[Billet vins] The patina of time

Fruit, fruit, again and again fruit, how could it be otherwise when we talk about wine? Name them, the yard is full, whether they are from the orchard, the fields or the garden. The word is on everyone’s lips, and the analogies numerous. A fruity wine is a healthy wine. He’s on fire with the impudence of his youth, throwing you without nuances a first-time brilliance so sexy that it quickly becomes very endearing. Conversely, a wine without fruit is a bit like champagne without bubbles or a declaration of love that falls flat.

Our time and our consumption habits have elevated the status of fruity wine to the pinnacle of our taste barometer. The result of a quest that begins in the vineyard with healthy, ripe and intact grapes to continue in the cellar where nothing is spared to guarantee him a smile where he shines with all his teeth.

All that remains for the amateur is to bite in his turn into a flesh whose greedy sapidity and assumed suppleness inscribe him – within these fashionable codes which too often flirt with a kind of tyranny of taste. — in an obvious approach of chewability, drinkability and palatability. The shelves of the SAQ contain, in this regard, a majority of these products.

Aging is a big deal

Let’s face it: I have nothing against the fruitiness of wine, on the contrary. But I also love the bottles that have transformed it without, however, departing from it. The patina of time then pushes the cursor where the aromas become bouquet, polishing in passing the relief of the grain to better finely police the tannins. The duty met this week, during the Grande Dégustation de Montréal, two important Spanish family houses, both more than a century old and both having more than 2000 hectares of vineyards, with a significant number of bodegas for each of them. Two styles, one more modern and “fruity”, the other more traditional and time keeping. We invite you to visit the website of To have to for tasting comments.

Vinas Familia Gil. The nine brothers and sisters of the Gil family will have overcome, over the years, the adversity that occurred during the premature death of the father by merging around a solid family nucleus where the tasks are skilfully distributed. Priority here to innovation (4 of the 11 bodegas are self-sufficient in electricity) and to biodiversity coupled with a close relationship with around thirty winegrowers who are only too happy to supply their best fruit to the Familia Gil via a tightly woven bond of trust ( like the Guigals in the northern Rhône).

No less than a dozen appellations including Jumilla, Montsant, Calatayud or even Rueda deliver production from organic farming and vinified to extract the fruity quintessence. The house here specializes in old monastrells (the local Mourvèdre), reputed to be irascible and structuring, by accompanying them towards more civility without denying their singular originality.

Family Martinez Zabala. It was in 1968 that the iconic frosted bottle (to protect the wine from the taste of light) Faustino 1 appeared on the market, adorned with Rembrandt’s famous illustration on the label several decades after the family moved to Oyón. in Rioja (1861). Four generations later and six bodegas distributed in Rioja, Ribera del Duero, Castilla and others, this house stands out as a sanctuary of old vintages, a veritable “library” of bottles that it releases according to market demand.

Here, some 60,000 barrels skate, rock and patiently micro-oxygenate tempranillos (fineness), mazuellos (color and structure) and gracianos (acidity) a minimum of 5 years (and more) to make a fruity sing in tune with the nuances more spicy, grilled and smoky with a skilfully adjusted oakiness. The 2011 Faustino Gran Reserva ($30.50 – 10483026) just released on shelves is the most recent example. Without being too dense, the color heralds a fruity ensemble skilfully teased by the woodiness, but above all rich in pretty floral and spicy notes enhanced by a healthy acidity. A racy red that has certainly not said its last word. (5+) © ★★★ 1/2

Our time and our consumption habits have elevated the status of fruity wine to the pinnacle of our taste barometer.

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