When I started going to regular tastings in Dublin in 2008, one of the areas where I climbed a steep learning curve was Spanish white wines. As I had been focused on French and “new world” whites up to that point, Verdejo, Albariño, Godello and others were totally new to me. I learnt quickly! But it’s only in the last five years that I’ve come to realise that there are no real limits on how good these wines can be. Along with Rafael Palacios, Belondrade’s wines keep on pushing the boundaries for Spanish whites.

Verdejo and Rueda

Although Verdejo and Rueda are inextricably linked, Verdejo is actually thought to have originated in North Africa, and was brought to northern Spain by Christians under Muslim rule around a millennium ago. The wines were made for centuries in an oxidative style, not unlike Sherry, until the variety almost died out. Ángel Rodríguez Vidal of Bodega Martinsancho saved Verdejo from extinction and used it to make a fresher style of table wine, helping to establish the Rueda DO. His success was amplified by Rioja’s Marqués de Riscal who, seeking a source of fruity whites to sell alongside their own reds, poured significant investment into the area.

The fortified wines are still made in Rueda, as is a sparkling wine, but the still fresh style is by some margin the most popular. Verdejo is also grown in Castilla-La Mancha and Estremadura.

Sauvignon Blanc is also grown in Rueda, either as a blending component with Verdejo or as a principal variety. My person experience with these wines has been less favourable than Vedejo dominant wines.

Monsieur / Señor Didier Belondrade: A Frenchman in Spain

The third act of the Rueda story belongs to Didier Belondrade. he has recognised the potential in Rueda’s Verdejo and moved there to begin his own project in 1994. The first wine he produced was under the label Belondrade y Lurton, and showed a distinctly Bugundian approach, with oak and less used for both fermentation and maturation. The estate covers 40 hectares divided into 23 plots, each picked and vinified separately. Viticulture us certified organic but this isn’t mentioned on the label.

Quality has been improved year on year, with a big step coming after the construction of a new winery at La Seca in 2000. The range was extended with two wines named after his two daughters: a 100% rosé Tempranillo named Quinta Clarisa and a 100% Verdejo named Quinta Apolonia (the wine detailed below). Producing the latter as a second wine means that only the very best grapes go into the first wine, enhancing its quality.

Balancing delicately at the very top of the Belondrade quality pyramid is Les Parcelles, a super-premium wine made from grapes harvested from two plots over two days in 2018. After 18 months in the barrel, 1994 bottles were filled and laid down for a further three years before release. The eagle-eyed among you will have noticed that the number of bottles corresponds to the year the winery was founded. As wellas the quality being super-premium, the price is super-premium at €410 on their website.

Belondrade Quinta Apolonia Vino de la Tierra Castilla Y León 2020

Belondrade Quinta Apolonia

As mentioned above, one of the reasons for the creation of this wine was to find a home for fruit that weren’t the very best, and thus excluded from the flagship wine. However, this doesn’t mean substandard fruit are used, just those berries which might not be the most complex or concentrated. Quinta Apolonia is designed to showcase the Verdejo variety rather than the wine-making, so it’s a fresher and more accessible style than Belondrade Y Lurton. Alcoholic fermentation is with natural yeast, but temperature controlled to preserve freshness. After ten months ageing on the lees, a blend is made from different plots and different fermenation vessels, then bottled for five months before release. Quinta Apolonia is designed to be drunk within six to eight years of vintage.

I tried this bottle at three and a half to four years after vintage, smack bang in the middle of the suggested drinking range. And it’s singing! the nose is elegantly perfumed with fresh pip and stone fruit. The palate is deliciously creamy and textured, with more fruit than a smoothie, and great acidity. It manages to be simultaeously a wine to pair with white fish and a wine to pair with roast chicken – very few can do both well.

In the low to mid twenties retail price point in Ireland, there’s very little to touch this wine.

ABV: 13.5%
RRP: €23 – €28
Source: purchased from Pinto Wines, Drumcondra
Stockists: Pinto Wines, Drumcondra; drinkstore.ie; Martins Off Licence, Fairview; Deveney’s of Dundrum;

Conclusion

I’ve been lucky enough to taste both this wine and the big sister Belondrade Y Lurton several times over the past five years. On each occasion, I prefered the junior wine. I found the Y Lurton too closed and not expressive enough, even with price taken out of the equation. So what gives? In essence, I think the senior wine needs time, time which I’ve been unable to give it.

However, I did just stumble across this article on Belondrade Y Lurton from my esteemed colleague John Wilson. Please do read it for yourself, but – writing in 2023 – he calls the 2018 an “Outstanding wine”. So perhaps I need to lay a few down myself.

In April I was delighted to be invited to lunch at Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel to meet Miguel Angel Bocos from Pesquera, one of the foremost producers in Spain’s Ribero del Duero. Along with a tasty lunch Miguel took us through five of the Pesquera Group’s current releases. But first, a bit of background to set the scene…

Disclosure: food and wine were covered by generous hosts James Nicholson Wine Merchant; opinions are mine alone.

Origins and Development of Pesquera

Quite simply Pesquera exists due to one man, Alejandro Fernández, and one place, the Ribero del Duero in northern Spain. Raised in a traditional small-holding family, Alejandro had a burning desire to create his own Bodega. He chose the Ribero del Duero region which, at that time, was barely known apart from the very grand Vega Sicilia. After 10 years of hard work, he restored a modest 16th century stone-built bodega in the village of Pesquera and began to bottle his wine.

Compared to the well-established Vega Sicilia, which included Bordeaux grapes Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec and Merlot in their blends, Alejandro produced wines which were 100% Tinto Fino – the local name for Tempranillo. Whereas some Rioja wines can be on the light side, when it comes to Tempranillo fruit, and so can need beefing up, well grown Tinto Fino vines in the Ribero produce thicker skinned grapes and hence darker, deeper coloured wines. There may well be some clonal differences between the two regions, but essentially it’s the sharper differences between day and night temperatures plus poor soil which turbocharge Ribero’s grapes.

After years of success, Alejandro gradually expanded the group. Firstly, Condado de Haza was also established in the Ribero del Duero, though with a subtly different microclimate and soil profile. Later he expanded further west with Dehesa La Granja and further south in La Mancha with El Vínculo.

Condado De Haza Crianza DO Ribero del Duero 2011 (RRP €23)

100% Tempranillo, 14.0%, 18 months in American oak barrels then 6 months in bottle

Although in the same region as Tinto Pesquera, the climate, aspect and soil are different for this sister winery. The powerful fruit is able to take significant oak, and thus spent 18 months in 100% new 225 litre American oak barrels. Condado de Haza is a south-facing slope along one kilometre of the Duero River, planted from 1989 onwards.

This is the real crowd pleaser of the range; this is the wine that Miguel would open to suit a variety of tastes and dishes. It obviously has structure and opulent fruit so will age for many years, but it’s just so balanced, approachable and lovely to drink right now. Ripe plum, juicy black cherry and blackcurrant compete for your palate’s attention. The oak is very much in evidence but it is well integrated and serves as the custard on a fruits of the forest pudding.

Dehesa La Granja Vino de la Tierra de Castilla y León 2007 (RRP €20)

100% Tempranillo, 14.0%, 24 months in American oak barrels then 12 months in bottle

Heading west from Ribero, past Toro, around 50km from the Portuguese border we reach the town of Zamora. Here lies the 800 hectare Dehesa La Granja vineyard, stretching magnificently along the banks of the River Guareña. The climate is quite Continental and the soil is Clay, giving extra power to the wines. The estate is self-sufficiently Organic; they even have the animals on the property to make the natural fertilizer they need

This is still a powerful wine, but it also has elegance. There are layers of fine tannins which add interest when the wine in young, but are entirely in keeping with the fruit. I would be very interested to see how this continues to develop.

El Vínculo Crianza DO La Mancha 2010 (RRP €22)

100% Tempranillo, 14.0%, 18 months in American oak

My Spanish is the remnants of two terms at night school back in the early nineties, but I do remember a couple of important points: the accent on a Spanish word tells you which syllable is to be stressed, and the letter V is pronounced almost the same as a B. These two facts are important when saying the name of this wine to a Spanish speaker as they might otherwise think you are talking about their bottom.

Yields in La Mancha are often twice the national Average of Spain, mainly because of bulk produced grapes which will end up in a distillery for brandy. However, for Pesquera’s vines here the yield is around a quarter of the Spanish average, so this is a different beast from the usual industrial juice. La Mancha is very dry: it is baking hot in summer, yet cold in winter (often below freezing) with low levels of precipitation.

Although quality wine is still a rarity here, Pesquera believe that it has the potential to be the best appellation in Spain. For a group based in Ribero del Duero, that’s quite a bold statement!

This 2010 example showed leather and liquorice plus hints of spice and stewed black fruits. The leather suggests a cooler climate whereas the stewed fruit suggests a warmer climate – quite a conundrum.

Oh yes, the name – it’s the Spanish word for “link”, as the estate represents the link between tradition and innovation.

Tinto Pesquera Crianza DO Ribero del Duero 2012 (RRP €26 to €30)

100% Tempranillo, 13.5%, 18 months in American oak barrels

So now we’re onto the original Pesquera, the real deal. At 1050m it is possibly the highest vineyard in Spain.

Whereas the previous three wines had a certain playful side to them, this is a serious, grown up wine. Although it’s unmistakably Spanish, I hope the folks at Pesquera will excuse me for saying it has a certain French sensibility about it. It’s not trying to ape French wine, but it has a certain polish and class that left bank Bordeaux often brings to the table. It’s ironic that Alejandro declined to use Bordeaux grapes but has created something with a Bordeaux feel that doesn’t need those varieties.

Black cherry and black berries are surrounded by vanilla on the nose, with just a hint of smoke. The fruit expand out into your mouth when tasting, but with a side order of tannin – not big heavy gum-stripping tannins, but fine-grained savoury tannins. It’s lighter in style than the previous three, probably due to the vineyard’s elevation, so perhaps less obvious, but this obviously has the fruit and the structure to age for at least another decade.

Tinto Pesquera Reserva DO Ribero del Duero 2011 (RRP €37 to €42)

100% Tempranillo, 13.5%, 24 months in American oak barrels

The Reserva does all that the Crianza does, but more so. Going from junior to senior is like listening to a favourite song that suddenly switches from mono to stereo – it’s not necessarily louder, it just seems more alive and more real…it makes more sense. The same components are there, just in higher fidelity. The fruit is more intense and rich, there’s more toast and smoke and spicy vanilla from the barrels, but it all hangs together. With a few more years there will be harmony to add to the melody.

I’ll just leave you with the line up:

Tag: Castilla Y Leon

Belondrade Quinta Apolonia [Wine Review]