If ros\u00e9 wines are, to a certain extent, marginalised, clarets are the great unknowns. However, I recently drank a claret, Espantaburros, by C\u00e9sar Fern\u00e1ndez, a winemaker from Pe\u00f1aranda 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.<\/p>\n
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?<\/p>\n
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 Le\u00f3n, such as Cigales, Arlanza or Ribera del Duero, where claret wines have a greater presence.<\/p>\n
On the other hand, ros\u00e9s, 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. Ros\u00e9 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, ros\u00e9 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 ros\u00e9 wines, we must mention Vi\u00f1a Tondonia, made by L\u00f3pez de Heredia, possibly the best ros\u00e9 wine in our country.<\/p>\n
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 ros\u00e9, always respecting the philosophy of the terroir. Try it, you won’t regret it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Summer is the best time to drink claretes, those great unknowns. It is in the areas of Castilla Le\u00f3n, such as Cigales, Arlanza or Ribera del Duero, where claretes have a greater presence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22408,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3094,3066],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\n