using a mutation of Tempranillo.

• Campo de Borja wines – made from the Garnacha grape – must attain a minimum 13% alcohol content, resulting in some stunningly alcholic reds!

• La Mancha – located in arid plains stretching from Madrid to Valdepeñas – produces classy reds from the Cencibel (Tempranillo) grape.

• Valdepeñas is famed for Tempranillo reds that have been cask-aged and labelled “Reserva” or “Gran Reserva”. Oakey and full-flavoured.

• Rioja is one of the best-known areas for wine. Its red wine has a thick, creamy texture and fruity flavour. Grape varieties of this region, production methods and names of wine are too many to list, but a good guide to quality is the length of time matured.

spanish wine – white wine

• Rías Bajas – in the region of Galicia – has a reputation for fragrant, floral, dry white wines produced from the grape variety Albarino.

• Ribeiro – meaning “riverside” – produces excellent whites with strong overtones of orange blossom.

• Rueda produces white wine only – some of Spain´s most agreeable, light dry whites.

• La Mancha also grows the Airen grape, producing a refreshing, lemony white wine.

• Valencia is renowned for its Moscatel de Valencia – a sweet white wine. This wine doesn´t undergo normal fermentation, but is made by adding grape spirit to freshly-pressed Muscat juice.

spanish wine – rosé wine

• Navarre – located on the River Ebor – is know for its fresh, fruity rosada or rosé wine.

• Cigales principally makes dry rosados and a little red, using the two main grapes of Rioja.

spanish wine – sparkling wine

• Penedès – near Barcelona – is the centre of the Cava industry and base for the mighty House of Torres. A prolific region, it also produces a wide variety of good quality red and white wines.

• Asturias is famed for its cider – both sparkling and flat – locals pouring out their cider in a very unique way.

spanish wine – label

• Bottles labelled Joven (Young) are the juniors.

• Crianza is aged for one year in a barrel and one year in a bottle before release.

• Reserva spends one year in a barrel and a further two in the bottle.

. Gran Reserva is aged for a minimum of two years in wood and held in the bottle for three.

You may also notice the initials DO on a bottle.

It stands for Denominación de Origen – literally meaning “Denomination of Origin”, portraying where the wine comes from.

This now has an “upper level” for the very best wines – Denominación de Origen Calificada – or DOCa.

Rioja was the first region declared a DOCa, in 1991.

However, as with everything else in life, the main thing is to choose the one you, personally, like best.

¡Salud! ¡Qué aproveche!

Source: http://www.top-tour-of-spain.com/spanish-wine.html

Clark Wine Center was built in 2003 by Hong Kong-based Yats International Leisure Philippines to become the largest wine shop in Philippines supplying Asia’s wine lovers with fine vintage wines at attractive prices. Today, this wine shop in Clark Philippines offers over 2000 selections of fine wines from all major wine regions in the world. As a leading wine supplier in Philippines, Pampanga’s Clark Wine Center offers an incomparable breadth of vintages, wines from back vintages spanning over 50 years. Clark Wine Center is located in Pampanga Clark Freeport Zone adjacent to Angeles City, just 25 minutes from Subic and 45 minutes from Manila.

Wines from Burgundy, Bordeaux, Rhone, Loire, Spain, Portugal, Germany, Austria, Alsace, USA, Australia, New Zealand, Italy, South Africa, Chile and Argentina etc. are well represented in this Clark Wine Shop.

For more information, email Wine@Yats-International.com or visit http://www.ClarkWineCenter.com