Winemaker Notes
Pair with red or game meats, and rice.
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2012 Breca from Calatayud is 100% old-vine Garnacha (from vines planted between 1925 and 1945) made from yields of less than one ton of fruit per acre. Fermented in stainless steel tanks and then transferred to new to 3-year-old French oak casks for 21 months, this outstanding red is the poor man's Priorat. Mineral notes of wet slate and gun flint are intermixed with blackcurrant, black cherry and cassis fruit in this dense, full-bodied, pure, lavishly rich, intense Spanish red. It is hard to believe what one can get at this price point if the importer and wine producer are committed to high quality.
Spanish red wine is known for being bold, heady, rustic and age-worthy, Spain is truly a one-of-a-kind wine-producing nation. A great majority of the country is hot, arid and drought-ridden, and since irrigation has only been recently introduced and (controversially) accepted, viticulture has sustained—and flourished—only through a great understanding of Spain’s particular conditions. Large spacing between vines allows each enough resources to survive and as a result, the country has the most acreage under vine compared to any other country, but is usually third in production.
Of the Spanish red wines, the most planted and respected grape variety is Tempranillo, the star of Spain’s Rioja and Ribera del Duero regions. Priorat specializes in bold red blends, Jumilla has gained global recognition for its single varietal Monastrell and Utiel-Requena has garnered recent attention for its reds made of Bobal.