Guess what ? Our first wine available online via the SAQ website will hit the shelves on Tuesday, Feb 18th 2025.
Back by popular demand, Pago Aylés’ phenomenal 2020 vintage of Senda de Leñadores will be available for online purchases, by the bottle !
Yes, you have read this right. This is a new initiative by the SAQ and it allows for selected wines to be available online like any other SAQ.COM product.
More on this in our newsletter planned for tomorrow.
We’re out of wine you really wish we still had in inventory? Maybe a restaurant still has the wine in its cellar.
This is an excellent reason to visit one of our restaurateur friends.
barbuVINS is available at:
Before placing an order, choose an SAQ branch where your order can be picked-up from the map of SAQ designated branches.
Sometimes, patience is well rewarded. This is the case here, especially that we are the only ones outside Spain that are lucky enough to have access to some of those wines.
Luis has been working very hard in the past few years, expanding the number of vineyards he maintains and significantly improves. His love of old vineyards in need of rehabilitation undoubtedly causes him some headaches, but the rewards are visibly well worth it, especially when even the toughest critics agree the wines are impressive.
Also new from Luis and his friend Gonzalo Celayeta is an expansion of the Kimera project with two “espumosos ancestrale”, or pet-nats as they are commonly known (“pétillants naturels”). You’ll be blown away.
As it is often the case, the quantities are very small, so order your cases without delay.
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Do you know Rufete?Rufete, the indigenous variant of northwestern Spain, is known as Tinta Pinheira in Portugal and is frequently used in port blends.
In Spain, the rufete vineyards are almost all located in Sierra de Salamanca. Difficult to describe, it is a grape whose aromatic profile is similar to pinot on steroids (!) because of its finesse, its delicate floral notes and its rather earthy or mineral character that will depend on the type of soil on which it grows.
The vines grown by David and Melanie are located on acid soils which differ greatly from the alkaline clay-limestone soils of Rioja, also known for their water retention. Over 80% of the vines they cultivate are at least 50 years old.
The Phinca Encanto 2015 cuvée, still available in small quantities, was produced according to the usual non-interventionist methods of Bodegas Bhilar, namely manual harvesting, destemming above an open oak vat of 500 liters, then foot-trodden to start fermentation with indigenous yeasts. The wine is racked about 15 days after the start of fermentation, then aged for 30 months in neutral French oak barrels allowing the malolactic fermentation to take place naturally.
Do not miss this.
With a new year upon us, it’s time for a heartfelt thanks to our passionate winemakers.
Cleaning glasses is simple. Cleaning and keeping a decanter clean is another story. Even if you rinse it after every use, because of the shape and hard to reach places, it will stain.
Here is a trick that some of you might have been aware of but I didn’t know.
Here’s a tip by Michel Charbonneau, a friend and client of barbuVINS.
We were in an Ontario winery looking at a display of decanters when Michel points to a beautiful Riedel decanter that has an odd shape (Decanter Twenty Twelve by Riedel). My immediate response to his admiration reflects that I may be too practical when it comes to wine: I wondered immediately how I would keep this decanter clean.
He smiled and said I had much to learn about cleaning decanters…
Here is his trick that works wonderfully. Don’t hesitate to share it with you wine-loving friends.
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| Be patient… you could leave it overnight if you wish. Here is a time-lapse view of the cleaning process.
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Empty the denture cleaner solution, rinse thoroughly the decanter and use a decanter brush to remove the remaining stains.
To properly finish the job, use a brush to remove last bits of stains. They will come off really easily.
You can use a flexible decanter brush or the Cuisipro Magnetic Spot Scrubber should do the trick.
I haven’t yet tried the latter but it apparently does wonders.
For drying, use a decanter drying stand and finish the job with a microfiber polishing cloth (Final Touch; Microfiber polishing cloth, available for 7$-10$ at The Bay).
Remember to “prime” your decanter before using it. Not only after a thorough cleaning like this, but before every use. After testing the wine to make sure the bottle is good, pour the remainder of the tasting glass in the decanter. Swirl it around to cover all the surface, then empty the decanter.
It’s now ready for use.
Cheers!
In a recent play at the Inifinitheatre, artistic director Guy Sprung decided to put to good use empty bottles of Phincas by Bodegas Bhilar.
Thanks to Guy and Tracie for being supportive clients of barbuVINS!
Conversion
written by Alyson Grant
directed by Guy Sprung
Infinitheatre (From February 6th 2018 to February 25th 2018)
Starring Diana Fajrajsl, Timothy Hine, Mike Payette and Denise Watt
Located south-west of Zaragoza in Aragón, Pago Aylés started as an agri-food project in 1994 when the estate was acquired by the present owners. They purchased several contiguous properties that had belonged to the clergy and the nobility since the Middle Ages, thus becoming one of the biggest privately-owned estates in the Aragón region (north eastern Spain). The property whose perimeter is fenced to meet Pago regulations, now exceeds 3,100 hectares.
Pago Aylés is not only a winery; it is a well-defined territory where nature and wine coexist in a very peculiar way. It has its own characteristics that differentiate and distinguish it from other surrounding estates. Thanks to the breeding and restocking of native endangered species, the European Union has the estate in the Natura 2000 network as a Special Protection Area for Birds (ZEPA in Spanish).
The holistic approach to vine growing and grape production has always been much more than a production process. The management of operations and wine production aim to blend traditional cultural practice, the landscape, the flora and fauna that shape these lands giving fruition to such excellent and original wines.
The vineyards have a unique location as they are boxed in between the northern border of the Sistema Ibérico and to the north, the Ebro river and the Desierto de los Monegros.
Because of the geographical location, the climate at Pago Aylés is also rather unique and differs from the rest of the region. With an average annual rainfall of 350 mm (in comparison, a desert is defined at 250 mm maximum annually while Bordeaux receives 945 mm annually), the region is defined as having a continental climate with extreme temperatures which reach 38ºC in summer and fall to -8ºC in winter. The very cold wind coming from the north helps to keep the humidity low and the vine rather healthy.
Unfortunately, this also means that grape growers and farmers must fight against hail, strong winds and excessive summer heat. In addition, drought can affect the size of crops. The temperature contrasts between day and night (diurnal variation) help to give the grapes their characteristic intense flavor. The night harvesting helps retain a good acidity, especially that the design of the property allows to bring the grapes inside the winery in less than 15 minutes after harvesting.
Given the harsh, albeit cooler conditions due to higher altitude (500m), dominant winds from the adjacent Mount San Pablo, not much grows without irrigation even with the nearby Ebro river. To palliate the hydric deficit that commonly affects this area, two huge rain water retention basins have been built. One of the pictures shows the extensive damage caused by hail where the tarp or membrane must be replaced.
With the unique terroir of the property and a desire to raise the bar, the Ramón family decided to commission a geographical and zoning study to the Polytechnic University of Madrid and another report from the University of Zaragoza in order to determine if the winery would meet the laws introduced in 2003 (“Ley 24/2003”) that defined the concept of a Vino de Pago, or Estate Wine.
Those so-called Pago wines take their name because they belong to a delimited enclave -a “Pago”- whose soils and climate have their own characteristics that differentiate them from other adjacent properties. Pago Aylés obtained its designation in 2010. Ever since, it had to adhere to strict criteria in order to maintain its designation.
Here is an excerpt of those criteria included in the publicly available terms and conditions set out by the Spanish Ministry of Agriculture:
Some of these parameters might sound esoteric, so in comparison, most French AOC define the maximum production allowed in the range of 35 et 60 hl/ha. In champagne, the yield tends to vary between 10,000 and 13,000 kg/ha.
For Pago Aylés, the clay and calcareous (limestone) soil where Pago vines are grown differs significantly from what is found in other areas in the Cariñena region, enough that only a portion of the domain’s 80 hectares where vine is cultivated obtained the Pago designation. The Ministry actually defined the list of plots that meet the criteria and revisits the list frequently. The age of the vines (25-80 years old) and the valley climate are contributing factors to the quality of the wines produced at the estate.
At Pago Aylés, nature decides if the harvest will be better than the last, but everything has been done to ensure the terroir is allowed to express its full potential, including the use of pheromones to manage insect population, and most importantly, having banned the use of herbicides and pesticides.
I don’t know about you, but I feel like opening a bottle right now.
Cheers!
