Bodegas Illana 2006 Casa de Illana Tradicion

1626 made a pretty hefty dent as a page in the history books.

Much like this blog entry, it started on a Thursday.

King Charles the First was crowned in February, remaining on the throne until his timely execution 23 years later (the guy attempted to start not one, but two civil wars in the greater British empire, which was of wealthy stature at that time!)

In May, the Dutch explorer Peter Minuit arrived in “New Netherland,” now more commonly known as Manhattan Island. Ever heard of it?

An earthquake in Naples killed nearly 10,000 in July.

November of 1626 brought the consecration of St. Peter’s Basilica, which still to this day has the largest interior of any Christian church on the planet, busting at its seams with a maximum of 60,000 people.

Also in 1626, Bodegas Illana y Vinedos established itself as a full-production winery in Cuenca, Spain.

Maintained by the same family for the past 4 generations, the winery took a modern spin in the late 80s by updating to trellised vineyard plantings, focusing on how the vine is trained to grow on the trellised wires/posts/what have you to get maximum exposure to their life source – the sun. This innovation was the first to be seen in the area, brought to the old world by the folks at Bodegas Illana.

The principal family member and winemaker, Javier Prosper (alongside his wife), leads the winery today, rich in knowledge from his graduation from formal Spanish enology school in 2003. The co-owners have branded the winery’s image into a Spanish-style Thomas Kincaid painting called “Finca Buenavista.” Scenic, green and congenial, the new winery production facility gazes over the estate vineyards like a mother hen guarding her chicks.

And rightly so, the winery owns over 22,000 acres of land. 100 of which are planted with a few completely foreign varietals (to me) like the native grapes Cencibel (a derivative of Tempranillo), Bobal (seen mostly in Valencia, Spain) and Moscatel de Grano Menudo (Muscat Blanc). The rest is filled with staples like Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, Petit Verdot, Cabernet Franc and Sauvignon Blanc.

With the best of both worlds within this massive vineyard, the Prospers elected Bobal, Tempranillo and Syrah for the 2006 Tradicion Red Wine (45%, 30% and 25% respectively). The Bobal and Tempranillo vines have a good amount of age on them, dating over 20+ years as the youngest.

The nose is what I expected to find with 30% Tempranillo – spice, vanilla, cherry cola, sherried mushrooms and licorice, typical tones I think to be presumably Spanish. But the Bobal varietal pulls out a freshness in the wine with red fruit, acid and black olives.

On the palate, the attack is gentle with acidity, pushing out spicy plum and other dark stone fruits. The mid-palate is a little grapey but is balanced out with licorice flavors and fine, rounding tannins.

Although 1626 was a very good year, it looks like 2006 worked out for Bodegas Illana as well.

With backing from the Wine Advocate and Wine Enthusiast, positive reviews for Bodegas Illana are flourishing and more are recognizing the winery as a major value producer from Spain.

Score: 7.