The flavor of wax in wine of Estrémadure
Discover the of Estrémadure wines revealing the of wax flavor during the olphactive analysis (nose) and during the gustative analysis (mouth).
Extremadura is one of the 17 administrative regions (officially "autonomous communities") of Spain. It is located in the Southwest of the country, on the border with Portugal. It is separated from Andalusia in the south by the Sierra Morena mountains, and from the Central plateau and Castile by the Sierra de Gata range. Extremadura is sparsely populated, but has an abundance of wildlife, such as deer, otters and even lynx.
Its wild black pigs, which feed on acorns, will become the famous "Jamón Ibérico" (Iberian ham). It is not, however, famous for its wine, although viticulture has been going on for centuries. The basic wines produced in the region have not traditionally attracted the attention of greater Spain, let alone the outside world - not least because the local wineries lacked modern technology. However, the DO Ribera del Guadiana title was created in the region in 1999 to bring together six Vino de la Tierra zones and represent the best that Extremadura has to offer.
By 1965, the vineyards of Condrieu had largely been abandoned – phylloxera and two world wars had decimated the place and its people. There were just 8ha of vines remaining on these granite slopes. If it weren’t for the hard work of a few steadfast vignerons, the appellation might have disappeared entirely, reclaimed by the forest. Thankfully, Condrieu survived and has since flourished – but great appellations have been lost before. We know this because some have recently been rediscovered. In f ...
You don’t need a state-of-the-art winery to make wine. You don’t need rows of pristine oak barrels. One thing you do need to make good wine is good vines. Have you ever asked yourself where all these vines come from? How do they find their way into the ground? It used to be easy. In the past, winemakers simply took cuttings from their vineyards, propagated them, and planted them in the ground. But phylloxera put a stop to that. What was a simple process acquired layers of complexity: winemakers ...
It’s no easy task to establish a super-premium wine in an entirely new region, particularly when inviting potential retail partners or distributors to the vineyard involves journeying to a distant corner of the Himalayas in the outer reaches of the Yunnan province, southwestern China. For my journey, after four flights from Bordeaux to Shanghai, Chengdu then Shangri-La, it was a four-hour drive up through stunning mountain passes to the foothills (here, that means 2,200m above sea level) of the ...