Is there a "Spanish palate" ?

A few years back there was a lot of talk about the differences between
the 'British Palate' and the American one.
I recall it was brought to a head when Jancis Robinson and Robert Parker
scored the 2003 Pavie very differently.
Then there was a lot of discussion about each country having different preferences.

Now aside from the very silly notion you can stereotype a nation like that, is there also a "Spanish palate"? So what follows is a generalisation and more importantly a request for opinions not a statement of fact.

It seems to me that Spanish wine making has changed a lot over the past 20 years.
Wines are more purple, more fruity, more extracted, and while (new) oak is a big factor they are not oaked for the same periods as before. In short they taste very different - at least on release. I'm not suggesting the newer style wines won't evolve into very interesting wines.
I don't know to be honest.

I recently drank a Pago de Carraovejas 2006. I have tried other vintages of this and liked them. This wine was smothered in oak. It was like licking a plank of wood.
I was amazed to see it receive very high scores on the Verema tasting note section.
I'm not for a moment saying those tasters were 'wrong' but there was no mention of (too much)oak. Also there were not reviews critical of the wine style. So do people not post ctitical tasting notes or is there nothing to criticise?

There seems to be a very high tolerance of oak and exhuberant fruit. This seems so different from wines in the 70's for example.
What has brought about the change in tastes?
When you taste in tasting groups is there generally a preference for the fruitier style?
Is there a 'Spanish palate'? and does it favour this style of wine?

Buff... it's a bit difficult to answer this question Ray. At first we'd have to define de sample. As you know the veremites are only an extremely short (and odd) set of drinkers of the whole. Even a look inside Verema you see that there're some different streams, with different kind of palates. Many drinkers are full-oak-tolerant, some others reject that kind of wines. It also depends, in my opinion, on drinker maturity. As much different wines somebody drink the palate moves and evolve. In my case I do not like the same kind of wines that I use to enjoy when I began years ago.
Well... my answer is no answer... :-/

Regards,

Jose

But José isn't there an answer in the range of wines in the market of a similar style?
And is that style not different to what was there 20years ago?

I certainly think the Spanish palate is in general relatively "oak-tolerant", and I wonder whether this may be because in the past the use of oak was associated with luxury (ie the traditional joven-crianza-reserva-GR distinction where more oak is supposed to equal a better wine). Obviously the use of oak is different, but...

And I don't think there is any wine-producing country in Mediterranean Europe where the overall style has changed so much in the pas. Everywhere winemakers make wine in accordance with "international" tastes, but nowhere has this affected the vast majority of wine produced, as in Spain.

It would be interesting to post this on the "busy side" of Verema. Unfortunately I'm kind of rushed off my feet at the moment as regards translating it!

You know that in my opinion there are zillons of wines made in the same style and only some individuals that really shine. Many things have changed in the last two decades. Methods, tastes and tasters and I dare that the first one head to the last to the kind of wine to drink. As of methods created a kind of wine drinkers embraced it as a new religion. It's not an attack to this kind of "new wines", but a fact when something new arrives. Many people were really tired of the kind of wine made in the rules of crianza-reserva-gran reserva or that old Rioja style...
Maybe the spanish palate, 20 years ago, was made for that kind of thin-crianza-reserva-gran-reserva-old-rioja-style... and I do really agree that nowadays we Spanish palate are really tolerant to oak, ripeness and (hyper)extraction...

Regards,

Jose

And this head to... Does exist a Brit-taste? or an italian taste? Or maybe the methods changed everywhere so (assuming) that wines are so similar everywhere we all have a common taste, isn't it? ;)

Regards,

Jose

We are all certainly a lot more knowledgeable about wines made in other parts of the world. But, even with the great increase in diversity in the Spanish market, and all the interest that there is in regions not previosuly known for their quality wine, personally I have to say that each year the proportion of my wines that are "made in Spain" gets a bit smaller. So maybe there are notable differences in tastes too?

But maybe you're right, and we are only a tiny minority....

We're an extremely tiny minority! ;) How many people do you know that drinks sherries? Hell! even not every-oenogeeks like them! =8-o

I don't know the percentage of spanish wine I drink or buy... but as I drink more different wines, from different regions I do decrease the overall percentage of all of them. Maybe less deeper, but broader. Mmm... well... ok... I have to admit that every year I drink less spanish wine and if so I try not to drink the overhyped.

Regards,

Jose