Sunday, March 7, 2010
Visiting Vera de Estenas Cellar (Utiel)
With the truce in this harsh winter we are having and a timid sun that appeared for no more than 30 minutes, we decided to put toward Utiel feet, about 85 km from Valencia city, to try to visit the cellar that produces Vera Estenas, Casa Don Angel or Martinez Bermell among others.
The winery is located in the municipality of Utiel and is accessed from the A-3 road and the old N-III road from exit 281, the Finca La Cabezuela, an extension of vineyards in the house in the middle and on top of a hill-type 'Château'.
The winery is located in the municipality of Utiel and is accessed from the A-3 road and the old N-III road from exit 281, the Finca La Cabezuela, an extension of vineyards in the house in the middle and on top of a hill-type 'Château'.
The farm has different soil types with clay composition in the lower zone, and the more we ascend in the field becomes more calcareous and stony. On arrival we were attended Felix Martinez, manager of the cellar, and who very kindly showed us the charms of this wine, very familiar and traditional.
The Malbec grape, originally from southwestern France, is perfectly suited to this arena, as we said Felix, and although associated with large Argentine wines, which is the most widely grown variety, it seems that in our land can be adapted perfectly, as in once was the Syrah. The wine made from this variety, on this farm is host to the DO Utiel-Requena, but not not go to a wine to try, today will notice a small bottle with a stew of Valencia to the marriage to appreciate this wine that we can bring to the traditional food of Valencia.
The rest of the visit was to tour the winery where they are deposits of maceration and fermentation, barrel room, the warehouse and the old house. The house is in the early twentieth century, with a house surrounded by a beautiful garden, in slope, where the spring should give a spectacular color and aromas. Accessed by stairs and iron porch after a modernist, entered the house, ceramic floors and walls, we saw the entry and stay, we visited the ancient cellar.
The old cellar is a place where they have used the old underground tanks for storing bottles of all this working winery, is especially beautiful and allows the wines rest in an atmosphere of gloom and constant temperature, ideal for studying the evolution of them.
The visit ended with a stay in a room where all the vintage sets compiled, decorative trim and a stunning collection of spirits that hold a special attraction for a tasting room.
The visit ended with a stay in a room where all the vintage sets compiled, decorative trim and a stunning collection of spirits that hold a special attraction for a tasting room.
We tasted Vera de Estenas 2006 Crianza, a red wine with more than 2 years aging between barrel and bottle, 4 varieties such as Cabernet, Merlot, Tempranillo and Bobal, a wine with a cherry red color (no good light to describe best color), to stop drink flavors reminiscent of ripe grapes, to evoke the hectic cup oak, ripe berries and some toasted note. Flavor a good step, but expressive tannins turn mild aftertaste of roasted vanilla and cedar. An excellent wine and successful.
After saying goodbye to Felix and part of his family who accompanied us on the visit because the direction of San Antonio (Requena) to enjoy a not inconsiderable sausage based dish of the area irrigated by a red tempranillo in the area that the landlord advised us and we delighted in eating, a day of cold weather truce but for what we advertised for this coming week.
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