David Williams, Matthew Forster MW and Diana Rollan tasted 118 wines, with 2 Outstanding and 20 Highly Recommended.
Spanish rosado & clarete: Panel tasting scores
118 wines tasted
Exceptional 0
Outstanding 2
Highly recommended 20
Recommended 57
Commended 26
Fair 13
Poor 0
Entry criteria: producers and UK agents were invited to submit their current-release, still rosado (produced from red grapes following the saignée/sangrado or direct press method) or clarete (25% red grapes/must and 75% white grapes/must, blended before alcoholic fermentation) wines from any ageing category of joven, roble, crianza, reserva or gran reserva
This tasting featured one of the best wines I and my two fellow judges, Matthew Forster MW and Diana Rollan, have encountered in a Decanter panel tasting. A unanimous 97-pointer, Bodega Hacienda Lopéz de Haro’s Classica Gran Reserva Rosado 2013 is vying for a place in my personal pantheon: is this the finest Spanish rosado I’ve ever tasted? It’s certainly up there.
In a rosé winemaking world that is increasingly preoccupied with imitating the model of extremely pale, delicately flavoured wines, patented (with extraordinary recent success) by Provence, the Classica was a vivid and timely reminder.
Other styles of rosé are available – and a long tradition of making deeper-coloured, more powerfully flavoured and more robustly textured rosados is one of Spanish wine’s many strengths. And sure enough, it was wines made in this tradition that stood out and attracted our highest scores.
Scroll down to see tasting notes and scores from the Spanish rosado & clarete panel tasting
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Spanish rosado & clarete panel tasting scores
Wines were tasted blind
{}
{"wineId":"85935","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{"wineId":"85936","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{"wineId":"85939","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{"wineId":"85940","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{"wineId":"85938","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{"wineId":"85937","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{"wineId":"85943","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{"wineId":"85947","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{"wineId":"85942","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{"wineId":"85941","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{"wineId":"85944","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{"wineId":"85945","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{"wineId":"85946","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{"wineId":"85948","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{"wineId":"85949","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{"wineId":"85950","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{"wineId":"85951","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{"wineId":"85952","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{"wineId":"85953","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{"wineId":"85954","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{"wineId":"85955","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{"wineId":"85956","displayCase":"standard","paywall":true}
{}
The judges
David Williams is wine correspondent for The Observer, a regular contributor to Decanter on all things Spanish, and a widely published wine writer, author and competition judge.
Matthew Forster MW is an independent wine consultant and education specialist, and founder of The Wine Partnership. A former director at the Wine & Spirit Education Trust, he has a particular passion for the food and wine cultures of Spain, Portugal and South America.
Diana Rollan is group head of beverage for D&D London restaurants group. A DWWA judge for Spain, she formerly managed training and wine buying at Hakkasan Group as its UK head of wine.
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