Blog del Dr. Enólogo Riojano Pablo Orio.

Botany is not a science; it’s the art to insult the flowers in Greek and Latin” Jean Baptiste Alphonse Karr.

Hello fellows and friends,

One more day and I am ready to write about something that attracted my attention these last few days.

In my last journey to Toro I was able to taste a wine Peñamonte Colección Privada 2008, which is delicious and represents the good job done with the Tinta de Toro and a good quality wood in which the back label read; crianza twenty months with a 200% of new barrels, I said this was wrong but they replied to me as follows;

The label is correct, what it means is that for its elaboration we have used new barrels and after a period of time another new barrel, therefore the 200%.

The explanation can be right but I believe it is more confusing rather than clarifying. Also, under my point of view, I think it would have been more convenient to use the French oak barrel first since it has a bigger input of tannins and then the American oak one, and not the other way round.

I hope my friends you have a nice holiday and drive safely, we all have to return home safe and sound.

“Before a list of candidates it is happily thought that only one can be the chosen one” Noel Clarasó.

Hello friends and companions,

Here I am again after a few days of drought without writing since I have been busy with one of my hobbies, the triathlon and my family, of course.

I wanted to comment that a few days ago I assisted a round table about the oenologist work as a communicator.

My opinion is totally defined: social networks, blogs, youtube… are some weapons the oenologists should use to dignify our profession and not only stay in the winery or the vineyards. Be the describer of our wines since we are the only ones that best know about them.

With this I mean that we should take example of Fernan Adriá, Martin Berasategui, Juan Roca, Pedro Subijana, Juan Mari Arzak, and a long etcetera of known Spanisnh chefs that have left their kitchens to be ambassadors not only of their restaurants but also of the Spanish haute cuisine.

If we had to mention known oenologists by the consumers I am afraid the list would be empty.

We will have to work a bit harder on this communication skill issue, but I am convinced that it will not only be for our personal benefit but also for our business and increase the consumption of wine.

Hoping that in a few years we the oenologists will be something more than just “ wine makers” but also good communicators.

Have a nice week.

“Young men’s love then lies not truly in their hearts, but in their eyes.” William Shakespeare.

Hello friends and fellows,

Today’s post is about the new street furniture which is showing in our cities at bar entrances, in Spain.

As many of you are aware with the new anti- tobacco law ,smokers who wish to smoke have to do it in the streets, so what better than to fill the entrance to the bars  with barrels, but they aren’t those old barrels , all the opposite the design and image is a window show for the wines.

Many barrel making companies are adapting to the new changes since many of their clients have requested not only new barrels but also their own or others second hand ones to add their name.

As I have been told a small bodega in Rioja Alavesa lost one of its clients because it didn’t want to deliver an ornamental barrel; therefore immediately sent to prepare 25 barrels with its brand to stop losing clients.

Anyway, we hope that the city halls will not start charging the bars because

of putting the barrels in the street, although I am afraid that due to their eagerness to collect tax they will end up charging for every barrel that is placed in the street.

An advantage of these barrels is that you already know which wine every bar has, since it is assumed that the wine will be of the displayed barrel although you never know.

Well dudes, I leave you now, till next time.

“The infinitely little have a pride infinitely great.” Voltaire

Hello friends and colleagues, Here I am again once more writing mi opinion about the wonderful world of wine .

A few days ago we went to a winery which we have in the Denominación de Origen Toro, named Bodegas Torreduero and together with their oenologist, Felipe Nalda, we tasted a wine that in my opinion is without doubt one of the best rosé in Spain.

It’s got nothing to do with “Viña Tondonia Gran Reserva 2000” voted as the best rosé in 2010 at the Verema meeting. In my opinion a totally unfortunate award; since it’s not included in what is known as rosé wines: fruit, aromatic intensity, freshness…

Probably this rosé would be spectacular in bouquet, reduction, toasted…therefore it would have been better if given an honorific award or similar.

On the other hand, the wine that I introduce to you has a beautiful pinkish intense reddish colour; well achieved after a small extraction, since we are talking about Tinta de Toro and if you macerate it too much you get too much colour.

In the nose its strawberry gum, raspberry, liquorice… very intense. In the mouth it not only has a wine freshness but also sweetness due to its alcohol content is near 14% vol with a very expressive palate reminding the strawberry taste.

After tasting this wine we talked about what a pity it wasn’t white or red since due to its high quality it would guarantee a good sale. It seems as if the rose is out of place, neither with fish or meat; but someone replied that he felt the opposite way, since he like the rosé either with fish or meat; so it really depends on how you look at it.

Once we finished tasting this and other great wines, they have a Verdejo de Toro that must be tasted; we went back to Rioja, after lunching a wonderful Zamora paella. Which we really shouldn’t because of our training but once in a while isn’t too bad.;P

Have a nice weekend and enjoy all you can.

The beautiful thing about learning is that nobody can take it away from you.” B.B. King

Hi friends,

First of all I want to apologise for not having attending you lately.

Today’s post is about a trip we did a week ago to ENOMAQ a fair in Zaragoza, where we caught up with the  latest updates  in the wine industry.

The first thing that grabbed my attention was the small number of visitors and expositors; I believe everyone knows the reason why.

Inside the fair, the first thing which surprised me was to be able to see a Monte Real bottle which I have included in the picture; the amazing thing is that nobody knew of its existence and they never asked for permission to do it, although its okay, since publicity is always welcomed and above all the product is good.

In the fair we weren’t able to taste all the wines we would have liked to since we hadn’t a lot of time and we can’t be everywhere and greet everybody; therefore I apologise to those we didn’t pay lots of attention to.

We did manage to taste the following wines: Riesling 2009 “Jesuiten Garten” and a Californian Zinfandel 2008  “Frank Family Vineyards“.The quality of both wines is outstanding in the nose as it is in the mouth.

The Riesling is a fantastic wine and has nothing to do with other Spanish Riesling where the only aromas which stand out are the fermentation ones.

The Californian Zinfandel, an all meaty and ripe fruit wine, is not like other zinfandels which I had tasted and seemed light; it’s a  very good wine.

After thanking M. A. Silva for his marvellous wines we continued our tour.

After walking around we ended up tasting a Chardonnay 2010, named Care; D.O. Cariñena.

About this wine I have to say it didn’t surprise me the least: a correct wine with nothing else. However I did like the bottle design.

At the end we checked out the new system developed by Ekinsa and JMP Engineers, its about a machinery to inert barrels.. It’s based on the microwave technology. The first tests seem encouraging but there is still the most important part and that is having the prototype at an industrial level.

Therefore, after a not very heavy lunch, cause afterwards we have training, we drove back to Cenicero.

Have a nice weekend to all.

“Real knowledge is to know the extent of one’s ignorance” Socrates

Hello friends,

Today I am going to comment on an anecdote which happened a few years ago during the presentation of a type of barrels.

A group of oenologists from Rioja wineries were invited to taste wines which had gone through different grain barrels: tight and coarse grain.

The grain of the barrel is the distance between two growing consecutive rings, which means the growth from spring to summer.

Since the spring growth is constant, this grain size is determined by the summer growth. Being a fine wood grain that with a small summer growth and of tight grain that with a bigger growth.  This size influences over the organoleptic qualities being the fine grain more aromatic. With regards to the tannin, the wood is more tannic when less finer is the grain, since the tannins are found in the summer wood.

In the above paragraph I have tried to summarise what must have been commented in the presentation, the theory of any oenology book.

Afterwards they started to taste a wine aged in barrels of different grain size. At the beginning people said that you could clearly taste the differences, you could hear comments such as you truly feel the tannin notes, its more harsh and so on; when suddenly Felipe Nalda a retired Technical Director of Bodegas Riojanas with more than 45 years of experience and having produced million of kilos of grapes said out loud “ Do you really taste the difference? At first people were surprised with his comment put little by little they realised the wines were alike; and changed their minds on their opinions.

Many times there is no danger in proving something which there is nothing to prove, I always say that if a wine seems the same to another, although it has gone through different barrels or treatments, I say it, there is nothing to be ashamed of.

People should make  more triangular tests where there is always more mistakes than correct answers.

Have a nice weekend.

“For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.” Aristoteles

Hi friends,

Today we are going to write about a very interesting topic from an environmental point of view, this is carbon footprint.

This is a non official stamp which isn’t compulsory through different entities and by using certain homologated methods. It’s done by calculating a company’s or products CO2 emissions due to the use of burning fossils fuels, electricity, materials…. in our case the calculation is done  per bottle.

Once the calculation is done you have to commit to reduce in the measure you can what you can; for example encouraging employees to use public transport, use renewable energies, hybrid vehicles..

Once you cannot reduce anymore your CO2 emissions you compensate this by financing tree planning projects to balance the atmosphere’s CO2.

In the companies this is standard but it’s not the case for the bodegas, which is a bit more complicated since we have to consider the following points which aren’t very clear:

1. The vine’s harvest gives out CO2; therefore, to produce grape has a questioning balance? ; taking into account the tractor’s emissions during the treatments and the harvesting, I do not know if finally this balance is positive or not.

2. It is clear that the fermentation process gives out important CO2 emissions during the transformation of the sugar to alcohol.

3. In the use of oak barrels to age the balance is positive since previously the CO2 has already been calculated although not without an incredible effort.

Nowadays there is a bodega Grupo Matarromera, which has calculated the carbon footprint for certain wines such as Emina Verdejo, Emina Crianza and Matarromera Crianza. Also, other companies directly related to the wine world such as Tonelería Intona, have also calculated the carbon footprint for its barrels.

I think it is a good start that some companies are beginning to worry about the greenhouse effects and the carbon footprint; amongst all we have to take care of our Earth.

“Why does this magnificent applied science which saves work and makes life easier bring us so little happiness? The simple answer: because we have not yet learned to make sensible use of it.” Albert Einstein.

Hi friends,

The other day when I went to pick up some cork samples I saw the following advertisement of Tripecork, which I think is quite right.

The five reasons it gives to choose a cork are the following:

1. Quality opens with a cork. The Best Top. Nowadays this is true since a high quality wine is sealed with a high quality cork.

2. Natural, renewable, recyclable and  biodegradable. Do not contaminate. Totally true and more nowadays because of the carbon print topic; it’s always better to use a recyclable and biodegradable compound rather than one coming from petroleum.

3. The Alcornocal, diversity source. The cork extraction guarantees its future. The Alcornoques mountains in Spain should be declared World Heritage if they have not been yet: there are few ecosystems such as the Spanish and Portuguese Alcornocales which have such biodiversity.

4. Ecologic. Healthy product. Guarantees food safety. Although it is totally ecologic and healthy, the problem is the TCA but not as much as it seems since a high quantity of wine which is identified by tasting like cork its not really that but other reasons like: reduced, origin of TeCA in wood, contamination by PCP, ethyl – guaiacol…and many others.

5. Tradition. Our land’s labour and taste. Cultural value, progress engine. The truth is the cork industry generates a big quantity of jobs in SME´s instead of in the foreigners multinationals.

Due to these five reasons and many others I think that it is a good choice to seal a wine bottle with a cork, although there are also many reasons to choose other sealing systems: price, safety TCA topic, product homogenisation….

I hope you have found this interesting and when opening a bottle take a look at the cork which is an essential point in wine.

“All virtue is summed up in dealing justly” Aristotle

Hello folks,

Lately I am making some trips to Ribera del Duero, since I am going to take care of the technical area of a small winery in Villatuelda; Peter Sisseck and Vega Sicilia be aware!

So far I am getting used  to the Ribera wines that are so similar and at the same time so different from those of La Rioja; and mainly to the area that I have covered a couple of times.

Here you can see a photo of the entrance of one of the most prestigious wineries in La Ribera: Bodegas Protos with the Castle of Peñafiel in the background, which I tried to visit but due to my lack of time I couldn’t.  I have pending a visit to the premises, since they told me it’s worth it. By the way, I bought some bottles of Protos Verdejo 2009 to taste something different and sincerely it isn’t bad but I have tasted many better Ruedas.

What can I say about La Ribera … the landscape is completely different from La Rioja; they surely have bigger land plots, there is one in Pagos del Rey where you drive pass in your car and it seems endless. You can see many more cereal plots inserted reason why they are not monoculture as we can be in La Rioja.

Actually I wish to start going to the vineyards to select the best plots and harvest them separately, working straight where I like it most; that is in the vineyard.

I enclose a curious photo, where you can appreciated the more than considerable height of the formation wire, it’s probably  1.20 m and with vegetation covers, it has a drip irrigation system  since surely it will be necessary to water it during the summer so it keeps the vegetation the maximum time possible.

Okay then, see you soon. I have a pile of things to explain to you although I need to make a little more of time to write all the experiences that happen and cross the mind of a technician in La Rioja.

“Hope is the dream of a waking man.” Aristóteles.

Hello Folks,

Here we are again after a lazy week without writing in the blog, I really do apologise.

Today I am going to describe one of my most interesting professional challenges. Will I be able to produce a wine, or better two, a Ribera del Duero and also a Rioja, and enter into the TOP 100?

What I am sure of is that we will do all the possible for it to be; therefore I am going to describe some of the steps that I have in mind.

1. Selecting the best land plot, about 2000 ha. in Rioja and 100 ha in Ribera del Duero. With the invaluable aid of the G. I. S.

2. Harvest in cases not over 25kg. and harvesting only the grapes that are in perfect conditions, the objective is to transport in less than one hour the grapes to the winery so they cannot evolve losing then aromas.

3. In the winery the grapes are lightly de-stalked and go to fermentation, leaving nature to do the rest, meaning, transforming the sugars into alcohol and freeing the wine’s aromatic compounds, as much the fermentative as the varietals.

4. The best casks will be selected according to origin, type of toast or supplier so they can do the malolatic fermentation and the subsequent  ageing.

5. Finally, we select a cork with two mirrored heads and then to bottling, where we leave all our dreams locked in a bottle.

All the described above doesn’t worry me a lot, what really distresses me is thinking that to reach and obtain a TOP WINE there is more, not at a technical level but at a commercial level, as if you had to pay the journalist with favours to obtain good reviews and points.

However, I do trust in the well doing  of people, also the first thing we have to do is obtain a wine of 100 points and afterwards see if we get those points but what we are sure of is that we have done a good job.

See you later folks.