Rosé again, to my own surprise after my recent pink stink notes, for the simple reason that I just learned a number of things I didn’t know about classy Spanish rosés, and I suspect many of you are as uninformed as I am. I spent most of a week in the north of Spain, Cigales in the region of Castilo and Léon, and discovered that this has long been home to some of the best rosé wines in the world. Unlike nearby and more famous Rueda, Ribeira del Duero and Rioja, this is traditionally a land of pink wines rather than big fat reds.
Here are highlights of what I learned. A key difference with these rosés is that they are vinified as white wines made from red and white grapes that are traditionally and still today grown together in the vineyards (referred to as field grapes, complanted grapes). Wine Folly offers a quick guide to how rosés are made, and a poster, for comparison, of how whites are made, to put you in the picture. The most common rosé method is to leave the skins of red grapes in contact with the juice - maceration - long enough to develop a light colour.
Las Cigales is a D.O. (denominación de origen) northwest of Madrid, a land of cereal crops with deeply rooted vines traditionally planted where the land is too poor or difficult. The soil is a mix of sand, limestone and marl, with clay and loam subsoil and generally few stones.
The main grape varieties: Tempranillo and Garnacha for reds, Verdejo and Albillo for whites, but another six grapes are permitted. A starting point for touring is the regional capital and delightful university town of Valladolid (ask a local how to pronounce it correctly). Locate it at number 8 on this map of Spanish wine D.O.s (denominación de origen). Typically, on this high plateau, the weather is very cold in winter and very hot in summer. Some call it continental, but one winemaker whose advanced degree is in grape and climatology says no, it is mid-Mediterranean - temperature extremes but it’s dry, not humid.
Delicate, dry, crisp and often floral rosés here compete easily with Narbonne in France for color, perfume, elegance - and international prizes. In addition to the paler pinks the area is famous for its colourful “clarete”, not to be confused with claret. It’s the kind of wine that reminds you why you need to travel to the place of origin to fully appreciate a local product. These are often bright pink or peachy-orange, but don’t let this deceive you if you’re a fan of pale dry pinks. Traditionally clarets are Tempranillo based, with up to 50% of white Albillo grapes, for a fresh fruity wine with good tanins that works well with regional cuisine, especially roast suckling lamb, garlic soup, sheep cheeses. Another surprise was a handful of topnotch reds.
The landscape of the villages which produce these wines is remarkable, with lumpy little hills pockmarked by chimneys sticking out of the soil. Beneath your feet lie mazes of cellars, down to 300 m below you, some of them centuries old. This is a very hot, dry land, and they worked out long ago that you can make and store wine at a cool, consistent 12C at that depth. Lessons for the future. More photos and a report from Cigales on Medium, to follow, with an alert in this newsletter.
Hike and wine pick: Fully, Valais
Ellen’s Wine World Fully 171023: Photos, GPX trail map (Swiss mobility). 7.7 km, mostly above the vines, 229 m up and same down.
October and November are ideal for hiking above the vines in Fully, one of Switzerland’s largest wine towns. The well-marked Chemin des vignes et des guérites (little vigneron huts) trail is just under 5km and easy enough for older hikers who worry about knees and hips, with a bus option to return to the starting point. The marked circular route from the Branson Village bus stop on Fully’s main road back to the wonderful wine bar and shop, Fol’terre is 7.7 km with a walk the length of the town at the end. This can be varied by taking parallel streets off the main road - Fully is visually easy to navigate.
The hike is educational, with good panels to explain history, grapes, geography and more. It’s very hot in summer, so don’t be surprised to find cacti, Mediterranean herbs and olive trees. You pass through the magical little forest of La Châtaigneraie, busy with families collecting chestnuts for the famed brisolée at this time of the year. There are scores of options to lengthen this hike easily, by going through higher vineyards for part of it, or extending it further towards Saillon. A difficult steep gravelly stretch - a marked red and white (difficult) trail that climbs sharply just before the chestnut forest - is an option for those who want a challenge.
Today’s wine and winery, in the spirit of Wine Hiking Switzerland (book available at most Swiss bookstores): L’Orlaya Branson/Fully, winemaker Mathilde Roux. Wine: Dôle, in honour of the canton’s campaign to revive this historical Valais blend, here minority Gamay, majority Pinot Noir. Fresh, crisp, dry and fruity, a fine wine to accompany any meal, including hikers’ picnics.
Prized
The annual Swiss wine awards, the Grand Prix des Vins Suisses, were handed out 4 October in Bern (the complete list of prizes). The much-vaunted Swiss Winery of the Year title went to Leukersonne in Susten, Valais, which won several medals. Nearby wineries Cave Rhodan and Nouveau Salquenen are previous winners. These Upper Valais German-speaking villages are not as well known as the area from Martigny to Sierre, ans they certainly deserve more attention. Susten and Salgesch wineries are in the Pfyn/Finges regional park, on the fringes of the surprising Mediterranean Pfyn forest. There are scores of excellent wineries here, of varying size, including the only one that is located right in the forest, Cave de la Pinède, see wine pick below. Suggestion: check out my hikes around Leuk in Wine Hiking Switzerland, 2022, already in its second printing.
Next newsletter: Varen, next to Susten and Leuk, and the inside story about how its Pfyfoltru Award Pinot Noirs are selected, plus a steep hike up to the bisse above the town.
Wine pick: Humagne (2) Cave de la Pinède and Leukersonne
’Tis everywhere the season for Humagne Rouge and game. Beware mediocre versions, often cheap and too easy to find in cities in particular, next to signs inviting you to eat roast venison, boar and more. Several producers in Valais make very good ones, notably around Leytron, which calls itself the Humagne Village. Yves Zen Ruffinen’s Cave La Pinède in Leuk, up-river from Sierre on the road to Visp, makes a classy version with good depth. It has a slightly smoky nose, black fruits and plums, rich deep red colour and rustic but not at all rough tannins.
Winery of the Year 2023 Leukersonne also makes a fine Humagne, although this is not one of their wines that took a prize. Their own description beats mine, for I kept trying to identify something - bark, as it turns out. I even went outside to sniff a damp tree and compare, and it’s spot on.
Worth mentioning, but I haven’t yet tried it, is the Humagne Rouge from Cave Paradis, from Sierre on the road to Salgesch. It won a third place prize at the Grand Prix des Vins Suisses 2023.
Here and there on line
Handwrit
“Superior note taking” is one of the benefits of handwriting, research shows, reports The Economist (paywall). Students and anyone worried about their wobbly memory might want to reconsider typing. “Studies have found that writing on paper can improve everything from recalling a random series of words to imparting a better conceptual grasp of complicated ideas.
For learning material by rote, from the shapes of letters to the quirks of English spelling, the benefits of using a pen or pencil lie in how the motor and sensory memory of putting words on paper reinforces that material.”
Exclaiming, explained
Exclaim! Shout! I might reconsider my rabid dislike of exclamation marks as girlish and overused by the over-enthused, thanks to this joyful romp through the world of “the point of admiration or wonder”. Check it out, folks!
Squeamish around meat?
Who’s Afraid of a Spatchcocked Chicken? is a great food and language read. One of my favourite lines: “‘Chicken’ has transcended food to achieve a kind of inert neutrality” whereas cows become beef and pigs become pork on your plate.
Old French on hunting
French like you’ve never heard it, a version last recorded 50+ years ago, and just in time for game food on the table season. Best animated film award at the Verona Film Festival. “Chasse Galerite is a passionate hunter whose untamed desire often leads him into trouble. Set in the Illinois Country in the late 17th century, this humorous and imaginative folktale, cherished by Missouri's French Creole community, is told in the local variety of the French language by one of its last native speakers.”
Mondovino book discount
Thanks to the readers who alerted me to the 25% discount on Randos Vin en Suisse offered by the Coop wine Club Mondovino to its members. Their newsletter gave the book a long and very positive review.
Out and About
November is a busy wine month in Switzerland. Some of the key events for tasting wines are: Salon Suisse des Goûts et Terroirs at the Espace Gruyère in Bulle, Fribourg; Swiss women winemakers at Divines in Rolle, Vaud, 3-4 November; Divinum in Aigle, Vaud, 8-11 November, Expovina in Zurich 2-16 November.
Santé!