Transmitting Asturias through the two quintessential Asturian drinks: wine and cider. “The Manzanos have spent years defending the essence of Asturias through the kitchen, I had to do the same in the winery,” Juan Luis García Ruiz, sommelier at the Casa Marcial restaurant**, explained yesterday during the first master tasting at Madrid Fusión The Wine Edition Wines from Spain. The ciders have taken the initiative in a presentation that has made a tour of the most representative liquid jewels of Asturias by an expert in the field.
Accompanied by a professional pourer, who demonstrated how the aromas and flavors are reactivated when this traditional practice is carried out, the sommelier of Casa Marcial** demonstrated the possibilities of cider at the pairing level.
The morning continued with the Tierra de Sabor Award, awarded by the promotion brand of the Castilla y León agri-food sector in recognition of the most sustainable winery, according to the requirements established by the advisory board of Madrid Fusión The Wine Edition Wines from Spain. Bideona, the Rioja Alavesa project of Península Vinicultores, was the winner of this third edition of Madrid Fusión The Wine Edition Wines from Spain.
“We don’t usually get many awards because we don’t do visible things but things with conviction, which is why this recognition is so important to us,” said Andreas Kuback MW, CEO of Península Vinicultores when collecting the award. “The entire winery is conceived with the team’s conviction for sustainability, which goes far beyond anecdotal measures; This project was born for the conservation of the territory and the culture of the area, and this includes the economic and social part. As the English say, ‘you can’t be green if you’re in the red’, you can’t be green if you’re in the red”.
Half morning, Josep ‘Pitu’ Roca, sommelier and co-owner of El Celler de Can Roca***, offered attendees his vision of the “musicality” of wine in a tasting entitled “A furtive tear: the music of wine” and which was presented by ABC wine critic Pilar Cavero. During the second Vinomio of the congress, Fina Puigdevall and her three daughters, Clara, Martina and Carlota Puigvert, from the Restaurant Les Cols** in Olot (Girona), made an approach to the kitchen offered by the Puigdevall family farmhouse, a kitchen fused with the products that nature offers in the region of La Garrocha.
Granitic soils
Fernando Mora MW opened the afternoon in Madrid Fusión The Wine Edition Wines from Spain with an approach to the granite soils of Spain, to try to understand the furor that these wines cause in the current market. “There is a tendency to consider wines made from vines planted on granite land as especially fine and elegant wines, and this leads to interest from the best producers of the moment,” said the Master of Wine.
Mora selected for the occasion references from different geographical areas of Spain, to try to understand the particularities that granite soils contribute to the wine and to unravel the mysteries that surround this fascination. A walk through some of the wines from Spain’s granite soil through 6 references: Leirana Finca Genoveva (Forjas del Salnés Winery), As Sortes (Rafael Palacios Winery), Rozas (Comando G Winery), Lousas Rosende (Envínate Winery) , Can Matons Vinya Can Xec (Can Matons Winery) and El Canchorral (Viñas Serranas Winery).
Fernando Mora: “There is a tendency to consider wines made from vines planted on granite land as especially fine and elegant wines, and this leads to interest on the part of the best producers of the moment”
Based on these conclusions of the winemaker Pedro Parra and through tasting the selected wines, Fernando Mora MW explained what a granitic wine tastes like and why current winemakers pursue these characteristics: “They have austere aromas, something ethereal and herbaceous; They present a hard and frontal energy, with a mineral sensation and a hard, dry tannin. The fruit remains contained in general, this absence is part of the essence of granitic wines, but it is compensated by the nakedness on the palate”.
Tasting room
Viñas del Vero opened the day at the Madrid Fusion The Wine Edition Wines from Spain Tasting Room with the presentation of “Clarión, a white with history”, a tasting conducted by José Ferrer, Winemaker Manager of Viñas del Vero, the winery of González Byass in Somontano. Condado de Haza followed with the first historical tasting of Alenza. Olga Fernández, director of the Condado de Haza wineries, Lucía Pascual and Rodrigo Pons, winemakers and technical directors of the wineries, took the reins of this vintage tasting.
The gastronomic harmonies arrived with the presentation “Diversity in pairing”, by wine professionals from Makro Spain: Víctor Ballesta, national wine buyer, Íñigo Lavado, consultant chef, Rubén Palomares, winemaker from the wine department, and José Maria Lopez, sommelier.
The sensory journey of the pairings continued with a tour of the wines of the Valdecuevas winery, accompanied by the recipes of Chispa Bistró (Madrid). Antonio Nieto Villasante, oenologist of the Valdecuevas Group in the D.O. Rueda, made this paired tasting with Juan D’Onofrio and Gabriel Sodré, chefs of the Madrid restaurant.
Almudena Alberca MW captured all the attention of the afternoon with a tour of the Zarcillo Awards, one of the great international wine competitions organized by the Junta de Castilla y León since 1991. “30 years of history in the world of wine”, through its winners.
