Special offer
Spectator Wine Club
Auberon Waugh
brussels sprouts in any civilised country. well spent.
T know nothing about Spanish wine and seem to me to represent Spanish value for The Spectaior 17 September 190 produced by slow fermentation at 1°.! temperature with no cask-age at all 111(1r result is at the same time fruity, clean an, fresh. Highly recommended as a white
to see the autumn out. in
The 1976 Muga Red (2) from Ham the Rioja Alta, is produced by traditionl.lnY barbaric Spanish methods — kept a YeariA vat, two years in oak before being clarifievs by the whites of eggs (the so-calledwhile, of Spanish eggs, I should say). But this Pa' ticular wine emerges from the process well — a superb bouquet, light and elegal in the mouth, good bricky colour. Spa the wine snobs will also be impressed bY name of Muga, which is more than Yon °' I would be. At £3.02 it beats any elarethe know under the £6.00 .price range with the know
exception of Berry Bros' give 1972s (see last offer).
The next wine, apparently called 'Cerrt.Q1 Anon Reserve 1973' is made by a stte magnate called Luis Olarra just outside fris provincial capital of Rioja, Logrono. 1"hr, was my favourite of the three reds on offeit being full and rich with enough tannin to remind one that life is not all sugaria'fo spice. It is made by the most ninu:,e'ts methods. Although extremely cheaP 1 , ".n unmistakably a very high quality wine 7; deed, and if one could ever forgive SP, for the extraordinary boorishness of itailn habitants and their abominable crueltY ing the Inquisition, it would wipe the fin" with any French competition. Vina Tesos Gran Reserve 1973 is the ninsdt Spanish of the three reds, with comPlie°!eri. Moorish undertones of jealousy and re"I bution. If you are prepared to believe, as,a, am, that Desdemona (like Dreyfus).de probably guilty, and Othello's abieno great mistake, you will probably find a your tipple. It is a heavy, expensive-tast; wine with enough tannin to save it fronl the wine vanilla-flavoured nenrinl:e,.11: tality which is the first choice of this bil"I're short-legged race. Personally I will continuo. to look to France for all my deePer tions, but Hispanophiles will love it.
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