Christmas spirit

My son has a Spanish friend "Carlos" (an ex-school buddy) who occasionally comes to stay with us here in England, last time was back in October when we all went down to Devon and had great fun. Whenever he comes over he brings gifts as is their (generous) family way and last time he was here he bought me a bottle of wine from the Ribera Del Duero which is a prestigious Spanish region. The wine was from a producer I hadn't tried before (Pago de Carraovejas) and since it was a gift and old enough (2011) to be opened, I thought it a good choice to partner with Christmas lunch.

I wasn't wrong, it was simply delicious, layers of dark red fruits, balanced and complex, a real taste of Spanish heat; it also has that talcum powder/sweet quality that you only find in really top-end Bordeaux and Californian red. From the nose alone I could tell this was a quality wine by any international standard; comprising mainly of traditional Tinto grapes but with a small splash of Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon and aged in French oak for a couple of years it punches well above it's weight. None of your wishy washy Rioja here, just a focused and impressive wine; really world-class. There are a couple of places to buy this wine here in the UK for around £17-25 a bottle (believe me this is a bargain) I'll certainly be seeking it out for future festive meals, but to be honest it would be fabulous any time and unlikely to hang around "su casa" for long.