Having failed this time last year, Week D (2013) to find a white wine made with a grape variety starting with 'D', I allowed my heart to rule my head and paid rather more than usual (twice?) to observe the pointless rules of my equally pointless game.
Last week as I was in the area I popped in to Fortnum & Mason to see if they might have something a little unusual beginning with D from, perhaps Greece or Bulgaria (Debina or Dimiat, respectively). I told the sales assistant what I was looking for and she got quite excited. F&M don't stock wines from her home land but she thanked me for taking an interest in the wines from Bulgaria and directed me to a shop in Bayswater that might help. It didn't, so in the spirit of never going back, I continued round the Circle Line to South Ken and went to The Sampler. I had seen on their website that they had just started to stock something that would qualify this week. I was beginning to think that the tubes fares would total more than the cost of the wine, so that's how we have arrived at:
Week D (2104) La Vizcaina, La Del Vivo, Bierzo. 2011. The Sampler £34.20.
This wine is made by Raul Perez who is considered a rising star of Spanish wine-making and comes from his Valtuille winery, part of the Bierzo DO, situated in North West Spain.
It is made with an interesting blend of varieties: 80% Dona Blanca, 10% Godello, 10% Palomino.
The first of these has been grown across the Minho river in Portugal for years and has long been a component of white Port. It seems that white Port is suffering a dip in its popularity and the growers of Dona Blanca (or Dona Branco, in Portugal) are now turning to producing dry table wines.
The second of these, Godello, is a more widely known grape of the region and makes very respected and increasingly fashionable wines.
Palomino has something in common with Dona Blanca in that it also features prominently in the production of another fortified wine from the Iberian peninsular; Sherry.
Our wine is unfortified, dry and intensely flavoured with apple and stone fruit tones. There are also signs of oak ageing, especially in the lengthy finish. It is a deep almost golden, lemon yellow colour which come from the grapes thick skins.
Full bodied and flavoursome it is the fruit and 13.5% alcohol that are nicely balanced, but it also has sufficient acidity to make the mouth water.
I don't know if this is a small production wine, but suspect that may be the case. If so, that may explain why the small print on the side of the label, where the information made compulsory by the EU has been squeezed, describes the contents of the bottle as 'red Spanish wine!
Last week as I was in the area I popped in to Fortnum & Mason to see if they might have something a little unusual beginning with D from, perhaps Greece or Bulgaria (Debina or Dimiat, respectively). I told the sales assistant what I was looking for and she got quite excited. F&M don't stock wines from her home land but she thanked me for taking an interest in the wines from Bulgaria and directed me to a shop in Bayswater that might help. It didn't, so in the spirit of never going back, I continued round the Circle Line to South Ken and went to The Sampler. I had seen on their website that they had just started to stock something that would qualify this week. I was beginning to think that the tubes fares would total more than the cost of the wine, so that's how we have arrived at:
Week D (2104) La Vizcaina, La Del Vivo, Bierzo. 2011. The Sampler £34.20.This wine is made by Raul Perez who is considered a rising star of Spanish wine-making and comes from his Valtuille winery, part of the Bierzo DO, situated in North West Spain.
It is made with an interesting blend of varieties: 80% Dona Blanca, 10% Godello, 10% Palomino.
The first of these has been grown across the Minho river in Portugal for years and has long been a component of white Port. It seems that white Port is suffering a dip in its popularity and the growers of Dona Blanca (or Dona Branco, in Portugal) are now turning to producing dry table wines.
The second of these, Godello, is a more widely known grape of the region and makes very respected and increasingly fashionable wines.
Palomino has something in common with Dona Blanca in that it also features prominently in the production of another fortified wine from the Iberian peninsular; Sherry.
Our wine is unfortified, dry and intensely flavoured with apple and stone fruit tones. There are also signs of oak ageing, especially in the lengthy finish. It is a deep almost golden, lemon yellow colour which come from the grapes thick skins.
Full bodied and flavoursome it is the fruit and 13.5% alcohol that are nicely balanced, but it also has sufficient acidity to make the mouth water.
I don't know if this is a small production wine, but suspect that may be the case. If so, that may explain why the small print on the side of the label, where the information made compulsory by the EU has been squeezed, describes the contents of the bottle as 'red Spanish wine!
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