Meanwhile in Catalonia...
While we’ve been sitting around sipping our txakolina, something’s been bubbling in Catalonia. The folks at Avinyó have been hard at work on their own light, crisp, and refreshing wine with a little bit of spritz. It’s a “prickly wine,” or as they call it in Catalonia: Vi D’Agulla. Made from Petit Gran Muscat (or Merlot in the case of the Rosado), Avinyó starts the Vi D’Agulla with 100% free-run juice. The wine is fermented in stainless steel and then undergoes a secondary fermentation in tank to give it the slight sparkle that makes it prickly.
Crisp, fresh flavor combines with the slight effervescence and low alcohol to create the ideal refreshing summertime wine. The locals enjoy it at all sorts of casual settings: picnics, cook-outs, various social gatherings, or just as a refreshing beverage on a warm, sunny day. Regardless of where you’re drinking Vi D’Agulla there is one important thing to take into consideration: how you drink it. Like txakolina and other spritz-y beverages it is important to pour the wine from a great height in order to break-up the CO2, but don’t pour it into a tumbler. The best way to enjoy Vi D’Agulla is poured at a great height, from a porron, straight into your mouth. Try it next time.
Also New...
Here is a new submission for our Cava Avinyó Cocktail Contest. We'll be taking recipes all year so keep 'em coming.
Southern Sunset
by Kevin C. of Acme in Carrboro, North Carolina
5 oz Cava Avinyó Brut Reserva
1/2 oz Pernod
1/2 oz Cointreau
Orange Flower Water
Combine Pernod and Cointreau in a wine flute. Add Cava Avinyó Brut Reserva and blush with Orange Flower Water. Serve cold.
In the Press
Robin Raisfeld and Rob Patronite of New York Magazine look at Ameztoi Rubentis Txakolina in their Buy the Bottle feature.
A Nice Light Quaff for Balmy Spring Days
By Robin Raisfeld and Rob Patronite
April 21, 2008
By now Spanish-wine lovers have become familiar with the slightly fizzy, thirst-quenching charms of white Txakoli, the effervescent Basque wine that’s poured rather dramatically from a great height into a flat tumbler, a tradition that awakens the tiny bubbles and makes quite a visual impact at tapas bars around town. Much rarer is its lesser-known pink sibling, the Ameztoi Rubentis, currently in very limited supply in a handful of local wine shops. Wine geeks will want to know that it’s an old-vines blend of the indigenous Hondarribi Beltza and Hondarribi Zuri grapes, vinified in stainless steel, and only 11 percent alcohol by volume. Everyone else can just relish its tutti-frutti aroma, almost tart-sour acidity, and nearly weightless body. The stuff is so refreshing they could bottle it as a sports drink. $21 at Tinto Fino, 85 First Ave., nr, 5th St.; 212-254-0850.
Links of Interest
>What's New Archive
>The De Maison Selections Newspost
>André's Travel Blog
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