The fruit presence was ripe and I got subtle hints of vanilla, which matches my reading material
WINE DETAILS:
- Grape: Bobal
- Alcohol: 13.5%
- Wine: Bobos Finca Las Borrachas
- Vintage: 2018
- Winery: Bodegas Hispano+Suizas
- DOP: Utiel-Requena
- Location: Valencia, Spain
- Date: 5/24/21
- Distributor: PR Supplies
Curious Synonyms: Bovale, Nieddera, Provechon, Balauro, Rajeno, Benicarlo
Nerd Alert: The presence of Bobal in Utiel-Requena was documented in the 15th century in “Espill o llibre de les dones” by Jaume Roig. It represents about 80% of the red grapes vines grown there. Bobal’s thick skins have a high amount of anthocyanins, giving the wine a deep, intense color as well as a good tannic structure. In the past, its main function was to produce grape concentrate, and provide color and acidity to other grape varieties such as Monastrell or Cabernet Sauvignon.
Personal Note: I got a chance to meet Pablo Ossorio (the oenologist) once back in 2018. I was just starting to write about wine again when a friend who was bringing this wine to the island invited me to an event to try some of the wines. You know I’ve gone to many wine presentations in my aficionado tenure and hearing about a wine from it’s oenologist is always a treat. The level of passion with which they speak is something else. Mr. Ossorio, now he was a good salesman as well. So he talked about the land, his risks, he shared about his team’s plan, and the international varietals they were growing and then of course we tried some of the wines. Among them, there was this wine, obviously a different vintage.
Now let’s be honest. A lot of people on this side of the Atlantic that drink red spanish wines, usually go for Tempranillo. I mean we are talking about a 3 to 1 ratio of hectares to begin with, let alone marketing. But this varietal is locally available. In this wine it shows as elegant yet bold and medium on acidity and tannins. The fruit presence was ripe and I got subtle hints of vanilla, which matches my reading material that it uses french oak, not american. I would love to try this wine with at least seven to ten years and see how it evolves. It’d be interesting to see more people venture out of their varietal comfort zone.
Thoughts?
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*Sources for the wine facts are from: Wine Searcher, Wikipedia, Vivino, wine.com, and the wineries websites.
