Creating a ‘supernatural’ wine: Peter Sisseck (second from left) and Alvaro Palacios (extreme right) examining a vine in the steeply sloped vineyard of La Faraona in Bierzo, Spain.

LAST weekend’s Spanish Wine and Food Festival staged by the World Gourmet Summit was extraordinarily special – the three most famous Spanish wineries, a rising one-Michelin-star Spanish chef, and two of the most famous and authoritative wine critics all together in one place.

The A-list read as such: From Vega Sicilia, there was Pablo Alvarez, owner and director of Spain’s most famous winery for over a century, with his chief wine maker, Javier Ausas. Alvaro Palacios was represented by owner, Alvaro Palacios, and Dominio de Pingus by Peter Sisseck, owner and wine maker.

The wine critics were Serena Sutcliffe and her husband David Peppercorn, both Masters of Wine and among the world’s most famous wine authorities. Even so, Ms Sutcliffe was impressed enough to remark: “So far as I know, this is the first time that ALL three of Spain’s most famous wineries are present together in one event.”

And to illustrate Spanish cuisine at its most exciting freshness there was young rising one-Michelin-star chef Ramon Freixa Riera, with restaurants in Barcelona, Madrid and Marbella.

ALVARO PALACIOS
One of the five Gratallops pioneers who set out in the mid-1980s to prove that fine wines could be made in Priorat, he established his winery “Alvaro Palacios” in 1989. In 1999, he and his nephew Ricardo Perez established a new winery, Descendientes de Palacios, to revive and restore the wines of Bierzo.

The two regions are very different in soil and climatic conditions. Priorat is high in slate and schist, with very dry Mediterranean-type weather, producing wines with high acidity and good minerality. Bierzo’s soil in contrast is calcareous with red clay and quartzite, its weather oceanic and Atlantic in
character – very wet with lots of rain, very sunny from July to mid-September.
Viticulture: in Priorat – Garnacha and Carinena; in Bierzo – only Mencia.

PRIORAT WINES Les Terasses 2005
Sixty per cent Carinena, 30 per cent Garnacha, 10 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon, from vineyards with 45 per cent old vines and yields of 15 hectolitres per hectare (hl/ha).

Deep red, touch of brown; light nose of ripe oranges, rosemary, lavender and thyme. Very attractive palate, very sweet ripe fruit, liquorice, great freshness, finishing mildly tannic, perhaps a little short. Very good and easy drinking, a non-intellectual wine. Finca Dofi 2005

A more contemporary style of wine from a new vineyard. Fifty-five per cent Garnacha, 25 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon, 15 per cent Syrah, 5 per cent Merlot.
 
Same deep colour as Les Terasses, bouquet of dried orange peel, hint of smokiness. Huge concentrated, intense wine; very great length and lovely balance. A more serious wine.

L’Ermita 2005
Ninety-five per cent Garnacha, 5 per cent Cabernet Sauvignon. Single small vineyard with 75 per cent old vines at 500m elevation, soil mostly slate, with sandstone and granite. Harvested during an eclipse! Very dark red, almost black, darkest of the three. Nose with scents of roses and cassis. A huge wine, very dense and concentrated. Ms Sutcliffe’s comment summed it up: “Sensual and intellectual at the same time”.
 
FROM BIERZO Villa Corullon 2005
Black red, a very different nose from the Priorat wines – more vegetal, less floral. A blend from all the parcels of vineyards. Very concentrated and compact, very ripe fruit and deep flavours. An “entry level” wine meant for early and easy drinking.

The next three are single vineyard wines: San Martin 2005
Black red, nose still quite vegetal but less so with floral notes now. Much more dense, touch of caramel, butterscotch, concentrated blackcurrant. Very, very long, very profound and tightly packed, great freshness. Excellent.

Moncerbal 2005
Black red; more toffee and caramel on nose. Thick texture, smoky cherries on palate, very long finish. A great wine. Las Lamas 2005 Vines 60 to 100 years old. Same black-red, but little bouquet, very closed.

Much more dense, intensely concentrated, deeply submerged flavours; very fresh, also very tannic. A monster but a beautiful one.

La Faraona 2005
From a tiny 0.5 hectare vineyard high on very steep slopes, 835 metres elevation.

Densest, thickest wine of the lot, strong flavours of orange peel and liquorice. Another monster. Ms Sutcliffe’s comment: “Intriguing and supernatural.”
 
PINGUS
Peter Sisseck started in Ribera del Duero in 1982 making wine for Hacienda Monasterio, then in 1990 he started his own winery, Dominio de Pingus, with fruit from extremely old vineyards near neighbouring Burgos town. First vintage was 1995. Flor de Pingus is his “cash crop” wine, a blend of fruit from 24 different vineyards, 800 metres elevation.

Flor de Pingus 2003: Black cherry colour, very little nose; lots of umami on palate, very sweet fruit, great freshness. A little thin on finish.

2004: Black cherry, faint nose; sweet liquorice and cherries on palate; very, very concentrated, very ripe fruit, very mineral but at this stage not much complexity. 

2005: Same black-red colour, hardly any bouquet. On palate more black coffee, liquorice and black cherries, “hot” because of high alcohol (15 per cent), not as fresh as 2004. 2006: Black cherry colour, faint bouquet; palate of very thick liquorice, black coffee, black cherries, great minerality and length. Ms Sutcliffe said it had the “potential for being the most refined of the four
vintages”.

Pingus 2003: Very deep garnet red, nose of ripe orangey fruit; good weight on palate, very ripe black cherries, good length. Very good for the hot year 2003.

2004: Black cherry-red, faint nose ripe fruit; an immense wine, dense, with thick mid-palate and good follow-through, extreme length. Great profound wine.

2005: Same colour, bouquet and palate characteristics as 2004 and 2003, not as dense as 2004 though, not as complex either. Extremely good nonetheless. 2006: Extremely dense, chocolate and coffee on palate, perhaps a little plummy at this stage, more freshness and complexity than 2005. “A complete wine,” according to Peter Sisseck.

VEGA SICILIA
The oldest and most famous of the three, a truly iconic wine, mysterious because it was hardly seen in public until the Alvarez family acquired it in 1982. Pintia 2004 Vega’s most recent winery established in the district of Toro, 100 km from the Ribera.

A great year in which “it was not necessary to have a wine maker”, said Javier Ausas.

Very deep garnet red, faint fruity bouquet, very ripe and fresh on the palate, slightly astringent and tannic on finish; will likely mellow with time. Very good easy-drinking wine. Alion 

2004: Black red colour, faint bouquet of fruit and fermentation; very fresh in the mouth, sweet fruit, lovely balance. Lovely wine.

2000: Brown-red now, strong bouquet ripe fruit. Not as thickly sweet as 2004, more umami notes, still youthful with moderately tannic medium finish. Needs time.
Valbuena 2003: A lovely complex rich ripe wine, lots of umami and less vanillin on palate, quite supple, lots of freshness on the palate, more dense than 1999. Needs time. Very good.

1999: Deep garnet-red, quite mature vinous bouquet; very sweet palate, caramel, butterscotch, coconut and vanilla (from American oak). An intriguing wine.
Unico Riserva 1999: Deep garnet-red, faint fine nose of orangey cassis; very ripe fruit entry, very fine freshness and complexity, lovely balance, great elegance. Very good. 

1989: Deep garnet-red, very attractive nose; mouth-filling on entry; rich sweet, elegant wine with
intriguing complexity, great length on the finish. A great wine which showed why Vega Sicilia Unico remains the most iconic of Spanish wines. Unico Riserva Especiale A uniquely Vega specialty, a blend of the three most recent best vintages.

In this case, a blend of 1990, 1991 and 1996.

An exceptional wine, almost black garnet-red; a strong, very vinous bouquet, ripe orangey and cassis fruit. Very concentrated, deep intense flavours, very complex and elegant, with very sweet long finish. A great wine.
 
VERDICT
A spectacular, once-in-a-lifetime experience not likely to be repeated, at least here, for a long long time.

This article was first published in The Business Times on April 18, 2008.