Opal Fruits! Made to make your mouth water!

Viña Esmeralda 2009, Catalunya, Torres 

“Esmeralda” means “emerald”, but this is a pretty pale yellow, with a green tint, like many a Sauvignon. It’s very fragrant on the nose, an unusual meeting of grapes and grapefruit, with the perfume of roses. It’s quite tart in the palate, with a fair flavour, even as it seems to lack depth or concentration. There’s not much body or length, and it’s very much an up-front experience, even if, after a while, I decide it’s leaving a leafy aftertaste not unlike green tea. 

Actually, I’m surprised by how good it is, for a not much above entry-level wine. I used to drink this as a student, and our happy memories of what then seemed to be lovely wine usually turn out to be very rosé-tinted reflections now betrayed by our more educated palates. Consulting some very fusty tasting notes that were long ago scrubbed off the Edinburgh University Wine Appreciation website, I discover I found the 2000 vintage to veer towards the confected, likening it to candied sugars or Appletise. This leads me to believe that either the 2009 vintage is very good, or simply that it is still very fresh. In fact, when, after 24 hours, I take off the vacuum seal, I discover it has acquired something of a confected character, now smelling of lime Opal Fruits (“made to make your mouth water!”)

It would be (and is, in many a seafood restaurant) a good match for white fish or shellfish, fulfilling more cheaply the function of the often sadly overpriced Albariño. It doesn’t do anything different in the glass, so one glass can feel like enough. On the other hand, the unusual notes do mean that it is said to be one of the few wines that can successfully accompany artichokes. It is also a good example of varietal character. It’s made from 85% Moscatel (whither the unusual grape-like character, an unusual exception to the paradox that wine, while made from grapes, rarely tastes of them) and 15% Gewürtztraminer (whither the classic grapefruit and rose petals).