What makes a Spanish wines club

Several main countries of wines have a private association of main producers. France does not bother because it has a long history of official classifications, at least in Bordeaux. But Germany has the VDP (Verband Deutscher Prädikatsweingüter), an association dating from the early twentieth century of many of the best producers. Italy’s counterpart is much younger.

The isituto Grandi Marchi (great brands) did not form until 2004. Producers known as Antinori, Ca ‘del Bosco and Masi gather to put tastings, both in Italy and abroad, and spread the culture of Italian wine.

The Spanish counterpart is great payments of Spain (GPE), founded by the deceased Carlos Falcó to promote her homonymous marquis of Griñón is south of Madrid and another four in Castilla. In 2004 he had expanded from Castile to become a national association with 12 members. Twenty years later he has 34.

While the Italians concentrate on commercial reputation (and some of those Italian brands in the isituto are quite large and geographically widely extended), the Spanish association has to do with specificity. GPE members must be producers of a single state dedicated to express Terroir.

Like VDP, GPE claims to have internal controls that standards continue to comply. Part of the GPE mission, in addition to preserving the tradition and excellence Spanish viticulture, is to exchange information, particularly technical information, among the producers, which seems to me a good idea. Currently, 26 of the 34 members cultivate organically (13 of them organic certificates) and three follow biodynamic principles, two of them certified biodynamics.

If you look up pay In a Spanish dictionary, they told him what it means “to pay”, but in a context of wine, the word means a special vineyard. In 2003, the Spanish authorities, with a strong stimulus of Falcó, created a special category, wine, a wine from a particular terroir.

Something confusingly, payment wines and GPE members overlap, but they are not identical, to the extent that GPE is even considering changing their name. While a payment wine must come from a single vineyard, the wines of the GPE members do not have to do it. They can be a mixture of wines from several vineyards, provided that all those vineyards belong to the member.

GPE members arrived in London at the end of last year to show their wines and carry out master classes at West London’s Wines School near Chelsea Harbor. Only a few days earlier, the most famous wine journalist in Spain, Víctor de la Serna, had collapsed in his office in the world and then died at the age of 77, and wine producers at the meeting were still in shock.

A wine of each of the 34 members was shown and I tried them all, except the last one, the innocent Jerez de Valdepino, who already knew and admired. Therefore, it was quite appropriate for the wine of Finca Sandoval, the farm founded by De La Sernna in 1998 in the then well -known Manchuela region, it looked especially good in tasting.

Another of the 15 wines that I described at least 17 of 20 was the Marqués de Griñón 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon of the domain of Valdepusa payment founded by De la Serna’s friend, Falcó. Having almost half of the wines scored so highly suggests that the members of the great payments of Spain were well chosen and that the standards are generally maintained.

I marked five wines up to 16 of 20, four of them because they were too heavy and obviously excessive, the first three acts of imported French grapes: Clos d’A agon 2019 Catalan Mix of white wine grapes of the Rhône, the 2021 Colecioin de Castrezal de Castrezal de Castreze de Castreze de Castreze of 2021 of Pogo de Castizal of Castizal of 2021. Mancha.

Numanthia 2018 Toro Red was a particularly exaggerated version of the Spanish Tempranillo of a farm owned by LVMH. Surely a fresher recipe is made today.

The fifth, a greyhound 2023 Albariño de Fillaboa, seemed a bit more boring than many of his teammates. And I’m afraid I found Fuentes del Silencio, the 2020 jaras from northwest Spain, too Porty to give even 16 of 20.

Everything else gave the very respectable score of 16.5, although all my specific recommendations in the list that accompany this article won at least 17.5. My maximum score of 18.5 was to the creamy and complex white of Belondrade and Lurton de Rueda near Valladolid. It is clearly made of higher greenjo grapes, but it is quite a lot to the most sensitive use of high quality French oak.

But I was almost so excited about a foaming wine from the new member of great payments, high allella, a wine with the almost impossible name of Mirgin Opus, Parathge Qualificat Vallcirera 2019, so different from the typical possible cava. Who would have thought that such tension and taste depth could be grapes (60 percent of Chardonnay and 40 percent of the local white pansa, cultivated on the Costa Brava?

Aalto 2021 was a truly sophisticated Duero Ribera that I could already enjoy, but should have a satisfactory life.

Another favorite was the only wine in Mallorcan, distrust of the people who do not drink 2022 from Ribas, which, like many of these wines, was 15 percent of alcohol but delicious and beautifully balanced. In this case, it is no different from a large garnacha/garnacha.

“If we chose the local black mantle grapes with an alcohol potential of 14 percent, half of the grapes would be green since they mature so unequal,” said Javier Servera Ribas, whose family warehouse has one of the longest wine stories in Spain. The name is supposedly an appointment of Humphrey Bogart: “Palific people who do not drink.”

The great payments in no way is an integral collection of the best wines in Spain, but these wines certainly demonstrate what a varied treasure of great and not expensive wine that Spain now offers.

Tasting notes, scores and drinks of suggested drinks in purple pages of Jancisrobinson.com. International prints in Wine-searcher.com

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