Capturing the pure Spanish spirit

Jul 18 2008 by Helen Savage, The Journal

AS heir to his family winery in Rioja in north-central Spain, it seemed natural that when Victorino Eguren was sent to do his military service in the nearby town of Vitoria, he should sell wine to his comrades in arms.

It went down so well he began to sell wine around the bars of the town. Military service over, he worked hard and eventually was able to buy the bars themselves.

He and his young wife watched the routes people travelled around the town and opened new bars in strategic, busy places. He then converted an old brewery into a winery and franchised out his bars on condition that they sold his wine.

He didn’t forget the old family firm of Heredad Ugarte.

In 1989 he began work on a huge new winery near Laguardia on top of a hill, surmounted by an imposing restaurant. He’s now busy adding a hotel to the complex.

A workaholic, he even helps with the building work, which may not be entirely wise given that he’s well passed his three score years and 10. When I visited the winery at harvest time last year he had just been taken to hospital with a broken leg, after a huge stone had fallen on him.

A vast quantity of wine is stored in the catacombs he’s quarried underneath the winery – held in near perfect condition in private bays locked by iron gates for clients who are prepared to pay for the privilege.

Sitting proud atop his own bottles is a biscuit tin that I was assured will, according to his wishes, one day hold his ashes. In another cellar his “Barrel Club” is packed with casks of wine bought by clients from far and wide. When it’s matured it will be bottled and shipped to them. Several barrels (perhaps I shouldn’t reveal this) proudly bore the name of a well-known Burgundy wine house.

Heredad Ugarte exports 25% of its production, mostly to Germany but also to the Far East and the USA, as export manager Maier Rico-Salinas reminded me last week.

As well as the vineyards that surround the winery, Heredad Ugarte owns many small parcels of vines scattered around the region, but unusually in Rioja, their wine is made only from these grapes that they grow themselves.

Their best sites are at quite a high altitude – up to 550 metres. Altitude means a cooler, longer growing season and more flavourful fruit. Despite using chemicals in the vineyard only when necessary – like many Spanish wineries they’ve yet to be convinced of the marketing value of fully certified organic wine – they do their bit for nature by re-cycling the dirty water used in the winery.

Alongside the state of the art Rioja winery, the original plant in Vitoria continues to turn out honest, attractively packaged bottles made, largely, from well-know international grape varieties bought in from three vineyards and sold mainly under the “Mercedes Eguren” label as “Vino de la Tierra de Castilla”.

Maier Rico-Salinas, an enthusiastic advocate of her wines (her own granddad used to buy wine in bulk from Señor Eguren’s winery in Vitoria), was in Newcastle last week at the invitation of local importers Spanish Spirit. We met at the Grainger Rooms restaurant in Higham Place opposite the Laing Art Gallery, where her wines were to feature in a special dinner prepared by chef Chris Slaughter.

Spanish Spirit has chosen to list 10 wines, from both the Heredad Ugarte and Mercedes Eguren ranges. Most of these are very fruity, increasingly typical of Spain today. “People are going for fruitier styles rather than the more traditional over-poweringly oaky wines. In Japan, they have to be unoaked, not sweet, but just very fruity. We only make around 12,000 bottles of the very oaky Gran Reserva. They sell quite well at Christmas, but not at other times of the year.

“Wines made from well-known international varieties sell particularly well in the USA. People say, ‘Ooh, a Cabernet Sauvignon from Spain, I’ve never had that before, let’s taste it.’”

It’s these fruity wines that also feature most in Spanish Spirit’s selection and Maier is delighted.

“We’re always looking for good smaller importers and this is the first time our wines have been available in North East England, I’m very, very happy.”

The wines are a testament to the remarkable efforts of Victorino Eguren and his family and are available both at the Spanish Spirit Wine Warehouse (open Thursday, Friday and Saturday) on the Low Prudhoe Industrial Estate, Prudhoe, Northumberland, and online at www.spanishspirit.com

Wine of the week

Verdejo 2007, Mercedes Eguren, Spanish Spirit, £8.99

Deliciously fresh-tasting, soft dry white from Northern Spain made from a fine local grape variety. It both smells and tastes of gently-spiced pears. Try it with white meat or fish dishes.