Berry Bros & Rudd have been putting a lot of work into their Spanish and Italian lists of late, and the results are very encouraging. Here are two lovely Spanish wines, at different ends of the price spectrum. They both deliver.
Telmo Rodriguez Almuvedre 2012 Alicante, Spain
Beautifully aromatic with bright cherry fruit. Floral and fresh with a hint of pepper. Fresh, juicy palate with bright, supple fruit and a bit of spice. Fresh and delightful and an amazing value for money red. 90/100 (£8.95 Berry Bros & Rudd)
Lopez de Heredia Vina Tondonia Gran Reserva Blanco 1991 Rioja, Spain
Full yellow colour. Amazing nose of toast, peach, citrus, salt and nuts. The palate is complex and tangy with lovely citrus and pear fruit. It’s fresh, nutty and tangy with a matchstick minerality. So complex and intense, with a long finish. 95/100 (£65 Berry Bros & Rudd)
£65 for a bottle of Viña Tondonia? I’m shocked and horrified, even though I know there’s 20% VAT and £3.80/bottle excise duty. I only mention this because I was driving up to Rioja last weekend and I stopped off for a coffee at a roadside café on the A-1 Madrid-Burgos highway and did they not have a chilled cabinet full of wines for sale, one of which was a Viña Tondonia 1996, at the price of €16 (sixteen euros)!! So needless to say I just bought one, as that’s even cheaper than in a wineshop in Madrid!!! On the other hand, in London you can find any wine in the world, whereas here in Spain the only wines you can find are wines from Spain, unless you work hard to seek others out! Still, £65 seems a bit excessive, even counting transport and a middleman’s reasonable margin!