This morning, I had a preparation session at the Balcon Hotel for a wedding this coming Thursday. Clare came and joined me afterwards and we did some shopping, including another visit to the new 'Modus Vivendi' eco-shop. This time, we bought some excellent rye bread, delicious olives, sourced from the Tarragona area, and a bottle of high quality grape juice, pressed from Graciano grapes I've never heard of, from the vicinity of Toledo - not a grape concentrate, but such a rich intense juice, it keeps imparting flavour diluted with ten times its volume of water, if not more. Delicious!
I also bought a bottle of white bio wine sourced from Montilla-Moriles near Cadiz using Verdejo grapes. The first taste took me back to Greece forty years ago, and the sun soaked flavour of white wine used in retsina - I didn't then appreciate retsina, it's an acquired taste, but plain white was usually on offer as well, and that pure simple flavour so reminds me of when I first learned to enjoy drinking wine, in the days when Greek wine was a variable feast. At least wine in those days was fairly preservative free, meant to be drunk young and fresh. It could, however, be inconsistent in a way that's not true of wine retailed nowadays.
I suspect the quality of this Spanish Verdejo is always consistent. The experience of modern western organic wine-making behind it, captures an ancient taste for the modern palate with little chemical intevention. The same region produces the Amontillado fortified wines of similar character. I'm less enthusiastic about drinks whose quality is best appreciated in small sips, that make me hot 'n dizzy if gulped. To each their own taste.
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