I sat down yesterday to write this article, but I could not. The reason is golf, or to be more accurate, the Careys Golf Society trip to Mount Juliet. As I sat at my desk on Saturday, the day after the trip, I stared blankly at the screen and waited for the words to pour out. Unfortunately I could not hear them for the pounding in my head and the strange noises echoing in my stomach. Arthur Guinness, you are no friend of mine. It’s been a long time since I had a hangover ( good wine gives you strength ), but this one was a humdinger, or as Bob Dylan might say, a folksinger. All I could manage was a lazy blog entry with photos from the day and a very funny video of Robin Williams describing how the Scots invented golf. Have a look at www.rednosewine.com/blog if you are bored enough to hear about my great birdie on the 10th. Much thanks to Mr. O Flaherty for his very accurate club choice. Anyway, onto the wine.

To be honest, I am still trying to figure out what to write about as I type this. The inspiration will arrive any minute now. Hear it comes, and we will talk about…Spain. Where did this choice come from? At some stage in the post golf celebrations in Careys, my brother in law Kevin showed me a photograph of himself and tennis superstar Raphael Nadal on his phone. He met him in the Chicago airport on a recent business trip. I am glad to confirm that by all accounts he was a gentleman and very happy to chat. It’s nice when famous people are friendly. To add to the Hello magazine moment, on the connecting flight from London to Cork, Denis Leamy sat down beside him and they talked rugby all the way home. I doubt they discussed Spanish wine, but I will make amends for them both. I work with a great Spanish importer who has much of the same beliefs as I do for quality winemaking. You won’t see the big brand wines on show with Raphael and Alvaro ( they are Spanish themselves ), but you will see the superstar winemakers that are lauded in Spain and all over the world. Their stable, and consequently mine, include Telmo Rodriguez, Alvaro Palacios, Emilio Moro and Martin Codex, among others. Pick up a wine magazine or browse any website on Spanish wine and these names are regularly featured.

Kevin & Nadal

For many of us, myself included for a long time, when someone mentioned Spanish wine, we thought of Rioja. This rich, oaky wine made from the Tempranillo grape has long been an Irish favourite. My wife raved about it as a student when she trekked through northern Spain on the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, the ancient pilgrim walk in the footsteps of Saint James. They would arrive onto small villages and less than a euro would buy them a jug of local heaven. These wines rarely leave their village and it is big brands that definitely lead the way in the market place. However, I would always think you need to be conscious of the price quality ratio with Rioja. Just as with Cotes du Rhone, there is a lot of rubbish out there. There are different types of Rioja, depending on your penchant for oak. Classic or basic Rioja will have less than a year in oak. Crianza will have at least 2 years ageing, 12 months of this in oak. Reserva should have 3 years ageing, and again at least 1 year in oak. The Grand Reserva wines have 2 years in oak. The more the oak, in general the more power you need to tame. Decanting is a must for the longer wines, and that rich chocolate style is most pronounced, albeit after several hours open, in these monsters. You really need food with the bigger wines and decanting is a necessity. There are some modern winemakers, Telmo Rodriguez included, who are abandoning the traditional rules and classifying complex and serious wines as basic Rioja, allowing them to do what they want and in terms of oaking. His Lanzaga wine, which has long been popular in Red Nose Wine, is a perfect example of this. This is very complex and beats most Grand Reserva wines on the quality front, but is only classified as a basic Rioja. There has been some movement to bring the Reserva wines down to affordable levels, and we were delighted to come across the very drinkable Baron de Ley Reserva for only 16.50 Euros. This is an absolute steal for a wine of such quality, and it has awards coming out of its proverbial cork.

Kevin & Denis Leamy and some strange hypnotic woman in the seat behind

There are other regions and grape varieties in Spain other than Rioja and its famous grape, Tempranillo. Among them are the gorgeous whites made from the exciting Albarino, as well as Tempranillo’s other famous wine, Ribera del Duero. Emilio Moro is one the true superstars here. However, arguably the most exciting region lies above Barcelona in an area called Priorat. Alvaro Palacios has almost singularly handed created an icon wine from an unheralded area. Much like Áime Guibert did with Mas de Daumas Gassac all those years ago, Mr. Palacios has created a wine that is heralded all over the world, yet comes from a region not historically regarded for fine wine.

His icon wine is called L’Ermita and sells for serious money – I am too embarrassed to even write down the price. I stock his second wine, Les Terrasses and it recently won the award for the best Spanish red wine in Ireland. This is a serious wine. I had the great ‘pleasure’ of dropping a case of it a few months back. There were only 2 bottles broken, but considering that it is a wine that is actually hard to get an allocation of, this was a big deal. I was not impressed with my butter fingers.

As with all great wine regions, there are wines for everyone, and at all prices. As well as all of these icon wines, you can really get great wines for great prices in Spain. There is value to be had under 10 Euros and there is even better value at that 11-15 euro mark. There are really top wines with lots of forward fruit and easy drinking elegance. I have been talking with Alvaro about doing a proper Spanish wine tasting and once we have the much heralded Gassac tasting out of the way, we will put plans in place. Watch this space. By the way, the title for the article came from my first family holiday abroad. My father brought us on a JWT package holiday to Torremolinos on the Costa de Sol. It was one of those self catering apartment complexes by the beach. You had the battle the Germans for the best poolside sun bed each morning – I know it’s a cliché but it was true. Every night there would be some cabaret and we could hear the music as the bar terrace was directly under our room. This was great fun the first night, but we soon realised that the music went on until about 2.30am every night. The last song was always “Viva L’Espagna” and how we cheered when it finally came on, bleary eyed and exhausted. I have no doubt Spanish holidays have evolved and there is no doubt Spanish wine has. I still hate the song though.

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“Life is much too short to drink bad wine”