Rioja is successfully resisting the trend, seen in the remainder of Spain, to produce jammy, sweetish, oaky, highly alcoholic and ordinary wines, which are currently severely damaging the reputation of Spanish wines in general, in spite of generous ratings and reviews, particularly in American media. There were few tastings in the course of the past year that saw us as enthusiastic as this one.

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The Navarra region is located in the northeast of Spain, between the Pyrenees and the Ebro valley. The situation is unique on the Iberian peninsula, with a meeting of Atlantic, continental and Mediterranean climates, producing exceptionally diverse ecosystems and vegetation: hillside slopes, river landscapes, plains and high-altitude plains combine to create a diverse landscape. The wine growing region covers a vineyard area of around 12,000 hectares, and is located to the south of the regional capital Pamplona and bears the protected designation of origin “Denominación de Origen Protegida” (DOP). Navarra consists of five growing districts: Baja Montaña, Valdizarbe, Tierra Estella, Ribera Alta and Ribera Baja.

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Brunello di Montalcino is anything but a simple and easily approachable wine. A top-notch Brunello is decidedly tart, even austere, often cool and very firm, its fruit is challenging rather than silky. After some ups and down in quality round about the millennium, which was probably a result of a too rapid increase in vineyard area and in the number of producers, the outstanding 2006 vintage sees a superb return to form for Brunello di Montalcino. It can be said that never before has a vintage shown so many wines of such quality. At the same time, at this stage many of the Brunellos tasted remained rather closed, in spite of extensive aeration. We believe a few more years of bottle maturation will see a further improvement in many of these wines.

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