Modern Young Spanish Reds

The recent development of young Spanish reds makes them worth discovering. A couple of years ago, Albor (Bodegas Campo Viejo) was acclaimed by British press as "a Spanish answer to Beaujolais", and in Wine magazine we read an interesting article by Sue Jamieson, begining like this: "An unoaked Rioja? In the past would have been unthinkable, but today there are signs of change in the most traditional Spanish wine region". Well, it was about time those wines were discovered, because Rioja was unoaked in the past, and tradition has kept up to our days.

Before Bordelais methods were introduced in Rioja, the only wine there was the so called Vino de cosechero, that is Vignerons wine. It is a young, fruity wine to be drunk fresh during next year. As we have already indicated tradition remained after the introduction of Bordelais methods, these wines continue to be produced by cosecheros. following a method we would call rural carbonic maceration.

During decades, Spanish aficionados did not show too much interest in this wine - actually they had turned away from it - but after the success of Beaujolais, some comparative tastings made many winemakers think that cosechero wines could compete in quality with the famous French wine.

Cosechero wines began to be taken into consideration in Spain at the end of the eighties, and since then the increase in sales has been continous. Nowdays, young wines, with carbonic maceration or not, are produced all over Spain.

Let us describe the traditional or rural cosechero method, as a special carbonic maceration method:

* The grapes, - usually Tempranillo, plus a 15% of the white Viura - are placed in the lagos (large concrete vats with a capacity of 15 to 30,000 kgs. of grapes). The grapes at the bottom break because of the weight, and fermentation begins. The carbonic gas produced by the fermentation goes up creating a carbonic atmosphere.

* Three days after, the first wine - called lágrima wine, that is saigné - bleeds out of the lago. Then, the grapes in the lago are crushed, traditionally by feet. Six days after, corazón (heart) wine is obtained, and after some more days, when fermentantion is finished, grapes are pressed, obtaining prensa wine (pressed wine). The final wine is a coupage of all three kinds.

It must be noted that carbonic maceration method usually described in books after Médoc method - large skin contact with must - may seem quite capricious, because we forget that Médoc method was not possible before the organization of harvest and winemaking by large cellars. This organization makes possible harvesting and making the corresponding wine simultaneously. To the contrary, small scale cosecheros were forced, first to harvest - putting the grapes in the lagos, as they came - then to make wine - pressing the grapes - after the completion of the harvest.

Therefore, when speaking about red wine making, we would call "traditional method" to this rural carbonic maceration, and "classical method" to Médoc method.

It is not possible to avoid the comparison of these young Spanish reds with Beaujolais. To begin with, colour is far more atractive in those Spanish reds, even though in some cases they have too much of it: Spanish winemakers should take into account that an black, opaque, mournful costume is not appropiate for a red wine suppossed to be young and cheerful.

At the nose, Beaujolais displays, in the first months of its life, a more intense, vibrant, perfumed aroma, while Spanish young reds have a more restrained and serious aroma. If we find exotic and red fruit in Beaujolais, in many young Spanish wines we find also more dense and concentrated black fruit aromas.

In the mouth, Beaujolais reveals it is closer to a perfume than to a drink. Spanish young reds have much more substance and body than their French counterpart. But this can hardly be considered an advantage, as the focus of these young wines is lightness. When you hear many cosecheros saying: "It is a much better wine than Beaujolais, it can stand the summer and sometimes the wine improves in its second year", you must be polite and say "Sure!", but you cannot avoid thinking they have never understood the Beaujolais spirit.

If you have seen Fellini's Casanova, you may remember the scene of some French and Spanish people sitting for dinner. I am not going to depict the scene, because as the proberb says “One image is worth more that thousand words”, though sometimes, a single word is worth more than one million words, and words are plenty of the Slow spirit, while images show an evident inclination to fastness. Anyway, Fellini's mastered a description of the 17th century Spanish character, opposite to the French - light, vain, flashy... but also funny and plein d'esprit - that applies also to young reds.

But that is tradition, currently, most cosechero wines are made by using modern techniques. I should mention Luberri (Bodegas Luberri) and Milflores (Bodegas Palacio) among those modern young Rioja reds.

Luberri is made by the semicarbonic maceration method, as in Beaujolais, but the maceration of Milflores - Milflores means thousand flowers - is achieved by sinking the skins into the must with a grid. There are some other differences betwen cosecheros, and every cosechero pretends his method is the best... Should you expect it to be otherwise?.

Since about five years ago, young reds are made not only in Rioja, but all around in Spain. Among my favourites I would mention, "El vino de los Cónsules the Roma" (Bodegas Pérez Caramés) from D.O. Bierzo, in the Northwest, made with the native Mencía grape. The name may seem a little bit pretentious ("The wine of roman Consuls"), especially for a young wine, but you should take into account that the main gold mining resources of the Roman Empire were in El Bierzo. In La Mancha, Castillo de Alhambra (Vinícola de Castilla), fermented in turning horizontal vats, has an unbeatable price, and in the recent D.O. Tacoronte-Acentejo (Canary Islands), the former winemaker of Vinícola de Castilla, responsible for Castillo de Alhambra, has produced Viña Norte, with the native variety Listán Negro, worth trying the next time you spend your hollidays there.

All these three young reds search for intense aroma and lightness, following Beaujolais style, but the young Spanish red I find more close to Beaujolais in style is the Viñas del Vero Tempranillo, from D. O. Somontano: Well dressed, but not in black; intensely perfumed (fruity, flowery, creamy...), and with a light approach in the mouth: no tanin, no muscle, yet savory. You can find here a real Beaujolais style wine but with the tasty characteristics that make it more than just a flashy, flattering perfume.

You may wonder why these wines are mentioned, but only Viñas del Vero is described in some detail. I have to say that currently - at the end of November - only Viñas del Vero and Fariña Primero are on the selves of the wineshops. But maybe that will change soon, because one of the most interesting young red wine experiences is that Fariña Primero.

Manuel Fariña adds up to 80% of D.O. Toro. Even though his basic wines are the oaked reds Gran Colegiata, his innitiatives range to the first sweet botrytised white wine in Spain - not yet fully successful - to a sweet red wine - not yet in the market -. After some experiments, in 1995, he launched a new red "Fariña Primero", you may have guessed that Primero means primeur. The wine is made by the semicarbonic maceration method, as the Beaujolais.

The result can not be as light and French as Viñas del Vero, in Toro D.O. the weather is much hotter, average temperature is 13,5º C, and if you consider that winters there are pretty cold, summers cannot be but hellishly hot. The wine is intensely colored, but far from opaque, intensely flavored with the typical aroma of carbonic maceration, and in the mouth you can feel the 13% strength and some concentration, though you will find no bone, the wine is drinkable from the first day in the bottle.

The wine saw light in 1995, aided by Mururoa atomic experiences: The Dutch importer of Mr. Fariña asked him to make a Beaujolais style wine, he accepted the challenge, as he had made some experiences in previous years. So he made a batch, sent the Dutch importer 50% of it, and distributed the other 50% in Spain. After some weeks on the shelves, the Dutch importer asked him for more, but Manuel was aware you should not put all your eggs in one basket, and answered he should wait 'till next year. Clever was he the importer! He designed a label that hided the name of the wine and winemaker, creating a dependence for distribution...

1996 vintage, has seen light with a Fariña Primero new label, far more attractive, and with the most inteligent advertising campaign you could think of. The hot climate of Toro makes sure maturation in early September, but Spanish young wines usually reach the market in January, February, even after Easter: it was considered somewhat suspicious by the traditional consumer to see wines of the same vintage as current year. But the first steps of Beaujolais in Spain, and its early arrival, have prepared a segment of Spanish wine enthusiasts for this wine, that has been released in early November, the date when a vino primero is supposed to reach the market.

I was fortunate enough to taste the 1995 and 1996 vintages together some days ago. Sure! it is the simplest vertical tasting you may think of. The 1995 had lost the intense flowery perfume of 1996 vintage, and had changed its character, but it was absolutely delicious and did not show any sign of being faded out, and in the mouth it showed perfect roundness. Still, for us, the aim of young wines is to appear as soon as possible letting wine enthusiasts to enjoy in advance their evident, easy charms, and working in contrast to long aged, mature wines, usually drunk in the colder seasons.

That is why we think that under the moto "In September at the vineyard, in November at your glass", Fariña Primero 1996 has made more for young Spanish wines than centuries of tradition. Pity that Mr. Fariña cannot refrain from writing in the back label "It will develop very well in the bottle during two years". Though it may be the plain truth.

{Originally written Nov 1996, published on the Web Jan 1997}

Our special thanks to the Slow Food organization who put together this great article. {J.Riis}