Exclusive offer: 12/2/2022 — Iberian Bang for the Buck!

Offer available until Sunday 12/4/2022 at 3 pm, or as inventory lasts.

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Hi everyone –

This week is a simple offer, very straightforward, and super affordable.

Three wines. One white, one red, one box.

Two are from Rioja. One is from Portugal. The red Rioja in particular might be THE BEST BUY OF THE YEAR. That’s the opinion of both me and Chuck Kanski.

It’s the Iberian Bang for the Buck offer!

Let’s do it!

Ostatu Blanco 2021

There was a time when I would never recommend a white Rioja. When I first got into the wine business (in the early 1990s) Spanish white wines in general and Rioja whites in particular were famous for oxidative qualities, flat flavors, lack of acidity, and variability from bottle to bottle.

Lucky for us, things change! Modern winemaking techniques (especially involving bacteria control and temperature-controlled fermentation) started to take hold in the early 2000s.

This wine is 85% Viura and 15% Malvasia Bianca. Modern white winemaking techniques have taken hold in Rioja and this is crisp, lively, bright, layered, detailed, and WONDERFUL. There are Sauvignon Blanc-like qualities of citrus here, but it’s encompassed by layers of floral-meets-apple aspects that are really something amazing. Medium-bodied and incredibly versatile.

The grapes are organically farmed, bush-trained, hand-harvested, and from vines planted starting in 1930!

More info from the importer (DeMaison Selections, one of my favorites: https://demaisonselections.com/portfolio-items/ostatu-blanco/)

What to do with it: This is PERFECT with a wide variety of dishes from fish to poultry. The versatility is off the charts. Roasted chicken thighs. Baked salmon. Pan-fried walleye with a beurre blanc sauce.

Ostatu Blanco is an incredible value and introduction to their range of wines. It says something about a winery when they pursue excellence from the beginning of its range to the top. For this reason, Ostatu Blanco is one of the most beloved white wines of substance and complexity from Rioja Alavesa.

Señorío de P. Peciña Rioja Crianza 2015
IS THIS THE TOP VALUE OF 2022?

OMG this wine is good.

WINE ADVOCATE 92 POINTS: “They are convinced at the winery that the 2015 Señorío de P. Peciña Crianza is the best Crianza they have ever produced, which is often the case with the current vintage for sale… But I must admit that the wine was very impressively balanced, nuanced and complex. It has freshness and is approachable enough while showing Rioja character and integrated oak to appeal to a wide audience. It’s ripe without excess, coming through as juicy and tasty. It spent two years in used American oak barrels. 100,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2019.” -Luis Gutiérrez, Oct 2020

VINOUS 92 POINTS: “Bright ruby. Lively, smoke- and spice-accented cherry and black raspberry aromas are complemented by floral, vanilla and pipe tobacco flourishes. Sweet and seamless on the palate, offering vibrant red and blue fruit flavors that deepen and turn spicier with air. Shows very good energy and appealing florality on a very long, penetrating finish shaped by well-judged tannins.” -Josh Raynolds, Apr 2021

CHUCK KANSKI 103 POINTS: “OMG THIS IS INCREDIBLE I LOVE THIS WINE HOLY SH*@ THIS IS GOOD HAVE YOU HAD THIS YET?”

This may be the wine bargain of the year. “Bargain” doesn’t mean “cheap” but in this case, it’s far from expensive.

As you know, I’m a huge fan of Rioja because it’s one of the only places left on the planet that ages the wines appropriately for us ahead of distribution and purchase. This develops tertiary characteristics that are impossible to develop any other way.

Dried tobacco leaves, tea leaves, dried raspberry, worn leather … all the amazing things you can only find in Rioja wines with a touch of age.

HERE’S THE BIGGEST SECRET: The winemaker here is Pedro Peciña, former winemaker at the legendary La Rioja Alta. He has acquired a handful of small parcels planted in thin, chalky soils throughout the slightly cooler, high-elevation northern reaches of Rioja. This guy knows his stuff from his time at LRA, and has brought the same techniques, quality, and attention to detail to this wine.

An incredible boxed red wine at an amazing price (limited offer)

I love a good boxed wine. It’s essential to have around the house. Want a little snip at the end of a Tuesday night? There is no need to pull a cork. Just tap a glass! Need a quarter cup to deglaze a pan? Don’t reach for that expensive bottle, just grab the box. Have you already enjoyed a great dinner with great wines and your palate is a bit shot but you want the night to continue? Here you go.

And clearly one of the top countries for bang-for-the-buck red wines is PORTUGAL.

Add to this ORGANIC FARMING and a FEMALE-LED WINEMAKING TEAM and you have a winner.

Grapes: 50% Touriga Franca (adding floral aromatics), 30% Tinta Roriz (for complexity), 20% Touriga Nacional (for power).

Wine Spectator did a cool list of “30 Wineries to Discover” and Lavradores was the ONLY Portuguese winery represented. It’s a co-op, and Lavradores de Feitoria wines are one of the many winemaking projects bringing together top-quality vineyards from single-family Quintas (farms). These Douro growers all came together in 1999 to make wines from their individual estates under one roof, and with the guidance of notable winemaker, Olga Martins. Her own family’s estate is a part of the collective.

Thank you, everyone! We couldn’t do this without you!

Jason Kallsen
Sommelier and founder/owner of Twin Cities Wine Education

Offer is open Friday at 3:00pm central until Sunday at 3:00pm central, or as inventory lasts.

This offer has closed. Thanks for your interest!