Glossary

Cosecha

The Spanish for vintage, so Cosecha 2001 on the bottle means it's from the 2001 vintage.

Crianza

Wine in its third year, matured for at least one year in oak.

Reserva

Aged for at least three years, of which at least one is in an oak cask.

Gran Reserva

Aged at least two years in an oak cask and three years in a bottle.

Priorat

This Catalonian wine is made from the Garnacha grape, and is immensely full-bodied, dark and strong (14%+), but with lots of subtle fruit. If you catch it at just the right age, it’s a revelation. Unsurprisingly, it’s becoming something of a cult, and isn’t the cheapest Spanish wine by a long way. It’s a bit like a little-known French wine called Pécharmant, which comes from the sunny south-west of France, but Priorat is much softer, and a lot more subtle. If you’re reading this in the UK, Marks and Spencer have sold Lo Cabala Reserva 2000 at £4.99 – a five-pound reduction and excellent value. One you see often on restaurant lists in Barcelona is Les Terrasses. It was the first we tried, and was an instant hit. The 2001, for example, is rich and elegant, with good fruit and very well integrated. I have also very much enjoyed some bottles from Igneus, whose wines are given cryptic alphanumeric names. I particularly remember a very fruity, elegant and rich Igneus with a meal in a sunny restaurant courtyard in Tarragona.

Penedes

Also in Catalonia, this is a region where the revenues of the Cava industry have been used to produce great improvements in wine-making. It is better-known for white wine, and there are some pleasant, light, lemon-zesty wines made from local varieties, sometimes with some Chardonnay; pleasant but not superb. One of the local grape varieties has a name which exemplifies one of the oddities of the Catalan language: Xarel.lo. There are some very good red wines made here by blending local varieties with Cabernet Sauvignon, and some are made entirely from that variety. Torres is a major producer, and the label is seen a lot in the UK. I like Albet I Noya and Jean Leon.

Costers del Segre

This is another Catalonian wine, from the foot of the Pyrenees, which we were very happy to discover. Particular favourites come from Raimat and Castell del Remei. The latter has been the subject of relatively recent (in the last 20 years or so) replanting and upgrading, while Raimat has been progressively improving since its acquisition by the Raventos family (owners of Cordoniu, in Penedes) in 1914. Both now grow a combination of “international” varieties (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah) and traditional local varieties. The results are fruity and soft, with good oak and vanilla.

As mentioned, these are my personal favourites; which isn’t to say that I don’t enjoy Cava! There is a huge range available, and some are very good indeed. Certainly, I think a good Cava beats a merely passable champagne, and is usually better value. Another wine from Spain that could be the subject of a whole book is, of course, sherry, named after the Jerez region from which it originates. I’ll just going to mention something I recently discovered, which was a sherry made from Moscatel grapes, from Emilio Lustau. We had it with dessert at Jean-Luc Figueras, and it’s like a supercharged Madeira: sweet with an edge, and absolutely brown. It was excellent with our chosen dessert, and would even go with chocolate!