Wine of the week

Bill Bolloten visits a gastronomy fair in Madrid, eats a lot of canned seafood, and discovers a Mediterranean Syrah full of lively fruit.

Pago Casa Gran Syrah 2023 (Pago Casa Gran)

D.O. València

Variety: 100% Syrah

ABV: 13%

€9.50 directly from Pago Casa Gran

These weren’t your standard tinned mussels, they were the off the charts delicious mejillones picantes en escabeche (mussels in a spicy pickled sauce) from Tito Conservas, a family business in Vilagarcía de Arousa in Galicia.

I was at the 37th edition of Salón Gourmets in Madrid in April, and it seemed I had entered a tasting vortex of conservas, the canned seafood delicacies beloved by the Spanish and Portuguese alike.

For three days I dived into sampling Spain’s astonishingly diverse gastronomy: cheeses from all parts of the country, cured meats, morcilla from Burgos, extra virgin olive oils from Córdoba and Jaén, condiments and salsas, and much more. My own village in the Sierra de Huelva, Jabugo, was well represented by several top jamón de bellota producers, such as La Jabugueña.

But I’m here to talk about wine, right? So which wines at Salón Gourmets caught my attention? 

There were several. One was the newly-released Manzanilla en rama Salicornia (15% ABV) from Bodegas Barbadillo. This is the first organic Manzanilla on the market and part of Barbadillo’s ecológico range Cielo, Tierra y Mar (Sky, Earth and Sea). With three years of ageing in a new solera that was started in 2020, it has that classic briny pungency, balanced with roundness and a delicate savoury edge.

Santa Petronila is smallest sherry bodega in the Marco De Jerez. From the range of wines sampled, I was wowed by the Fino Flor de Macharnudo En Rama (15.5% ABV). This is a superb Fino, made in small quantities (800 bottles a year) from 35-year-old Palomino Fino vines. It’s fermented in oak casks and aged under flor for over five years, before bottling without filtering. Pale gold in colour, saline, yeasty, complex and very expressive. It had freshness, verve and energy.

I liked all the wines I tasted at the stand of Pago Casa Gran, an estate in the Las Alcuzas valley in the Terres dels Alforins region in Valencia, where the focus is on terroir-focused, artisan, organic Mediterranean wines. And their surprising fruit-driven single-variety 2023 Syrah (13% ABV) is our wine of the week.

Syrah vines cover only around 2% of the total vineyard area in Spain. The climate tends to produce high alcohol, big-bodied wines with this variety that are generally used in blends.

Yet this Syrah wasn’t overripe or jammy. It felt pure and transparent; a naked Syrah made with a careful extraction and no oak ageing. With a nose bursting with blackberries and blueberries, it was bright and supple with rounded tannins. A juicy, agile, refreshing wine that would be a perfect chillable red for summer drinking.

Did I mention conservas? I urge you not to miss these tiny jurel en escabeche (horse mackerel) by Conservas Ramón Franco if you see them.