Some wines at Salón Gourmets 2023
The 36th edition of Salón Gourmets, one of the largest events dedicated to food and beverage products in Europe, was celebrated last month at the IFEMA trade fair grounds in Madrid.
As well as a showcase for the best products in Spain, it’s also an important meeting place for professionals in the restaurant, catering and gastronomy sector.
The Spanish Wine Collective were there at the invitation of Naturcode, the leading Spanish smart labelling platform that uses QR codes to enable consumers to find out more about products than what is provided on traditional labels.
As the new European requirements for the labelling of alcoholic beverages are rolled out from 8 December 2023, Naturcode is working with a growing number of DOs, regional governments and individual bodegas to upgrade wine labels.
Salón Gourmets is an enormous event, spread over five huge pavilions with over 2,000 exhibitors, more than 55,000 products and 1,200 activities including cooking demonstrations and wine tastings. The whole of Spain’s astonishingly diverse gastronomy was on display: breads and patisserie, fruits and vegetables, cheeses, cured meats and jamones, olive oils, shellfish, legumes, condiments and salsas, nuts, dried fruit and much more.
The Túnel del Vino (wine tunnel) gathered together over 300 wines, 22 grape varieties and over 300 bodegas in one compact zone. Visitors received a glass and a notebook on entry to write down impressions of wines tasted.
Here are a few of the interesting wines tasted at Salón Gourmets.
Cogevientos 2020 (Bodegas Saura)
Bodegas Saura was founded in 2008 and makes wines from vines grown in small, terraced high altitude (780m to 1200m) plots in the Sierra de las Cabras, part of DO Bullas, the newest appellation in Murcia. Monastrell is the main local red variety, but there is also some Garnacha Tinta.
José María Vicente, the brilliant winemaker at Bodegas Casa Castillo, was involved in the early stages of the project.
I tasted the three wines in the current range, all of which had been fermented in traditional depósitos de piedra caliza (limestone tanks).
I particularly enjoyed the Cogevientos 2020 (14,5%), a coupage of Garnacha and Monastrell. It’s made with a mix of de-stemmed grapes and whole bunches, and aged in French oak for nine months.
Aromatic with notes of red and black fruit, fresh and fluid in the mouth, with a stony core. A lovely example of a modern Mediterranean wine. A beautifully-designed label too.
El Pasero (UCOPAXA)
The wines produced by UCOPAXA (La Unión de Cooperativas Paseras de la Axarquía) cooperative in the Axarquía region of Málaga (DO Sierras de Málaga) were all delicious and approachable expressions of the Moscatel de Alejandría variety.
The El Pasero (10,5%) is a sweet Moscatel, made with grapes from old vines, with no fortification with additional alcohol. It’s a traditional vino dulce de vendimia asoleada from the method of sun-drying grapes to achieve an ideal concentration of sugars before pressing and fermentation.
Chestnut brown with a complex nose with aromas of caramel, honey and dried fruit (raisins and dates). It was fragrant, silky and lightly sweet, and not at all cloying. A fine dessert wine to serve chilled.
Clos Ancestral 2021 (Familia Torres)
Since the early 1980s, Familia Torres have been working to recover ancestral varieties in DO Penedès, including the native variety Moneu. This grape has been receiving increasing attention, as global heating progresses, for its resistance to high temperatures and drought.
Moneu is part of the blend for Clos Ancestral (14%), along with Tempranillo and Garnacha Tinta. An organic wine with the elements of the blend fermented separately in stainless steel tanks, and then aged in second use French oak, inox and clay amphora.
A light red wine with a garnet hue. It was aromatic and perfumed with aromas of red currant and raspberry. Very fine and elegant.
Finca Zerezal Reserva 2020 (Viña Memorias)
Viña Memorias is a family-owned boutique winery located in DO Utiel-Requena, an area inland from the city of Valencia. You can read more about them and Spain’s heritage of Jewish winemaking in a piece we published last year.
The bodega seeks to capture the essence of Mediterranean wine from a high-altitude terroir and ancestral vines of the Bobal variety that is indigenous to Utiel-Requena.
In recent decades production in Utiel-Requena has shifted from bulk wine to bottlings aiming for quality. There are many superb expressions of Bobal now that are so drinkable with their freshness, good volume, red berries and ripe tannins.
The Finca Zerezal Reserva 2020 (14%) is made from a single parcel of old ungrafted vines, and demonstrates how well this variety can age. Aged for 18 months in American oak barrels followed by a further 18 months of bottle ageing. It was incredibly complex on the nose, with a concentrated palate of sweet, ripe black fruit, spices and liquorice, velvety richness and good structure. A really delicious and impressive wine.
