SWA 2011: REST OF SPAIN - WHITE - ROSE
Rest of Spain: White/Rose
A somewhat muted performance after the high medal count of last year, with the much-vaunted Galicia, in particular, something of a disappointment in 2011
Spanish whites tend to inhabit the ‘fresh and cheap’ end of the wine list and, on this evidence, that’s where they belong. Our tasters were generally lukewarm to most of what they found and saw value for money rather than absolute quality as the main driver.
‘For the price, I think there are one or two very good-value, easy-drinking wines here. They would be good with a few tapas but nothing too complicated,’ said Xavier Chapelou.
In the past, this has been a more dynamic category but its generally underwhelming performance this year was largely down to the feeble performance by Spain’s best-known white region, Galicia, and its best-known quality white grape, Albariño.
This is a style that has grown massively in popularity over the last decade and, sadly, it shows. Wines little better than First Division were charging Premiership prices.
‘There were a couple that I would be happy to put on my wine list but not at this price,’ lamented Gergely Szabo. ‘They were pleasant, but not that pleasant.’
While Galicia picked up four medals last year, it managed only one Bronze this year. Fortunately, Rueda – arguably the country’s only other well-known white DO – fared far better, providing two good Golds. The Marqués de la Concordia Verdejo was singled out by Sara Bachiorri for the way it combined value and quality with complexity and fresh aromatics. ‘This would be a good entry-level wine, either as an aperitif or with simple seafood and starters,’ she said. Laurent Chaniac, meanwhile, was a fan of the Naiades. ‘On the list at £50–60, it would be a hand-sell,’ he admitted, ‘but it’s a very good-quality wine.’
While there was little in this category that was actively bad, there were few wines that were terribly exciting either bar the two Golds, And many of the attempts at more ambitious creations fell flat, usually because of a rather heavy-handed use of oak. Although, it could be worth exploring the Godellos of the North-West.
Meanwhile, the few rosés sent in were a disaster. After sardonically surveying one offering the colour of dental mouthwash, Team Leader Sarah Jane Evans MW commented, with far more acidity than was present in any of the wines, ‘if one of these guys chose to put this on his list, he would lose his job on the spot for that alone.’
“The acidity was missing from the Albariños – it was disappointing. And they were quite expensive". Alvaro Marcos Garcia, Home House
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