Sunday, September 14, 2014

Wines of La Vuelta: The Final Stage: Recaredo Brut Nature Cave 2008

Santiago de Compostela 9.7 km Timetrial
And this is how the Vuelta ends: with a short time trial. No changes are expected today. Alberto Contador should win the race, followed by Chris Froome and Alejandro Valverde. Was Contador sandbagging at the beginning of the race or simply not certain of his form? One way or the other, he was clearly the strongest rider in the race. Froome raced well, also recovering well from his Tour injury. With Tony Martin and Fabian Cancellara home training for the world championship race, the only question is: who will be our stage winner? 
In other news, congratulations to Adam Hansen on his 10th consecutive grand tour. Also, my favorite photo of the race:



 
On the road: bad weather and a very slippery surface. Our early leader: Malori at 11:12. Most of the remaining big names were taking the course very gingerly. Really, another dull day. That has mainly been how this Wines of the Vuelta has been: good wines, mainly dull stages. I promise, other days had excitement!

 Stage: Adriano Malori

2 Jesse Sergent (NZl) Trek Factory Racing 0:00:08  
3 Rohan Dennis (Aus) BMC Racing Team 0:00:09  
4 Vasil Kiryienka (Blr) Team Sky 0:00:17  
5 Jimmy Engoulvent (Fra) Team Europcar 0:00:18  
6 Sergei Chernetski (Rus) Team Katusha    
7 Maciej Bodnar (Pol) Cannondale    
8 Alexey Lutsenko (Kaz) Astana Pro Team    
9 Jasper Stuyven (Bel) Trek Factory Racing 0:00:19  
10 Damien Gaudin (Fra) AG2R La Mondiale    

 GC: Alberto Contador


Wine: Recaredo Brut Nature Cave 2008
From Frankly Wines $35.99
Christy says: One of the pricier cavas on the market, but it's fantastic - clean, mineral, biodynamically grown.

From the producer: In 1878, Recaredo Mata Figueres was born in the town of Sant Sadurní d’Anoia. In 1924, his son, Josep Mata Capellades, began to work in the world of cava and produce some bottles. It was he that was the founder of Cavas Recaredo. “Can Recaredo”, is the name by which our firm has always been known.
Josep Mata Capellades built the cellars in his house, in the historic centre of Sant Sadurní d'Anoia. Some parts of the cellars are over 80 years old, and have been conserved retaining their original form.
It was Josep Mata Capellades who forged Recaredo’s identity, based on know-how, professionalism and hard work. He marked the way forward in his own style, being a pioneer in the production of totally dry cavas, the Cavas Brut Nature, in working with oak barrels and in longer-aged cavas.
Currently, the third generation is at the forefront of Cava Recaredo. 

 I say: I am a big fan of sparkling wine. But know very little  about Cava. I tend to think most often of inexpensive bottles used in mimosas. For the record, I hate mimosas.
This article from Eric Asimov tells me that I am not the only one.  From the article "If ever a grape needed a champion, it may well be xarello. It suffers pronunciation woes (in Catalan, it’s shah-RELL-lo; in Castilian, hah-RELL-lo; in English, zah-RELL-oh). It has spelling issues (it’s often written xarel-lo among numerous other renderings). Most important, it is guilty by association as a key component of cava, the Spanish sparkling wine that most people consider at best cheap and cheerful and at worst a headache in a glass."

This wine is not that. Clean and floral with small bubbles. Not at all like the cavas I have had in the past. It could stand up to food, but I liked it as an aperitif.
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