Summer is here! We’ve got tasty ways to beat the heat since most of us don’t have air conditioning. Our cold cases are filled with chilled French and Spanish rosés, white wines, Estrella Galicia Spanish beer, Meteor French beer, mineral waters, Orangina soda, and many other non-alcoholic choices to quench your thirst. Stop in at Paris-Madrid Grocery and stock up!
Wine, cider, waters, and even Portonic in a can are all the rage this year as better wines are now sold in tins. Canned drinks weigh less than their bottled version, cans don’t break, and they’re simple to recycle. They tuck easily into a backpack or cooler and are perfect for boating, hiking, or camping trips, We’ve now got these canned beverages in stock, pictured with easy-to-prepare, non-cook tapas:
Evian mint and cucumber water
Spanish Basque Hard Ciders
Spanish Txakoli Wine
Broadbent Vinho Verde Wines
Taylor Fladgate Chip Dry White Port and Tonic (“Portonic”)
NEW! – Fallot white wine-walnut vinegar. Made by Edmond Fallot, the distinguished and traditional Burgundian mustard producer that was established in 1840. Prepared with white wine vinegar and aromatized with walnuts from France’s Perigord region, use it in vinaigrettes, cold soups, or as a garnish on grilled vegetables to add a nutty hint to a dish.
PRE-ORDERS AVAILABLE FOR THESE EXCEPTIONAL SPANISH ALBARINOS AND VIZCARRA RED WINES.
I’m a huge fan of these wines; luscious Spanish Albariños produced by Rodri Méndez and graceful red wines from Bodegas Vizcarra in Ribera del Duero The wines are now allocated, but prices are reasonable given the tremendous quality of the wines and current pandemic-related costs of doing anything. We’ve been allocated 12 bottles of each wine and orders are due by noon on Thursday, June 30. To place an order, please call the shop at 206-682-0679 and let us know the quantities and which wines you’d like along with credit card information. Credit cards will not be charged until the wine arrives in mid-July. Due to the limited availability of these wines, no discounts are available.
Rodri Méndez of Forjas del Salnés is the 5th generation in a family that has grown and crafted quality wine for centuries. Today he is considered one of the greatest Albariño producers in the world, offering more than 15 small-batch bottlings from the micro-terroirs around the Val do Salnés. Despite his historical approach and deep roots in the region, Rodri is always looking to the future of Albariño, with a willingness to explore and collaborate with other producers who share his values: low intervention winemaking and embracing special terroirs.
Muti Albariño 2020, Rias Baixas, ($37.00 Pre-order, $39.99 regular price) Muti is an exploration of one-single vineyard site—named Eira da Juapa in the local Galego language—in the village of Meis, just 15 minutes from the Atlantic coast. The pure, saline intensity of this wine reflects not only its proximity to the sea but also the extreme age of the vines themselves: more than half in this vineyard are 120 years old, rooted in decomposed, sandy granite. The remainder of the vines are still over 30 years old, with extremely low yields and harvested by hand by Rodri and his team. Macerated on the skins for 24 hours, 67% of the wine is aged for 12 months in 1000-liter foudres and 33% remains in stainless steel tank. No malolactic. Muti’s complex, highly perfumed bouquet evokes orange zest, white flowers, candied ginger, and dusty minerals, with a suggestion of fresh fig in the background. Closes stony and very long, with lingering florality and no rough edges. 93 points Wine Advocate
Cíes Albariño 2021 Rias Baixas, ($36.00 Pre-Order, $38.99 regular price) This wine exclusively highlights the heritage vineyards in Rodri’s home village of Meaño. Thanks to his exploratory approach and deep local knowledge, Rodri’s wines are pure expressions of the Salnés valley terroir, which is diverse and cooler than the coast or mountains. As a winemaker, he uses throwback techniques that show off the personality of each vineyard: he is known for employing skin contact, wooden vats, foot-treading, and even years of extended lees contact. Yet his basic principles and commitment to low intervention production (spontaneous native yeast fermentation, no racking or batonnage, no temperature control, minimal sulfur) are consistent across all his wines, influenced by his ancestors’ approach. Cies 2021 is a co-ferment of Albariño from three vineyards in Meaño. Half the wine ferments in wood, the rest in stainless steel; after 4-5 months they’re swapped, then bottled all together, resulting in a complex, earthy, and mineral wine.
Leirana Finca Genoveva Albariño 2020 Rias Baixas ($57.00 Pre-Order, $61.00 regular price) is one of the jewels in the Forjas del Salnés crown, and it demonstrates the remarkable age-worthiness of Rodri’s winemaking style. The grapes come from a single farm—Finca Genoveva—home to some of the oldest vines in Spain, planted in 1862. To showcase the intensity of the site, Rodri makes this using free-run juice, followed by fermentation on the skins, 12 months aging in large foudre, and a final rest in stainless-steel tank. Unfined and minimally filtered. “The otherworldly 2020 Leirana Finca Genoveva is closed, ungiving and austere, precise, chiseled and sharp, with precision, energy, light, and depth. It’s an amazingly young Albariño that showcases the granite soils of Rías Baixas….” –Wine Advocate 97 points
Vizcarra Garnacha 2018, Ribera del Duero ($57.00 Pre-Order, $61.00 regular price) If you’re a fan of Vizcarra Senda del Oro red from Ribera del Duero (available at Paris-Madrid Grocery for $24.99), you’ve got a feel for the velvety texture and expressive style of Juan Carlos’ wines When he took over the family winegrowing business in the early 90s, Juan Carlos Vizcarra propelled it from a beloved “grower to the stars”(Vega Sicilia was one purchaser of Vizcarra’s fruit in poor vintages) to an estate now considered a Second Growth, according to Tim Atkin MW’s groundbreaking new classification of DO Ribera del Duero. Garnacha plantings represent less than 2% of all vineyards in Ribera del Duero, and so the bottling of a monovarietal expression is unprecedented. Taking this chance speaks to Juan Carlos’s commitment to elevating the conversation about this iconic region’s continued potential and evolution. Made in the flagship Vizcarra style, it strikes a harmonious balance between the intensity and tannin of the extreme climate, the cerebral precision offered by the estate’s limestone soils, and a rich and inviting fruit profile. Using the same hands-on, indie garagiste mindset from his early days, Juan Carlos insists on progressive practices that still respect this iconic region: careful organic farming, gravity-fed winemaking, and precise hand-sorting in the cellar. “Fresh and perfumed, floral and aromatic and with a seamless palate with very fine tannins and great balance… It matured in used 400-liter barrels—50% French, 50% American—and in an oval French oak vat for 14 months, and the oak feels very integrated.” 92 points Wine Advocate
Inés Vizcarra 2016, Ribera del Duero ($142.00 Pre-Order, $149.00 regular price) 90% Tempranillo, 10% Merlot, from vines planted between 1950 – 1995. Juan Carlos and his wife have 2 daughters, the youngest of which is Ines. Ines and her sister’s bottling (Celia) are the flagship wines of the Vizcarra estate, made only in the best vintages. Production every year amounts to a total of 2100 bottles and comes from a single, steeply-sloped vineyard featuring some of the oldest and most pristine vines on the estate. Tended in clay, limestone, and gravel soil from 820 – 840 m (2,690 – 2,755ft) elevation. From its high altitude, Ribera del Duero’s northern central area has an extreme Continental climate. Cool nights and hot days with moderately low rainfall provide a longer ripening period and result in wines with greater complexity and more expressive, intense aromas. I was fortunate to taste a vintage of this terrific wine at Bodegas Vizcarra. It definitely made a lasting impression – the wine was powerful and graceful, smooth, nuanced with balance and poise. “Glass-staining ruby. Highly expressive, mineral-accented cherry and blackberry aromas are complicated by suave floral, vanilla, and Asian spice nuances. Sappy, sweet, and broad on entry, then more taut in the middle, offering densely packed black and blue fruit flavors that slowly become spicier and more energetic as the wine opens up. Shows a sweet fruitcake quality on the extremely persistent, oak-spiced finish, which is framed by fine-grained, harmonious tannins.” — Josh Raynolds. 96 points Wine Advocate
This is a wine meant for the cellar, and, stored properly, will continue to improve for at least 20 years in bottle.
Vinification: After careful bunch selection from the vineyard’s best vines, the best berries are selected for this wine. Then go into open-top barrels made of French oak for maceration and fermentation. The skins mix with the unfermented juice for 4-5 days using dry ice. Malolactic fermentation takes place in large, 400-liter oak barrels. Ines is aged for 16 months in 50% French and 50% American oak barrels. During this period, the wine is racked only once and then bottled without any filtration.