Some fine wines to go with your roast this Easter Sunday
A few weeks ago however on the high plains of Northern Castille, I ate some revelatory young Spanish lamb roasted with salt in Bodegas Valduero winery in Ribera del Duero.
Fruit driven but crunchy Ribera is a perfect match for lamb, especially if you get some crisp skin to chew on to offset the more delicate parts.
These wines have matched suckling lamb in this region since Roman times and I will be drinking it with Irish Spring lamb on Easter Sunday.
Ribera del Duero is Spain’s second most successful wine region (after Rioja) yet the Ribera DO was only established in 1982.
The wines are usually denser and fresher than Rioja and these days 8,350 growers and 280 bodegas produce 92m bottles (half is exported), transforming a once very poor region.
Spain’s icon wine Vega Sicilia is from this region but has now been joined by other local icons such as the profound Pingus made by Peter Sisseck.
Ribera is on a very high plateau with most grapes planted 800m to 1,000m above sea level. Temperatures hit 42C in summer and as low as -20C in winter — ‘nine months of winter and three of hell’ as one winemaker described it.
The heat of summer days is tempered by cold nights (as low as 5C) and this ensures a slow 60 day ripening as opposed to 40 days elsewhere.
The main clone of Tempranillo here is Tinto Fino which has smaller grapes and looser bunches which suits the climate and gives richly concentrated wines.
Old vines are widespread with more than 20% of vines over 75 years old.
There is one white grape called Albillo which can be intense, fresh and crisp but hardly any make it to Ireland.
Besides the recommendations below, wineries to watch for include Protos, Ebano, Milu, Figuero and most others imported here.
My selections are four fine examples of Ribera including one from Curious Wines who have a Spanish sale this month.
My other two selections are also from Curious including a value white and red from two of my other favourite regions in Spain.
Curious Wines Cork and Naas www.curiouswines.ie
The 60ha here are farmed organically with work underway to move to bio-dynamic farming.
The emphasis is on French rather than American oak (80-20) and this young Roble wine is one of the best value Ribera around.
Ripe and filled with flavour, punchy and fresh with some herbal notes and a rounded spice character on the finish.
Curious Wines Cork and Naas www.curiouswines.ie
I’ve praised the south-east of Spain a few times and I do like the Monastrell grape for its bright flavours and earthy kick.
This is a blend of local Monastrell (Mourvèdre) with Shiraz and is packed with ripe fruits and soft juicy flavours with touches of pepper and spice.
Curious Wines Cork and Naas www.curiouswines.ie
From the Salnés region of Rias Baixas close to the ocean and a little cooler than the other parts of this great Spanish wine region.
Aromatic and ripe on the nose with touches of tropical fruit and citrus, soft but finishing fresh on the palate with good crisp acidity punching through the fruit.
Karwigs, JJ O’Driscoll From a family-run, bio-dynamic estate established in 1982. Cover crops are grown to reduce vigour in the vines. Only organic and bio-dynamic treatments are made.
The wine is a vivid dark red with lots ripe fleshy fruits and very pleasurable with lingering, lightly structured red and black fruits on the finish.
Lettercollum Kitchen Project, Sheridans Cheesemongers, www.sheridanscheesemongers.com Mitchells & Son.
The Martin Berdugo winery has had a traumatic few years with a lightning strike that burned the winery to the ground in 2013 just before the harvest — this wine was vinified in a neighbours.
All Berdugo’s wines have charm and intensity, the Barrica is a crowdpleaser — extra fruity and bright.
Donnybrook Fair, Vintry, Terroirs, Clontarf. EmilioMoro: Bradleys, 1601, Matsons
The wines of Emilio Moro should be well known to you as they are widely distributed (and featured here before Christmas).
Cepa 21 is its new project on north-facing slopes for a more savoury style. Earthy black fruits, soft and juicy with a clean lively palate and fresh finish.
