The Spanish Palate
La Guía Peñin is Spain’s most comprehensive Spanish Wine guide. I’ve been invited to some of their tastings in Madrid and I’m on their mailing list, for more tastings and for news updates etc. It’s useful, though I’m frustrated that I just don’t have the time to attend all of their tastings – the ones I’ve been to have been excellent!
Recently, I received, not an invitation to taste, but some news – good news in fact, about the wines made by my friends at Spanish Palate SL (www.spanishpalate.es/). Regular readers may remember my writing about this Spanish company, founded by my friend, Nicola Thornton, a Sheffield lass whose only association with stainless steel is the various wine making vats here in the country she has also made her home! You can read my article from 2017 here: www.colinharknessonwine.com/spanish-palatefrench-negociant-conceptcomes-spain/
The Peñin Guide has just voted a range of their wines (see below) to be amongst the best price/value wines on Spain!
Put in a nutshell (though the business is growing so well I really should say that it needs more of a coconut shell than a walnut to describe it!) Nicola and her Spanish business partner Álvaro Martín’s Spanish Palate business is similar to that of a French Négociant, with a Spanish/Sheffield spin!
A French Négociant is a wine merchant who assembles the produce of smaller growers and winemakers and sells the result under its own name. Négociants buy everything from grapes, to grape must, to wines in various states of completion. In the case of grapes or must, the Négociant performs virtually all the winemaking.
In the case of Spanish palate Nicola and Álvaro also travel the country looking for smaller producers who are firstly, making quality wines; secondly, making them with passion with sustainability at the forefront of their planning; and thirdly who are looking to spread their message, and of course their wines, further.
I haven’t asked them, so I don’t know which is their favourite part of the business, but I know that they share the passion of their bodega ‘partners’ about making fine wine, so I would guess that the best part for them is making their own range of wines. The range which goes under the brand name of Muddy Boots, or in Spanish, Botas de Barro.
I don’t recall the year of the wines I tasted for the article archived as above, though my guess would be that it was 2015/16. I was impressed with the wines then, so I was delighted when Nicola contacted me asking would I like an update on the portfolio, in the form of some samples of the 2017 and 2018 vintage. I jumped at the opportunity of course!
These days one might look upon the grape variety Verdejo as the common denominator of restaurant house wines in Spain – so many have it on their lists. With some Sauvignon Blanc like characteristics it’s fresh, aromatic and fruity. Verdejo ticks plenty of boxes and the Muddy Boots version, from DO Rueda, as you might imagine, though its popularity means that it is now grown in several other areas in Spain, as well as internationally, is just what you want! Refreshing, with some slightly under ripe kiwi aromas, gooseberry too, perfectly fresh plus a little floral herby note too.
I was particularly keen to try the Muddy Boots wine from Almansa – made with a very unusual variety, in that it’s flesh is also coloured, it was the favourite wine of the tasting in the article above. I wondered how this new vintage would compare. Also, I’ve recently tasted a couple of wines from DO Almansa, concluding that it is an area of production on the up! Garnacha Tintorera is the variety and as you can imagine the colour is intense – opaque when in the glass. It’s fruity too, a hallmark of the whole portfolio – blackberries with a little toasty smoke from it’s 3 months in oak.
It makes commercial sense that a Rioja is included in the range, but this would only be the case if the team was able to create one that met their demanding criteria. Their Tempranillo does just that. It’s had twice as long in oak, but this doesn’t at all means that it’s wood first, fruit second. The oak does add flavour and aroma but its plums with a faint hint of loganberry that we pick up first. There vanilla notes plus some earthy undergrowth references. Good Rioja!
Jumilla is an area that doesn’t seem to get that much attention, despite it producing some top wines. Muddy Boot’s Jumilla red is made with Monastrell, well what else – the queen of varieties in SE Spain. I love this variety, called Murviedre in France and other countries, but a wholly Spanish variety. You can expect damsons here, with just a faint reference to dark chocolate on the finish – a touch like a choccy liqueur!
Some of the oldest vineyards in the whole world are to be found in Toro, where, when she’d not travelling, you’ll also find Nicola, who has made this area her family home. There is no doubt that Nicola has done DO Toro a great service in promoting its wines for many years, working as she did as the export director of two major wineries before starting her own business. Nicola has long championed the dark, big yet subtle red wines made with Tinta de Toro, the local name for Tempranillo.
Dark berry flavours, a floral note too, some dark and lighter cherries all making up the mouthful. Nicely structured, it’s a wine that demands you take another sip, albeit that the finish of the first is as long as you like!
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