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    WINE OF THE WEEK: Ramón Bilbao Límite Sur Garnacha 2017, Rioja, Spain
    • 2 days ago

    WINE OF THE WEEK: Ramón Bilbao Límite Sur Garnacha 2017, Rioja, Spain

    £19.95, The Great Wine Co This is a wonderful new take on red Rioja: all energy, intensity, airiness and silky texture carried in an arresting floral aroma of violets and in mouthwatering, fresh dark fruit (damson, cherries, a hint of blackcurrants) woven with Mediterranean herbs, black peppery spice, shimmering wet rocks and fine-sand tannins. Wonderful, but not Rioja as we usually know it. It's a wine that goes to the edge. Literally. And there’s a white companion called Lí
    WINE OF THE WEEK: Domaines Lupier El Terroir 2015, Navarra, Spain
    • Mar 31

    WINE OF THE WEEK: Domaines Lupier El Terroir 2015, Navarra, Spain

    £19.99, Marlo Wine The old Garnacha vines that produce this fragrant, concentrated red date back to 1903 and come from up to 27 individual small plots of Garnacha that Elise and Enrique of Domaines Lupier bought parcel by parcel. From the 27 –certified organic and farmed biodynamically – they make just two red wines, El Terroir and La Dama. In the 2015 vintage, they made 26,315 bottles of El Terroir. It's not a lot. All the vineyards are at altitudes of 400 to 750m and it’s t
    WINE OF THE WEEK: El Viaje de Ramón Garnacha Rosé 2019, Rioja, Spain
    • May 7, 2020

    WINE OF THE WEEK: El Viaje de Ramón Garnacha Rosé 2019, Rioja, Spain

    £7 (on offer), Co-op A pale, dry, easygoing rosé that should be a dream for anyone who loves both Provence rosé and Rioja. It's light on its feet, fresh and supple with a spice and rose-oil fragrance and delicate red apple, cherry and redcurrant fruit. The producer is Ramón Bilbao, whose winemaker Rodolfo Bastida is an aficionado of Garnacha (aka Grenache), of pale dry rosados and of high-altitude vineyards: the grapes for this grow at 550–700m asl in the Alta Najerilla area
    WINE OF THE WEEK: Ramón Bilbao Rosado 2018, Rioja, Spain
    • Jun 13, 2019

    WINE OF THE WEEK: Ramón Bilbao Rosado 2018, Rioja, Spain

    £10.95, Great Western Wine It hasn’t been feeling much like classic rosé-drinking weather where I’ve been recently (London and southwest France), but it’ll pass. And who said rosé was only a fair-weather wine anyway? This is, though, the kind of refreshing rosé that’s irresistible on a proper summer’s day: a Rioja-meets-Provence style rosado – pale, dry, elegant, medium-bodied and soft-textured but crisp, with redcurrant, orange zest, a touch of apricot and spice. It’s mainly
    WINE OF THE WEEK: Torres Salmos Priorat 2012, Penedès
    • Mar 24, 2016

    WINE OF THE WEEK: Torres Salmos Priorat 2012, Penedès

    £13.86, Waitrose (on offer at this price until 29 March) The classic matches for Easter roast lamb are claret or Rioja, but I’m going slightly off piste by choosing a Priorat. It’s as Spanish as Rioja, but comes from the dark slate hills of Penedès, Barcelona’s local wine region, and is made from the more robust Mediterranean grape varieties Cariñena, Garnacha and Syrah. These give a more powerful wine, but Salmos, matured in French oak, is at the more elegant end of the Prio
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    Header photo © Waitrose & Partners Drinks / Cat Garcia