If you want to watch posh people lose all sense of decorum, it would be wise to attend Decanter’s next fine wine encounter and stand in the swirling epicentre of the main tasting hall as a blur of tweed and corduroy barges and hurries its way between producers.
It was certainly busy at the Landmark Hotel in Marylebone, the venue for Decanter’s first Spanish Fine Wine Encounter on the 19th February. The Grand Ballroom boasted 50 tables featuring some of Spain’s best wines, offering punters the chance to discover the regional variations of each wine-producing area.
Milling around with an empty glass while choosing what to sample is a pleasant enough way to spend a day, particularly if it serves as a recce for a shopping spree. A tasting as busy as this, however, does leave you wishing for something a bit more leisurely, so the real highlight of the afternoon was taking part in a masterclass given by John Radford, a regular contributor to Decanter and an expert on Spanish wine. The idea of his Rising Spanish Stars session, hosted in a smaller, separate ballroom, was to introduce participants to wines from regions other than the famous Rioja and Ribero del Duero.
Tasting thirteen red wines one after the other is in itself an excellent way to appreciate the different characters various regions have to offer, and the exercise is made even more interesting when you have someone as knowledgeable and entertaining as Radford to guide you through it. Learning something about the people, places and backgrounds of the wines gives you an added appreciation and respect for the final product, and Radford’s little asides and travelling tales caused plenty of laughter too.A recurring theme of the tasting was wine from unfashionable regions, made from unfashionable grapes. Some of the producers were so aware of their region’s bad reputation that they chose not to be classified in the appropriate Denominación de Origen Protegida (DOP), a mark that’s usually used to reassure the consumer of a wine’s quality. This was particularly the case for the hotter regions of Spain, where many wines have become infamous for tasting so overly-jammy and alcoholic that they are said to have been ‘boiled to death’.
Most of Radford’s selections were still up in the 14%-15% abv range, prompting some punters to denounce a few as unbalanced. It was noticeable, however, that some of the same people had 13 empty glasses in front of them at the end of the session and when Radford put their claims out for support amongst the audience, the best they could get was a little over a third of the vote. The truth of it was that these were big, oaky red wines that would go best with food. After all, it’s highly probable that every one was made with this in mind.
There were unfamiliar grapes such as Callet, Bobal and Negral used in several of Radford’s 13, as well as wines from the promised ‘alternative’ regions, including Valencia, La Mancha and Majorca. The wines from Majorca were particularly good and easily stood up to the Ribera Del Duero Radford had managed to squeeze in at the last moment. This was the reason, he told us, for the 13 wines not 12; he decided shortly before the event that we really ought to taste this particular wine and there was no way he could comfortably leave it out.
At one point Radford began talking, totally deadpan, about a ‘great off-licence my wife has found round the corner from our house.’ Presumably, I thought to myself, this is going to be the story of a little independent wine shop that stocks some of the expensive but terrific wines in front of me. ‘An off-license,’ he continued, ‘that does two bottles for £5. Excellent for a BBQ or, indeed, if you have anyone coming round for dinner.’
Whatever this story might suggest, Radford was certainly a generous host on this occasion, and you can tell from his size and his stories that he is both a bon viveur and a raconteur. The wine and his company made for a great afternoon. I would highly recommend going to one of his tastings if you’re even slightly interested and have the chance.
A favourite from the class:
4 Kilos 12 Volts 2009. The winery where this is produced was only established in Majorca in 2006. They make modern style, hands-off wines, including this full-bodied red, tasting of spice, black pepper and blackcurrant. Made from Cabernet, Merlot, Syrah and Callet. Aged in American and French oak and available for £17-20.
Thanks to Adam Lechmere at Decanter. Photo of John Radford from Decanter website.
