Spanish Serenade Generous Garnacha Tier1

A tasting experience, from the comfort of home.

04.24.20

Unlocking the Wines of the Spanish Serenade: The Generous Garnacha Tier-1

A sip of Spanish Garnacha is like a golden key, unlocking a secret passage Tasting Guide Contents to a happy state in a magical instant. With each sip, Spanish Garnacha Wine Selections creates a chain reaction — the body warms, heart opens, shoulders relax, Grape Profile face softens, and an eagerness grows to sip again. Unlike its French Place Matters counterpart, Grenache, Spanish Garnacha is cheerful and bubbly, buxom Tasting Exercise & Notes and curvaceous, soft and easy. This week, we’re bringing these flavors Food Pairings straight to you with our first-ever at-home tasting event. Pick up the bottles in Key Terms store, print out our guide, and let your taste buds travel to Spain without ever leaving your couch.

2020. All Rights Reserved. 04.24.20 Chapillon Siendra 2016 Unlocking the Wines of the Spanish Serenade: The Generous Garnacha - Tier-1 Varietal/Blend: • 80% Old Vine Garnacha • 7% Syrah • 7% Cabernet Sauvignon • 7% Merlot Place: Aragón Oak: 12 months French

Wine Selections Chapillon Cuvee Paul 2016 Each wine this week is an old vine Garnacha, Varietal/Blend: which means it comes from vines at least 40 years old. • 100% Garnacha Place: D.O Calatayud Oak: 12 months

Estrada Palacio Vispius Blend: • 50% Garnacha • 50% Tempranillo Place: D.O. Somontano

Grape Proﬁle In warm climates, Garnacha is a generous grape that produces wine with an • Garnacha is like Pinot Noir in that they share the same primary fruit abundance of black and red cherry fruits. Understanding what Garnacha is flavor — cherry. In warm climates, Garnacha grapes ripen to a like in comparison to popular U.S. grapes will help zipline your understanding black cherry with low acidity, yielding a juicy and soft mouthfeel. In of the varietal. cooler climates, the grape brightens to a red cherry, rendering a vivacious mouthfeel.

• Garnacha is like Syrah. The grapes share an inherently lower acidity and medium tannins allowing for bombastic fruit expression, especially in warmer and hot climates. In cooler climates, both grapes can produce surprising structures; hence, the great Châteauneuf de Papes, Rotie, Mendocino, McLaren Vale.

• Garnacha is like Cabernet Sauvignon in that they are both packed with flavors and body.

Place matters: All about the Aragón Garnacha is a late ripening grape and needs a hot and dry growing season. The Aragon region in northeastern Spain offers these conditions. Aragon is in the northeastern part of Spain, bordering southwestern France. In the north, the Pyerenees create a natural border between Aragon and France. To the west, the Sistema Ibérico mountain range creates a regional border between the Calatayud municipality and the rest of western Spain. The Ebro River cuts through Aragon creating myriad tributaries that temper the extreme climates that exist between Aragon’s northern and southern regions. For these reasons, four different Denominación de Origen (Protegidas), or D.O.(P.)s exist in the Aragon region. Two out of four D.O.P.s are represented this week: D. O. Calatayud & D. O. Somotano. Chapillon Siendra is the one exception in our selection, as the grapes are sourced from the entire Aragon region — as a result, there are no specific terroir notes for this wine

Chapillon Cuvee Paul is sourced from D.O. Calatayud, the southwestern Estrada Palacio Vispius is sourced from D.O. Somotano which area of Aragon. The Iberic system mountain range runs through the whole of means “under the mountain”. It’s a region renowned for its quality Calatayud, partitioning it into three geographical subzones: inner central wines. Here, the Pyerenees provide plenty of protection and rain for valley and two eastern mountainous stretches. The elevation varies from Somotano. The soil is rich in dark clay and limestone, producing wines 500-1000 meters, creating a cooler climate in the hot and arid. Most of the with a softer mouthfeel. The dark clay expedites the ripening stages vines have been planted in loose, sandy soils, which helps with drainage to of Garnacha (a late ripener) and that is much needed as the Pyernees avoid water logging. There’s also high limestone content in the sandy soils creates a continental climate of hot summers and bitterly cold and which help vines retain acidity. You’ll definitely taste the vibrancy of the frost-threatening winters. The wines tend to be denser and richer. acidity.

2020. All Rights Reserved. 04.24.20 Unlocking the Wines of the Spanish Serenade: The Generous Garnacha - Tier-1 Chapillon Cuvee Paul – 100% Garnacha – D. O. Calatayud a. Sight: garnet b. Smell: red cherries, spice, and toasted oak. c. Sip: Primary Note: cherries, but red cherries with great acidity Body: medium plus body (bigger than Pinot Noir), light and lively on mouthfeel Finish: finishes dry with toasted oak and lively acidity that acts like a bold one-two punch Tasting Exercise & Notes Step 1 Chapillon Siendra – 80% Garnacha, 7% Syrah, 7% Cab Sauv, and 6% Merlot Look at the color of the wine in the glass. Tip the glass at a 45-degree angle a. Sight: garnet with tinge of purple, not as light as the Chapillon Cuvee Paul with sunlight and see how much the intensity of the color continues from the b. Smell: blackberry and black cherry, tobacco, and smoke core to the rim. Or, look at the glass from above and see if you can the stem. c. Sip: Primary Notes: rush of blackberry and boysenberry Step 2 Body: full and expands in your mouth, the weighty fruit is felt in the mid-palate Swirl and Sniff. Place just your nose into the glass and breath in. Finish: starts off with a blast of black fruit and finishes with underlying peppery and Concentrate on the nose. Do you have to work hard to smell something or is smoky notes the smell effusive? Do you smell fruit right away or just something else. Estrada Palacio Vispius – 50% Garnacha and 50% Tempranillo – D.O. Somotano Step 3 a. Sight: garnet and opaque. Sip and hold. As a beginner, just sip and hold the wine in your mouth for 10 b. Smell: ripe plum and black fruit with fresh flower stems. seconds and breath into your mouth. Then swallow, close your mouth, and c. Sip: breath into it. The emerging science has confirmed olfactory receptors are Primary Notes: densely packed black plum and boysenberry rich fruits present in the mouth. For intermediate and advanced, sip and aerate. Then Body: full body and soft finally, spit or swallow. Is there something that lingers after you sip or spit? Is Finish: jammy, soft, and rich fruit that lingers the finish clean or does it linger?

Food Pairings Spices, Herbs, and Fungi Vegetables and Fruits Chipotle Roasted Red or Green Bell Peppers Portobello, preferably with Swiss or Manchego Olive Tapenade or Spread Cumin Eggplant Paprika Grilled Vegetables

Dairy Protein Swiss Chorizo Manchego Serrano Ham Colby Jack Lamb Gruyere Game Smoked and Fatty Fish (e.g. Trout and Salmon) Vegetables and Fruits Roasted Red or Green Bell Peppers Global Pairings Olive Tapenade or Spread Indian Curries Eggplant Lamb Stews Goulash

Key Terms Notes prepared by: Siri Nyman, Wine Buyer D.O. in Spain means, “denominación de origen” like “AVA,” which means “American Viticultural Area,” the regional classification we have in the States. [email protected] They share two similar functions: both represent and hold the regulatory powers to recognize a region and create general rules of varietal labeling. But that’s where the similarity ends. AVA is approved by the Alcohol and Tobacco, Tax, and Trade Bureau, of which alcohol is one of many categories. The Spanish DO, like other European wine-producing regions, has a separate regulatory body that focuses just on vine and wine productions.

D.O.P., Denominación de Origen Protegida, replaced D.O., Denominación de Origen, in 2016 and there are several wineries that still use the D.O. system but eventually all the wineries will be mandated to convert into D.O.P. label. The Pyrenees Mountains are an extensive mountain range that separates Spain from the rest of Europe.

Iberica Systems is a vast chain of mountain ranges and massifs that cover the east side of the Ebro River. A massif is a densely grouped mountain chain that is separated from other groups of mountains within the same system. TopTenLiquors.com/athome