Spanish & Portuguese Wine News 5/10/12:

By: Joe Manekin | K&L Spanish & Portuguese Wine Buyer

Happy Thursday everyone,

This week the focus is on delightfully fresh, mouth watering, thirst quenching, "crispy" wines. One of my esteemed colleagues has earned the moniker "crispy" for her cheerful invitation to go out for a "crispy pint." And these wines are in the same vein. They invite you to open them with friends, enjoy the sunshine, and drink them to quench thirst. Little sips will not be sufficient with these; they are for guzzling down. 

Flama Roja Cava Brut Tarragona- $11.99  A bright and dry, yet creamier, rounder cava than the normal stuff.  Lower dosage than usual for cava.  Riper and more vinous style.   A K&L "alum" brings this one in  and I think you'll find it to be one of our best value sparklers. 

2010 Seculo Godello y Doña Blanca Bierzo - $11.99 Godello and Doña Blanca are perfectly suited to blending together, as this wine attests. I poured this wine for our Spanish tasting three weeks ago and it was well received.  Also noticed that one of my personal sommelier customers received this in a shipment, and then ordered a full case.  Careful, this white is delicious and addictive.   

2011 Bodegas Muga Rosado Rioja (1.5L) - $24.99  Muga rosé in magnum?  That's crazy talk.  Rest assured, though, we have these and even though we do not have a lot left, I thought that anyone on this list should know about it and grab some if they so choose.  This will disappear very soon. 

2011 Ameztoi "Rubentis" Rosé Getariako Txakolina - $19.99 Our most popular cult Spanish rosé is back.  Interestingly, I actually saw this wine in a local shop in Getaria (the beautiful town at the bottom of those sloped, seaward facing Getariako Txakolina D.O. vineyards).  Thanks to Americans' enthusiasm for this wine, what started as more of an export phenomenon appears to have found acceptance amongst some of the world's most serious gourmands in Getaria.  Try this with Cantabrian sea anchovies, canned Spanish "Bonito del Norte" tuna  or a tomato and garlic rubbed piece of toasted bread with olive oil and sea salt.

Un Saludo,

-Joe

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Joe Manekin

Spanish, Portuguese, Latin American Wine Buyer

K&L Wine Merchants

Ph: 877.559.4637 ext. 2748

joemanekin@klwines.com

Spanish & Portuguese Wine News 5/2/12: Back from Spain!

By: Joe Manekin | K&L Spanish & Portuguese Wine Buyer

Greetings everyone,

Let's go with the classic 1, 2, 3 bullet point format for today:

1.) Back from Spain!

My K&L Hollywood colleague Keith Mabry and I just returned from our trip to Spain (primarily spent in Rioja, with a little time in Penedes) and we are very much looking forward to some new wines coming in as a result.  New direct imports to expect some time in the next few months include:

- An often overlooked, historic bodega in Rioja (dates back to the 14th c) with a lovely traditional range of wines. 

- A new bodega who produces terrific, expressive, judiciously oaked wine in Rioja (and, interestingly, also distributes wines from Paul Pernot, Michel Lafarge, and other Burgundy producers in Spain)

- A killer 1999 gran reserva from Bodegas Puelles (don't worry, we will surely email you when it arrives in a few months)

- Two fantastic, smaller cava producers from Penedes.  More details on those later as we finalize our orders.

For any of you planning trips to Spain, I encourage you to contact me for suggestions on places to stay, eat, and of course winery visit recommendations.

2.) Miguel Merino:  He's once again carrying a bag

"Carrying a bag" is industry speak for working "on the street," which is slang for selling wine wholesale to retail and restaurant accounts.  If you know the Merino story, you know that he used to carry a bag selling Riojas for $2 a bottle at a time when 1st growth Bordeaux probably cost $30 per bottle.  Well, we convinced him to dust off his old wine bag, head back to the States and tell his story (as well as the story of his delicious Rioja wines made all from Briones fruit in Rioja Alta).  We will likely have an in-store tasting in Redwood City on Tuesday June 19th and a dinner in San Francisco on Wednesday June 20th. Final dates still TBD, but please mark your calendars as both of these events should be lots of fun (especially dinner).  Miguel tells great stories and the best stories invariably are told over good food and drink.  Hope that you can join us.

3.) On third party reviews and TWA's new Spain critic

While all things third party and 100 point scale are typically verboten on my email list (not to criticize, just that I prefer this to be a more personal, subjective format) I do think it's worth a quick mention that I read the recent Wine Advocate Catalunya round-up from new Spanish critic Neal Martin, and found it quite interesting.  Neal's take on wines, the evident seriousness with which he approaches his work, the journalistic and academic rigor he seems to apply should all be good things for Spanish wine.  His more conservative scoring may not turn farmers into ferrari drivers, but his intellectual curiosity, wit and writing will certainly result in some more lively reading.

Alright, that's it for this week.  We'll be selling stuff again next week.

Un saludo,

Joe

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Joe Manekin

Spanish, Portuguese, Latin American Wine Buyer

K&L Wine Merchants

Ph: 877.559.4637 ext. 2748

joemanekin@klwines.com

Spanish & Portuguese Wine News 2/3/12: Tondonia for $20?

By: Joe Manekin

K&L Spanish & Portuguese Wine Buyer

Greetings all,  

While we are not selling Lopez de Heredia Viña Tondonia Reserva for $20 (though, curiously, a colleague mentioned that Maria José Lopez de Heredia was recently interviewed on NPR) we are selling another classic, single vineyard wine made from a vineyard literally one Rio Ebro stone's throw over: Viña Pomal.  

Bodegas Bilbainas has been producing the Viña Pomal Reserva since 1932.  It is all Tempranillo from a beautiful calcareous clay vineyard site in Haro.  It's aged 18 months in American oak, and then another 18 months in bottle (though at this point both wines below have obviously aged considerably longer).  Both of these are from terrific vintages in 2004 and 2005, and would make for a delicious accompaniment to any of your favorite winter stews and braises.  They are wines with great material, rich fruit, well integrated spicy barrel notes, balanced acidity, earthy savor and an unmistakable Rioja Alta minerality.  These wines are also known to age well- I will be grabbing some of each to experiment.  

2005 Bodegas Bilbainas Viña Pomal Reserva Rioja - $19.99 http://www.klwines.com/detail.asp?sku=1084698  

2004 Bodegas Bilbainas Viña Pomal Reserva Rioja - $19.99 http://www.klwines.com/detail.asp?sku=1069595   

Saludos,

Joe    

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Joe Manekin

Spanish, Portuguese, Latin American Wine Buyer

K&L Wine Merchants

Ph: 877.559.4637 ext. 2748

joemanekin@klwines.com