Wine Club Notes:
When we think about Spanish wines, we most commonly think “red.”

But Spain produces some very tasty white wines as well, including the 2011 Macabeo from La Villa Real. It’s a wine that the winemaker for La Villa Real particularly loves. “We select our best Macabeo grapes from our oldest vineyard to make this smooth, long and aromatic wine,” he tells us. “Simply, we make this special wine with all our love and knowledge so people can enjoy an excellent and traditional wine from Spain.”

The processes and procedures include night harvesting, a slow fermentation, aging in stainless steel vats to protect the delicate fruit flavors, and a gentle filtering to preserve the nuances of the grapes, the vintage and the winemaker’s style. The finished wine pairs perfectly with seafood paella, Manchego cheese, and white-meat chicken. It’s a delightful bottling that just may make you think differently about the wines of Spain.

My Thoughts:

After an extremely busy and exhausting weekend and a Monday at work that felt like an eternity, I was ready to come home, reach into the wine section of the fridge (which encompasses the lower third of my refrigerator) and pull out something satisfying, yet light in flavor and aroma. It’s been a long day, I have no desire to deal with anything over complex.

Blindly grabbing the first bottle my hands came across proved to me a successful gamble. I glanced at the bottle before uncorking and noticed the soft, subtle, pale blonde color of the wine. I decided that so far, visually, this wine would suit my needs for the evening. I poured the first glass and was able to detect very subtle hints of pineapple and citrus aromas along with maybe a slight hint of apple. I can’t really nail that last aroma down. I let the first sip roll around in my mouth for a few seconds to see if I could pick out the different flavors. The only flavor that immediately hit me was a strongly metallic/acidic blend with a hint of pineapple in there somewhere. It isn’t necessarily a bad flavor combination, but I think I expected a more fruit forward wine. Served well chilled it is definitely refreshing and doesn’t leave any sort of heavy aftertaste.

The more I sip on this the more I feel like this wine would really be complimented by food. A sharp cheddar with grapes and garlicky crackers, or a light fish or chicken with a mango salsa would really help to bring out the flavors. I’m thinking some pan seared scallops with grilled pineapple would be perfect with this. Neither the wine or the food would over power the other or be entirely reliant on the other, but perfectly compliment the subtlety of flavors each had to offer.

On a scale of “this tastes like piss” to “oops, I just drank the whole bottle” I would give this a “I don’t hate it, but I don’t love it. I can’t decide if I like it. Let me pour myself another half glass or so to decide…” Would I buy it again? Eh, probably not, but I wouldn’t totally count it out. Maybe if I was going to make scallops with grilled pineapple…

Final Grade: B