First of all the color was a beautiful amber for such a young wine and the nose was of mead and somewhat ripe pears.
WINE DETAILS:
- Grape: Parellada
- Alcohol: 11.5%
- Wine: Honeymoon
- Vintage: 2017
- Winery: Pares de Balta
- Location: Penedes, Spain
- Date: 4/9/21
- Distributor: Serralles
Curious Synonyms: Martorella, Montonec, Montonega, Montonero, Parellada Blac, Perellada
Nerd Alert: One of the three traditional varieties used to make the sparkling wine Cava. Spanish plantations stood at 10,000 hectares (25,000 acres) in 2004. Parellada performs best at higher altitudes, where the growing season is both cooler and longer than in lower-lying areas. A tiny amount of Parellada is used to make still wines.
Personal Note: Parellada is not a well known grape in Puerto Rico. The few that know, only know it as one of the grapes in Cava, percentages be damned. So imagine my surprise, going on a roadtrip with my family, to a remote hidden beach, quite far from the metropolitan area, stopping in a small rural market and being who I am, frolicking through the small wine area because…why not? And as I see the typical riojas, and malbecs and chardonnay’s we find in most stores, I see this wine with a big orange H within the spanish wines. And then I turn it around and read 100% Parellada. Quite a happenstance. Now, if anybody has read my previous stories, something a little bit similar happened in Thanksgiving with Rivaner. What’s even crazier is that on both occasions, they come from the same distributor. Anyway I didn’t open the wine right away but I did squeezed it into this milestone on account of an error I made with another grape (more on that later). When I did, this was not what I expected of it. First of all the color was a beautiful amber for such a young wine and the nose was of mead and somewhat ripe pears. Not my run of the mill aromas that’s for sure. Now I got an interesting pairing when I combined it with some Brie puffs. It turned compelling. That being said, I found the acidity to be quite low. Still, I don’t know if this profile is because it has 4+ years and it’s a drink now wine or if this is what I should expect of this grape on its own. What do my friends from Spain say?
Thoughts?
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*Sources for the wine facts are from: Wine Searcher, Wikipedia, Vivino, wine.com, and the wineries websites.
