If rosé wines are, to a certain extent, marginalised, clarets are the great unknowns. However, I recently drank a claret, Espantaburros, by César Fernández, a winemaker from Peñaranda de Duero, which led me to the point of writing this text, not only because I enjoyed the wine but also because it vindicates a form of winemaking that has been so much maligned and which can offer us great moments.
El Espantaburros, made with bobal, tempranillo and albillo mayor, is a fresh wine, with structure and excellent acidity – thanks mainly to the albillo – but with notes of red fruit from the red varieties. A wine without complexity, very well made, ideal for aperitifs and summer. My opinions, of course, subjective, may be more or less interesting, but when talking about this type of wine we must start at the beginning and answer the obligatory question: what is a claret?
The name claret does not belong to any official category, but it is the common name for a type of young wine, which is made by blending the must of white and red grapes for a joint fermentation, respecting the must extraction process of each variety. As a result of the blend, the colour of the wine is pale pink and its aromatic notes combine those of the white varieties with those of the reds, mainly Tempranillo. It is in the areas of Castilla León, such as Cigales, Arlanza or Ribera del Duero, where claret wines have a greater presence.
On the other hand, rosés, which are more common in Rioja and Navarra, as well as responding to an official category of wine, can be made only with red varieties, but without the presence of skins, or by adding white varieties as well. The presence of the latter is more limited, so the wines tend to be slightly more colourful than the claret wines. Rosé wines can be made in two ways: by bleeding, macerating the red grapes and then extracting the must without the solid parts, or by pressing, in which case the colour of the skins is removed. In addition, rosé wines, due to their more complex elaboration, usually have a more or less long ageing process, which classifies them as: young, crianza, reserva or gran reserva. Within the world of rosé wines, we must mention Viña Tondonia, made by López de Heredia, possibly the best rosé wine in our country.
Summer is the perfect time for it. A barbecue, a paella, a fish rice dish or simply a swimming pool or beach are ideal to open and enjoy a claret or a young rosé, always respecting the philosophy of the terroir. Try it, you won’t regret it.