Best of Spanish Wines: Author's Choice

When our Guest writer Gerry Dawes was asked by a magazine editor to write about the Top Thirty Spanish Wines, you can rest assured that our 'Wine Taliban ' would not be talking of the powerful and bold Spanish wines with a lot of oak. Here are his picks of the Alternate Top Wines instead .

Top Thirty: When my editor at Santé asked me to do a piece on some thirty top Spanish wines, I immediately realized that among the top thirty wines according to conventional wisdom were few wines that would make my personal top thirty list, which includes wines ranging from Catalan Cavas, whites from Galicia and Rueda, Navarra rosados, unoaked young reds from Bierzo, a few of the more restrained new-wave red wines and a blossoming genre of dessert wines from the Mediterranean coast, Navarra, Andalucia and the Canary Islands. Furthermore, my recent experiences with Spanish wines suggest that most wine drinkers are much happier drinking the wines on my list, than doing mortal combat with so-called blockbuster monsters that reap all the kudos in both the American and Spanish press.

But, before I get to the wines I will be recommending, most of which will be well worth the wait, a long simmering rant is in order. Over the past several years, I have developed a love-hate relationship with Spanish wines. I love drinking Spanish wines that show elegance, nice ripe (but not overripe) fruit, balance, style, charm, and even terroir and go very well with food; I hate tasting and, especially, drinking many of the new wave of opaque black, jammy, low acid, alcoholic wines that are often lashed with enough new oak to start a lumber yard.

Albariño grapes at Do Ferreiro in Rías Baixas.

The Wine Taliban: The latter, if anecdotal evidence from many sommeliers, restaurateurs, veteran wine writers and even winemakers is reliable, many of these wines, despite their hefty price tags, are often left with a third to half a bottle on the table when the meal is finished. After tasting such wines for articles, I continue sipping them with dinner. I usually find that myself, my tasting companion, my assistant and many of my friends can barely finish a glass, if that, before switching to a wine that is more harmonious not only with the food, but with promoting good humor. I have been accused of being a wine Taliban, defending every last Spanish classic to the bitter end. Not so. I merely like good, well-balanced wines that are not overwhelmed with overripe blackberry jam, alcoholic heat (and its accompanying effects) and palate-scouring new oak. The wines I like complement food, be they modern styles or fifty-year old jewels from La Rioja.

Read the rest of the article and others by Gerry Dawes on the Indian Wine Academy website.

About the author

Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine.

Mr. Dawes is currently working on a reality television

series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain.

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Culinary Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com; Alternate e-mail (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@hotmail.com

Navarra: A Spanish Kingdom's Wines Wear the Versatility Crown

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Text & Photographs by Gerry Dawes©2008

Immortalized in the Middle Ages in the French poem Chanson de Roland (whose legendary setting is in the hills above the Pyreneen village of Roncesvalles); its capital Pamplona made famous the world over in the 1920s by Ernest Hemingway in The Sun Also Rises; and again in the 1960s by James A. Michener in Iberia, beautiful, rugged and evocative Navarra is arguably Spain's most versatile wine region.

Located in mountainous north central Spain, Navarra is hemmed to the north by the Pyrenees (and France) to the north/northwest by Basque Country, to the west/southwest by La Rioja and to the east/southeast by Aragón, a climatic range that includes high mountains, green northern zones, the arid Ebro River basin in the south and a desert called Bardenas Reales. These varied climatic influences, which include very important temperate zones provide a breadth of truly great winemaking potential.

Chardonnay at Chivite's Arinzano Estate

Several of its wineries have proven just that: Its first-rate Chardonnays are among the finest in Spain; garnacha-based rosados rank with the best in the world; the cream of Navarra's Bordeaux- and Rioja-style wines (especially from bodegas such as Julián Chivite) stand alongside many of Spain’s most distinguished reds; and late harvest moscatels — Aliaga, Chivite and Ochoa to name three — are counted among the most delicious dessert wines in the country. Navarra even boasts a stunningly good, little-known, old-fashioned vino rancio known as Capricho de Goya that rates in the high 90s on nearly everyone's point scale.

Bodegas Camilo Castilla

Wines have been made here since the Roman occupation, as evidenced in southern Navarra along the Ebro River by the remains of several wineries, such as the one at Funes, that date back more than 2,000 years. In the Middle Ages, Navarra was a sprawling kingdom that included Bordeaux, French Navarre, parts of La Rioja, portions of the Basque Country (mountainous northern Navarra and Pamplona, called Iruña in Basque) and Aragón.

Roman Winery at Funes in Southern Navarra

Navarra's importance was vital in establishing the Camino de Santiago pilgrimage route that buttressed the Christian frontier, especially in the 12th and 13th centuries, when Cistercian monks arrived to establish monasteries and plant vineyards all around northern Spain.

Chardonnay at Chivite's Arinzano Estate

Several of its wineries have proven just that: Its first-rate Chardonnays are among the finest in Spain; garnacha-based rosados rank with the best in the world; the cream of Navarra's Bordeaux- and Rioja-style wines (especially from bodegas such as Julián Chivite) stand alongside many of Spain’s most distinguished reds; and late harvest moscatels — Aliaga, Chivite and Ochoa to name three — are counted among the most delicious dessert wines in the country. Navarra even boasts a stunningly good, little-known, old-fashioned vino rancio known as Capricho de Goya that rates in the high 90s on nearly everyone's point scale.

Bodegas Camilo Castilla

Read the rest to this 5,000-word article.

About the author

Gerry Dawes was awarded Spain's prestigious Premio Nacional de Gastronomía (National Gastronomy Award) in 2003. He writes and speaks frequently on Spanish wine and gastronomy and leads gastronomy, wine and cultural tours to Spain. He was a finalist for the 2001 James Beard Foundation's Journalism Award for Best Magazine Writing on Wine.

Mr. Dawes is currently working on Mr. Dawes is currently working on a reality television series on wine, gastronomy, culture and travel in Spain..

Experience Spain With Gerry Dawes: Culinary Trips to Spain & Travel Consulting on Spain

Gerry Dawes can be reached at gerrydawes@aol.com Alternate e-mails (use only if your e-mail to AOL is rejected): gerrydawes@optonline.net or gerrydawes@hotmail.com