New Wave Spanish Wine Awards 2009

This tasting took place yesterday at The Worx in Parsons Green. On show were a selection of 110 Spanish wines which to qualify had to be either imported into the UK or be shown at the Wines from Spain annual generic tasting.

The Cantosan Brut sparkling Verdejo from Grupo Yllera offers fantastic value at £5.99 and is a good alternative to Cava. (See Jancis Robinson's comments on the same here.)

Getariako Txakolina Getaria 2008 is an interesting Basque wine which comes in an Alsace-shaped bottle. Made from indigenous Basque grape varieties, it is slightly Pinot Gris-ish, has a little residual sugar and is only 11% abv. Moving from the eastern to the western side of northern Spain, Galician producer Bodegas Docampo's Vina do Campo is also Alsatian in character and also refreshingly low in alcohol (12%). At £9.95 it is very fairly priced.

The judges (chaired by Tim Atkin MW) seem to have looked for varietal typicity when awarding best of category. The Best White Under £10 went to Castrocelta Albarino 2008, a classic Albarino with tons of apple and green melon. Best Value White was awarded to Frutos Villar's Maria de Molina 2008, clean and crisp citrus flavours and a pronounced nose - outstanding value at £5.99. Best Red Under £10 went to the Luna Beberide Mencia 2007, two years old but still a vivid purple colour and equally young-tasting, with a palate of zippy red cherries.

Some of the reds, especially those from the more traditional regions, were disappointingly over-oaked and tannic. A refreshing exception was Can Rafols dels Caus' Gran Caus 2001, a deep garnet-coloured 'Bordeaux on steroids' with really concentrated fruit (and a lot of sediment in the bottle). Pretty good value at £15.99. Ochoa's Vendimia Seleccionada 2001 was garnet coloured, with a vegetal claret-like nose and some good fruit on the palate (but will it keep much longer?) A Pinot Noir from Ronda was predictably baked and showed why Andalucia's climate is just too harsh for thin-skinned Pinot Noir.

As to price, there seemed to be quite a few good value wines in the up-to-£15 bracket, but in the £30-50 range I would generally have wanted more for my money. There still seems to be a line of thought in Spanish winemaking that quality is directly related to the amount of new oak used. It seems to me that oak should never be used as a flavour component in its own right, but rather to compliment the all-important primary fruit character. If it overpowers the fruit, it is not doing its job.

In the small fortifieds section there was a lovely Moscatel de Grano Menudo (aka Muscat a Petits Grains) from Bodegas Camilo Castilla and a fantastic, delicate Palo Cortado from Fernando de Castilla (which, incidentally, was also the Best Wine of Show and Best Dry Sherry!)