Celler Alimara Virtual Tasting Thursday, 30th July 2020
With live wine tastings still on hold since February, the Club braved the bullet and arranged its first in what will probably become a series of virtual tastings held by ‘Zoom’. Club members and 2019 presenters Ali and Andy McLeod of Celler Alimara vineyards and winery in Catalonia volunteered to act as guinea pigs for this our first foray into the world of online tastings. Fabulous wines - and nice people...
With Andy presenting from the winery in the Terra Alta region of Catalonia and Ali logging in from here in the UK, they were joined by Andrew Halliwell, their Consultant Winemaker from his home in Tarragona (with a nifty background image of the vineyard!).
Having had the option to buy any of the three chosen wines (full bottles from www.buycatalanwines.co.uk - Ali & Andy’s online retail outlet) members enjoyed what was an informal but highly informative evening hosted by Graham Harding and Philip Spinks. Hearing Andy’s journey from reading Physics at St John’s College, Oxford through to a stint in California; his running various tech start-ups back here in the UK and Europe, to studying wine-making at UC Davis. It all led to Ali & Andy planting a vineyard in Oxfordshire back in 2001 and cutting their teeth on the challenges of winemaking with the vagueries of the English climate before taking over an established, quality vineyard (and later the winery) in Catalonia.
Ali explained how it had been fortuitous to link up with Andrew Halliwell, who had gone from reading engineering at New College, Oxford to studying winemaking in Adelaide. He had then gone on to make wine on five continents before becoming an expert on Spanish wines. Having started with first year nerves as to whether anything would even be saleable, the team were thrilled to reap a number of international awards and set a high bar for future vintages.
The wines tasted were:
Llumí Blanc 2017 - This is a smooth easy-drinking white with gentle notes of lemon and grapefruit on the nose and peach on the palate, with refreshing acidity and a mineral core. (£12.30 retail)
Llumí Rosat 2018 - The gorgeous lively colour reveals a mixed fresh and stewed strawberry core with hints of Valencia orange and candied fruits. (£12.30 retail)
El Senyal Negre 2016 - Very floral nose full of lifted ripe strawberries and vanilla fudge with a blackcurrant hint. The palate is all red fruits with plums and strawberries to the fore. Mouthfilling but smooth and approachable rather than tannic. (£16.75 retail)
All in all it proved to be a very enjoyable evening, probably eased along by full bottles of wine rather than just tasting samples!