Only Red Wines

Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot


Elaboration

Inox. tanks of 50Hl and 20Hl. Adjusted soaking depending the grape-type. Soft vertical pressing.  Fermentation and soaking with their own skin diring 3 weeks. 14 months aged in French oak casks.

Tasting Notes   

Wine temperature was about 16 ° C. Glass for red wine Spiegelau Authentics 01.

Color and nuance: Cherry red color and bright of high layer

Nose : The nose has aromas of toast, ripe black fruit and hints of dark chocolate.

 
Flavour of the Wine: The wine is intense on the palate, passes easily and has a hint tannic something in the end. A long aftertaste.

Overall impression : A recommended wine to accompany a meal of red meat, stews gazpacho manchego and consistent. Recommend decanting or opening the bottle at least one hour before consumption to meet their full potential.

Presentation : Bottle of 75 cl. Bordeaux type, artistic label.

About the cellar:

Finca Collado

Vineyards

Ctra. Salinas a Villena s/n

03638 Alicante (Spain) 

Phone:+34962866613

info@fincacollado.com

By March of this year, after I taste a great white wine of 2010, I had want to visit the bodega Finca Collado, a small bodega of inside of Alicante (Spain), who I had heard press very well of his wines and people of theese, in special of my friend Riki Wigley.

María del Carmen, the commercial soul of the bodega, I had known and the young enologist of it, Joan, that makes a magistral wines, and today I had known Guillermo, people that work the soil, specialy it because theese are very good for vine farming. The bodegas has situated near from Salinas, an ancient lake of salt desiccate, this soil is specialy sandy and alkaline and difficult for the farming another plants

 

This morning, invited by Maria del Carmen, my friend Riki, my family and me take the road for going for know the bodega, terroir and people that works in this project. Yes, we have found the site when the vine farming is ideal, very much sunny in summer, differences in temperature from day to night, different soils in the same terroir and a wind pass permanently that do that the vine not need a treatment spececific, only the sulfur for preventing diseases.

When we had arrived, Joan was cooking a rice with sea fruits, and Guillermo and Maria del Carmen offers us an appetizer with the wine white that elaborate in the bodega. At the lunch time, we tasted all the wines of the bodega, white, rosé, and red young and aged in oak barrels.

In reference to wines, I remember the sensations that these resulted in the last spring, today I have tasted again, and some of these have winners an important awards in the last concurses of wines in Spain. (II Premio dels Bodeguers 2011  and Baco de Bronce 2011 ). 

 

I refer to Finca Collado Blanco 2010, a coupage 50% of Chardonnay and 50% of Muscat aged in french oak barrels to 6 month, the wine look a golden yellow and brilliant, at nose has fruits simmilar to apricot and has a mature grape, when wine pass by mouth is very fresh and fruitly, and in the last taste the muscat grape and the vanilla does a perfectly for appetizers and to eat  fish soft sauced and poultry, too for sharing with the best company.

 

The rosé and red wines, with Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon, are very round and smell are very fruit, in the mouth are very soft, including the wines that are passing 12 month barrels french and american oak. The mature cherry, strawberry, a coffe taste in the last and the wines are remembering the marmalade of red fruits.

 

In a glass all the wines are clean and brilliant, with long legs, very intense nose and soft in mouth. The conclusion is that all the wines come from a ideal climate and an unique soil for farming. Also I can say that the winemaker and the farmer had made a good work making a spectacular wines.

I think that the Finca Collado wines are the must represent the best of Alicante, thanks to the climate, soil and people that do these, I hope that the future the wines will be more spectaculars and recovering the oldest tradition of Alicante wines.

Red wines produced have a distinctly Mediterranean, with the common note in all seamless integration of the varieties with the Alicante mountains.

Thus we find Mas de Caraita 2007, a half aged wine, with three months in American oak, with a 'blend' of grenache, syrah and tempranillo, has a cherry red color with shades of brown in their trim, tears dense and greedy, the nose alcohol noticeable aromas integrated with typical Mediterranean maquis (thyme, rosemary, etc.) and reminiscent of poppies, the acidity in the mouth just in the first attack, pleasant on the palate with hints of freshly torn roots, wet limestone and fruity aftertaste the forest.

Entrepins 2007 with 12 months in American oak barrels, we found a spectacular 'blend' of Merlot (82%) and the rest Cabernet Sauvignon, has a cherry red color with violet tones in their trim, alcoholic nose is reminiscent of fresh baked dough , cedar wood and caramel aromas, tannins on the palate, hints of Mediterranean pine resin, very easy to drink, toasted aromas, earthy nutty moist forest.

Agulló 2007, a 'blend' of Tempranillo (80%) and Cabernet Sauvignon, with a cherry red with orange tones on the rim, has a more floral nose, reminding the mountain flowers mixed with orange blossoms in the mouth is strong wine of serious demeanor with a sense astringent and somewhat bitter, reminiscent of last drink mosses, roots, liquorice and notes some vegetables.

 For dessert we made a liquor wine Moscatel La Sort, Roman Muscat grapes overripe on the ground, which paints a very bright golden color with aromas of honey, dried fruits (apricots, prunes, dates, ...) In the mouth, just sweetness, not being cloying, with hints of orange, pine resin and unnoticed just alcohol in your finish.

We find that these wines, whose distribution is still mainly in European markets, integrated perfectly the traditional Mediterranean and into the mountains of Alicante and its coastline, in turn are perfect for food pairing in the area, such as rice, the blue fish, grilled vegetables and meat dishes with red and white. 

Although it is very difficult to remember all the wines I have tasted in the XXII Mostra held in Valencia these days, I'll list the ones I've tasted, with links to their site, I promise to comment in more detail each of them.

To thank those wineries that welcomed me with open arms and those who have given me some samples to make tasting notes at home with greater ease, because I assure you that the fifth wine and surrounded by so many people is impossible to concentrate on describe the flavors and sensations that wine conveys.

At some wineries I left a dossier that inlclude an interview published in the portal www.mundovino.net ,Beatriz is the driving wine blogger of this website. Also comment that the dossier of Desmonts International Market Development  is an opportunity to make known the wine to more than 70 million consumers and worth trying.

Once again thank all the organizers and exhibitors the work you do and that I should go on to spread the culture of wine and traditional food with pleasure these days we have tasted.
 
List of wines tested in the XXII Mostra de Valencia.

Entrepins 2007 (Bodegas Porsellanes)

Agulló 2007 (Bodegas Porsellanes)

Caraita (Bodegas Porsellanes)

Equinoccio (Ladrón de Lunas)

Los Pin0s% (Bodega Los Pinos)

Los Pinos Crianza 2004 (Bodega Los Pinos)

Cabernet f (Chozas Carrascal)

Las dos ces (Chozas Carrascal)

Finca Collado 2005 (Bodegas Finca Collado)

Vega Infante 2009 (Bodegas Utielanas)

Rafael Cambra 2 (Bodegas Rafael Cambra)

Sucesion Bobal Rva. 2004 (Bodegas Covilor)

Casa Don Angel Malbec 5-6 (Vera de Estenas)

Mas de Bazan Bobal (Agro de Bazan S.A.)

Horma del Hoyo 2007 (Bodegas Cerro Gallina S.L.)

Cueva Selección de Finca 2006  (Bodegas Cueva)

Cueva Selección de Finca 2007  (Bodegas Cueva)

Last Wednesday was inaugurated XXII Mostra de Vins, Caves, Licors i XX d'Aliments Tradicionals de la Comunitat Valenciana (Exhibition of wines, champagnes, liqueurs and traditional foods), and I tried the best of our land and had the opportunity to meet many people and to see old acquaintances. Until I was in the position of Bodegas Porsellanes (DO Alicante) as a commentator on its wines.

Well I leave the pictures in the morning, the late-night did not do any and devoted myself to taste the wines that interested me most, which will give account in the next post.

To the south of Valencia in the province of Alicante, lies the town of Novelda, famous for its marble industry and spices and seasonings of the mark Carmencita. There we found the winery Heretat de Cesilia, a modern winery, but charming built around the home of the Marques de La Romana to the early eighteenth century. 

Access to the cellar is easy from the A-31 road towards Alicante or Madrid, always looking for the train station and an access road to the farm. Dispose farm 30 hectares of vineyards to produce wine, with varidades as Monastrell, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Petit Verdot, Chardonnay, Macabeo and Albariño among others. The rest of the farm produces table grapes, such as in Spain we usually consume each December 31 to the sound of 12 bells.

  Upon arrival found a large door, surrounded by Frand chains that lead us to a modern style building, where the reception, tasting room and store its products. Once gathered in a meeting that begins a visit to the site. In this case we have been with Nuria and Patricia have taken us around the winery, making a brief and concise explanation of the important details and routine of running it. 


We visited the house in 1707 the  Marques de La Romana of the time, with the tools and the restoration of the same (say that the present owners, of Galician origin, live there), going to see a small garden with two precious jewels, a tractor of the early twentieth century and a sea anchor of a ship of the era brought there from the north of Spain.