Favourite wines of 2024: Part two
Finca Meixeman 2020
Spanish Wine Collective writers reflect on some favourite bottles they uncorked in 2024. Bill Bolloten enjoyed bottles from Galicia and Catalonia.
Adegas Guímaro - Finca Meixeman 2020
80% Mencía, 20% Brancellao, Merenzao, Garnacha, Mouratón, Negreda and Sousón
DO Ribeira Sacra
€26.40 from Decántalo (2021 vintage)
I was completely blown away by this single-vineyard blend from winemaker Pedro Rodríguez in Ribeira Sacra. The grapes, from one of his oldest plots, are hand-harvested and foot-trodden before fermentation with wild yeasts. Exhuberant and perfumed with aromas of red and black berries, earth and forest floor. A seductive and elegant wine that seemed to express everything about its origins in the steep river terraces of the Sil river.
Aspriu 2015
Celler Pardas - Aspriu 2015
Xarel·lo
DO Penedès
€47.90 from Bodeboca
2024 was the year I really got into the flagship variety of Penedès, and became a confirmed ‘Xarel·lista’. Known as part of the classic blend in Cava, Xarel·lo has now come into its own as a grape for still white wines. This stunning cuvée confirms how well the variety can age. The Aspriu has boundless complexity and depth. There’s orchard fruit, citrus, wild herbs, minerals, a thrilling acidity and infinite length that keeps you going back for another taste. I drank this with friends, but I need to find another bottle to unlock its mysteries in solo contemplation
For Catalonia contributor Alan Nance, drinking wine in 2024 was time well spent.
Supping a glass of wine the other night, I came across some words written over a century ago by the American novelist and journalist, Jack London: The proper function of man is to live, not to exist. I shall not waste my days in trying to prolong them. I shall use my time.
In part, these words resonate as I am on the cusp of a new life decade, the seventh. Yet they also speak to how wine, whether savoured alone in quiet contemplation or, especially, shared with others, has the capacity to fill us with the joy of living. So here are just two of the many wines that have evoked joy over the past year, wines that left me feeling that I had used my time well.
Textures de Pedra 2019
Raventós i Blanc Textures de Pedra 2019
Conca del Riu Anoia
€30.70 from Enterwine (for the 2020)
A top Catalan sparkler from the family who practically invented Cava and then were among the first to leave the DO when it became a synonym for volume over quality. A delicious Blanc de Noirs made from Xarel·lo Vermell, Sumoll and Bastard Negre (the latter a local name for Graciano). There's stone, red fruit, wild herb, and so much else to discover if you make it your companion across a long evening (more than one bottle, obviously). And I recommend that this is what you do, for this is a fine-bubble sparkler that is delicious from the off but which will befriend a whole host of dishes at your table. But don't serve it too cold, as otherwise you'll mask the complex aromas and flavours.
El teu mar, les meves muntanyes 2022
Còsmic Vinyaters & Yoyo – El teu mar, les meves muntanyes 2022
€31.95 from Jaume Jordà (for the 2023)
Your sea, my mountains, a wine named for the dialogue between two producers separated by a border that for some is not a border. Salvador Batlle of Còsmic Vinyaters in the Alt Empordà region of Catalonia offers up his three Cariñenas (red, white and grey), while Yoyo (aka Laurence Krief) from Banyuls (administratively France, but culturally Catalunya Nord) contributes her three Garnachas (red, white and grey) . There may be salt from the sea and stone from the mountain at the heart of this wine, yet it leads with the bright red fruit you'd expect to encounter with Garnacha. A cross-border collaboration to create something shared and beautiful, which given the state of the world, is something that I, for one, long to see more of.