September 2024 Tinto Wine Club

Xabre 2021 Mencia Blend Regular Price: $37.99 Club Price: $   32.99 Buy Now

Once again, we return to the stunning inland region of Galicia, known as Ribera Sacra. It’s remarkable to think that 20 years ago, this region was virtually unknown, and no noteworthy wines could be found there. The local wines were rustic and reductive, drinkable only if you were in a bar, enjoying food and hanging out with locals. Today, however, the quality of wines has improved so significantly that it is rare we come across one that is lacking.
Eulogio Pomares, a seventh-generation winemaker at Zarate in Rias Baixas, is renowned for his white wines. He also produces small quantities of reds at Zarate, which we can sometimes get in six-packs. Additionally, he and his wife have started their own project under the name Fento Wines.

Xabre (pronounced "shah-bray”), named after the weathered sandy granite soils found in Rias Baixas and Ribera Sacra, is made from grapes sourced from the Bibei area around Manzaneda (where Laura Lorenzo and Envinate also produce wines, specifically from the Quiroga-Bibei sub-area). The wine primarily features Mencia, but also includes Souson, Garnacha Tintorera, and Mouraton.
We’ve enjoyed this wine in the past, and the 2021 vintage is particularly impressive. It is silky and very attractive both on the nose and on the palate. I decided to feature it as a club wine because it displays what some might describe as a “Burgundian” character: medium-bodied, with beautiful aromatic qualities, and a seamless palate offering flavors of delicate red fruit, a subtle hint of spice, crushed flowers, and good minerality with a precise finish. This makes it a very complete wine.
Luis Gutierrez of The Wine Advocate consistently gives Xabre high marks, noting that it is stylish, balanced, and well-crafted. He described Xabre as fitting the quiet personality of Pomares—sleek, polished, and balanced. Its medium body features very polished tannins and integrated acidity, making it seamless, elegant, and nuanced rather than rustic and explosive. It is, quite simply, delicious and thoroughly enjoyable and punches above its weight, offering exceptional value for its price. After our tasting I had a glass for dinner with one of my shelf-favorites Matiz Giant Calamari with White Beans and Pimenton. ¡Qué rrrrrico!

 

Bodegas Lanzaga 2019 Tempranillo Regular Price: $54.99 Club Price: $46.75 Buy Now

Telmo Rodriguez has firmly placed himself in the upper echelons of Spanish wine makers. His parents owned an operated Remelluri near Labastida in Rioja, but he left to work on his own projects throughout Spain and then returned to Rioja to start his own small winery Bodegas Lanzaga in 1994. He has also returned to winemaking in Remelluri.
Throughout the decade, his winemaking has reached a new level. He was an early proponent of switching to biodynamic vineyard management, and the results are definitely showing in his wines. The Tempranillo wines he is producing are truly benefiting from these practices.
Telmo is a vocal advocate for vineyard, driven wines, and has been a leader in pushing the DOC to start accepting single vineyards and villages labeled on bottles (traditionally the emphasis has been on aging rather than vineyards.) the Lanzaga is a field blend that is predominantly Tempranillo with some Garnacha and Graciano. The fruit comes from several different vineyards around Lanciego. This has, deep intense flavors that fill the mouth and then linger. This wine isn’t just about density and flavor, true elegance resides in the bottle. It is a very pretty wine.
James suckling wrote “the beauty of the fruit in this wine shows balance, and reserve. Yet it is so fine.“ And Louise Gutierrez also praised it “elegant subtle and balanced, with ripe fruit without excess and nicely integrated oak. The pallet shows nice concentration and power, keeping the poise and elegance with good balance, fine tannins and moderate acidity. Nice combination of elegance and power.