Spain is among the top wine producers worldwide, and there are so many producers that you can try wine from another winery every day of the year and go on for a few years.
The Marqués de Cáceres wine flight comes from a producer with a history that spans at least five generations.
Enrique Forner, the founder, learned the wine trade from his father, who had learned from his father and grandfather in Spain. He also worked for a while in Bordeaux, where he learned modern winemaking and brought his expertise back home to start Bodega (winery in Spanish) Marqués de Cáceres in Alta, the subregion of Rioja appellation.
Enrique Forner returned to Spain in 1968 with a revolutionary spirit, seeking to transform La Rioja. He turned to his friend, Professor Emile Peynaud, a game-changer in Bordeaux winegrowing and winemaking, to infuse La Rioja with the same reformist spirit that had transformed Bordeaux.
Today, the Forner family, led by Enrique’s daughter, Cristina Forner, continues to play a pivotal role in the winery’s success. While embracing the tradition, Marqués de Cáceres stays in tune with technology and innovation.
To begin with, we focused on the entry-level part of the Marqués de Cáceres lineup to see how well it performs as an everyday wine.
2022 Marqués de Cáceres Verdejo
While you may not have heard of the Verdejo grape variety, it’s a joy and pride of the Rueda appellation in northern central Spain and the fifth most planted grape in the country. Verdejo got a new start in 1970 when some Rueda winemakers started making dry white instead of sweet fortified wines from it. Today, Verdejo can be made in many styles, from fruity and youthful to barrel-aged nutty mineral-rich wines.
Marqués de Cáceres 2022 Verdejo is from the first category. The fruit for this wine came from the estate vineyards. It is harvested at night to keep it fresh and cool and fermented in stainless steel tanks without contact with oxygen, retaining the fruity, aromatic nature of this easy-drinking, refreshing style wine.
The lemony, grassy, and white nectarine notes are underscored by gentle wet stone minerality that reflects short-term lees ageing. On the palate, apricot and lemon are complemented by the pleasant nectarine skin bitterness.
While 2022 Verdejo is hardly a complex wine, it can equally charm people who drink “fruity dry whites” and intrigue those who like to show off its wine expertise.
2022 Marqués de Cáceres Red Blend
2022 Red Blend is a combination of 30% Tempranillo, 50% Garnacha (Grenache), and 20% Syrah from the Cariñena appellation in the Aragon region of northern Spain.
This blend embraces the Spanish winemaking tradition, in which the winemaking process, rather than the grapes themselves, shapes the resulting wine.
In 2022 Red Blend, fruit contributed red cherry, plum, and blackberry. American oak barrel ageing added pronounced notes of vanilla and coconut. When we let the wine sit in the glass undisturbed for an hour, it smelled like a vanilla cherry milk chocolate ice cream bar.
We prefer more finessed wine when the winemaker lets the grapes do all the talking. Still, 2022 Red Blend is a “crowd-pleaser” and makes a good choice for a party.
2019 Marqués de Cáceres Crianza Rioja
The 2019 Crianza is made from Tempranillo from Rioja, a renowned Spanish wine region. The fruit came from tiny plots in the Rioja Alta and Rioja Alavesa subregions. The traditionally grown, low-yielding old vines can only be harvested by hand, and the grapes are only picked when they reach the desired level of ripeness.
The bunches are carefully destemmed and fermented in stainless steel tanks. Juice stays in contact with the skin for up to 20 days to extract color, aromas, and density. Malolactic fermentation is completed in new barrels and stainless steel tanks, depending on the plots and areas of origin. When finished, the wines mature in barrels and are racked (separated from sediment) every 6 months.
The ageing lasts 12 months in French (60%) and American (40%) oak barrels, distributed between 25% new oak and 75% lightly used. The ready wine spends a minimum of 1 year in bottle storage in the winery prior to release. In short, much care and effort went into creating balanced wine. Did it deliver?
The wine is bright, deep, and ruby in color. It has aromas and flavors of black cherry, blueberry, and bing cherry, with light notes of cedar and vanilla.
Contrary to Red Blend, Crianza gets most of its character from Tempranillo grapes. Balanced barrel use only adds vanilla flavors to complement rather than overshadow the fruit, making for a more balanced and fine-tuned wine.
The 2019 Crianza is among the upper-tier flavor-wise among similarly priced Rioja wines we have tasted.
The Verdict
Marqués de Cáceres’ entry-level wines present an excellent value for everyday wines because they strike the optimum balance between quality and price. Although we had some reservations regarding the Red Blend style, we are sure some of our friends would love it. We’ll test that theory.
What are your thoughts on Marqués de Cáceres wines if you tried them? What other Spanish producers would you recommend to try?
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