Part two – The wines
Like a number of wineries in Spain, Bodegas Vera de Estenas makes wine under the auspices of two different of two different domains. A long time member of Denominación de Origen Utiel-Requena, following owner, Felix Martinez’, application this leading winery was also elevated to Vino de Pago status.
Readers who caught last week’s article (Part One, obviously!) will know that wineries are granted Vino de Pago status by being able to prove consistently high quality wines coming from particular vineyards within their land.
When we consider that the first Vera de Estenas vineyards were planted in the second half of the 19th Century we can see that there is plenty of history on the side of the application, Plus, of course, I’m not the only one who has recognised that over the years the wines resulting from these vineyards have always been excellent. Promotion the Vino de Pago status was obvious!
Two weeks ago we stayed overnight at their atmospheric, rustic Casa Rural where we really enjoyed (along with 80+ others) a splendid dinner served with three of their flagship DO Utiel-Requena wines, following a tutored tasting of three of the Vino de Pago stars, by owner/winemaker Felix. It was quite a night!
Lidon Chardonnay Fermentado en Barrica 2019 Vino de Pago DO is as fresh as a Chardonnay can be. It’s the latest vintage, brought out specially for this event. The fact that it is fermented in oak with not so long aging in barrel means that you have a lovely combination of crisp lemon fruit with some vanilla oak overtones, plus, when leaving the wine on the palate to warm slightly the taster is rewarded with some fresh ‘paraguayo’ fruit too. Spanish FB Chardonnay at just about its best! I will be very interested to se how this wine develops over the next 3 and more years.
NB Don’t miss my Wine Show on Valley FM www.valleyfm.es 12 – 13:00 hrs (CET), Saturday 5th September – I’ll be tasting some spectacular wines, including one aged in amphorae resting beneath the Med on the seabed!
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