Tinto de Barrantes – an acquired taste!
June 9th, 2008 | Uncategorized
Every year our local village of Barrantes holds a ‘Fiesta do Vino Tinto’ in celebration of the red wines of the Rias Baixas region. Now, to be honest, the Rias Baixas region does not actually produce too many red wines, and within the D.O. there are actually very few Bodegas that make it. There are however a couple of grape varieties, such as Mencia and Caiño, that can produce a half-decent glass, but in reality the red grape struggles in our climate, to reach full maturity.
‘Tinto de Barrantes’ as it is known, is bright purple (similar to an unfermented Beaujolais) and is served in white ceramic cups that tend to exaggerate it’s colour. It has very low alcohol (below 10%) and is quite fruity, but, in my opinion, it suffers from an unacceptably high level of volatile acidity. It tastes rather like an unfinished wine that has not yet completed it’s alcoholic fermentation (as it’s vivid colour would suggest), and it is definitely an acquired taste.
In the end I guess that it what makes the world of wine so interesting – we all enjoy different things – I regret to say, that for me at least, Tinto de Barrantes is not one of them…….
