Alicante revisited
24-Dec-08 - I mentioned in an earlier post (26-Nov-08) that I'd been to a tasting of wines from the Comunidad de Valencia including the DDOO Alicante, Utiel-Requena and Valencia, and I listed some of the wines which had showed particularly well. There was, however, no mention of any wines from the DO Alicante. This is because there was only one bodega there from Alicante - BOCOPA - and I didn't score any of their wines over 16 - I usually only mention wines which I marked at 17 or more.
A couple of weeks later I had an e-mail from Patricia Carbonell, who is in the bodega's export department, asking me if I'd accept some samples, presumably as a result of their non-appearance in the previous post - I offer a consultancy service to wineries aiming at the UK market. They duly arrived and we tasted them over a period of about a week. The wines were all from the bodega's LAUDUM range which, on their website consists of four reds and a white, but in practice has a rather wider scope. At the tasting they were showing Laudum Crianza (Monastrell/Cabernet-Sauvignon/Merlot - 16/20) and Laudum Nature (Monastrell/Cabernet-Sauvignon/Tempranillo - 15/20) which both had a pleasant enough style, although I felt at the time that the ex-cellars price of the Crianza would have made it too expensive on the UK market - approximately £7.99 retail then, now probably £8.49 thanks the strength of the euro and the gink with the eyebrows. There's a lot of competition in that sector of the retail market in the UK but, of course, ex-cellars prices are always negotiable.
The samples also included other wines from the range but no prices, so I can't comment on the value-for-money aspect. These were the best: Laudum Reserva 2001 (Monastrell/Cabernet-Sauvignon/Merlot - quite impressive maturity and a nice richness on the finish - 17/20); Laudum Garnacha Syrah 2006 (a very nice ripe, fresh fruit, delicious - 17/20); Laudum Monastrell Especial 2006 (big, blockbusting fruit, powerful, warm and long - 17/20); and Laudum Petit Verdot 2006 (this grape really has made itself at home in southern Spain: big fruit, warmth, power, structure and complexity on the finish - 17½/20).
These are very good wines and all too often people tend to look askance at wine produced by co-operatives, not just in Spain but everywhere in Europe. What these people need to accept is that, with 325 ha of vines (in this case), if the winemaker has a free hand in terms of grape selection, there's no reason at all why co-ops shouldn't produce high-quality, even great wines.
A couple of weeks later I had an e-mail from Patricia Carbonell, who is in the bodega's export department, asking me if I'd accept some samples, presumably as a result of their non-appearance in the previous post - I offer a consultancy service to wineries aiming at the UK market. They duly arrived and we tasted them over a period of about a week. The wines were all from the bodega's LAUDUM range which, on their website consists of four reds and a white, but in practice has a rather wider scope. At the tasting they were showing Laudum Crianza (Monastrell/Cabernet-Sauvignon/Merlot - 16/20) and Laudum Nature (Monastrell/Cabernet-Sauvignon/Tempranillo - 15/20) which both had a pleasant enough style, although I felt at the time that the ex-cellars price of the Crianza would have made it too expensive on the UK market - approximately £7.99 retail then, now probably £8.49 thanks the strength of the euro and the gink with the eyebrows. There's a lot of competition in that sector of the retail market in the UK but, of course, ex-cellars prices are always negotiable.
The samples also included other wines from the range but no prices, so I can't comment on the value-for-money aspect. These were the best: Laudum Reserva 2001 (Monastrell/Cabernet-Sauvignon/Merlot - quite impressive maturity and a nice richness on the finish - 17/20); Laudum Garnacha Syrah 2006 (a very nice ripe, fresh fruit, delicious - 17/20); Laudum Monastrell Especial 2006 (big, blockbusting fruit, powerful, warm and long - 17/20); and Laudum Petit Verdot 2006 (this grape really has made itself at home in southern Spain: big fruit, warmth, power, structure and complexity on the finish - 17½/20).
These are very good wines and all too often people tend to look askance at wine produced by co-operatives, not just in Spain but everywhere in Europe. What these people need to accept is that, with 325 ha of vines (in this case), if the winemaker has a free hand in terms of grape selection, there's no reason at all why co-ops shouldn't produce high-quality, even great wines.
posted by John Radford at
09:13
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