Castillo San Lorenzo

Apologies to our long-standing friends, and also to our new ones.

We were EXTREMELY pleased to learn that Jane MacQuitty gave our Castillo San Lorenzo Gran Reserva the following review in The Times in her article about the Best 30 wines under £5 in the UK:

BEST SPANISH

2001 Castillo San Lorenzo Rioja Gran Reserva, Spain

Cut-price parcels of rioja pop up all the time at Tesco but few hit the spot, so it was a joy to taste this scented, savoury, clove and vanilla-stacked, lengthily oak-aged Gran Reserva from a great vintage. Wood-heads shuld scoop up as much as they can.

Unfortunately the PR folks had mixed up the bottles for the particular tasting as there is no way this wine could be sold for £5. HOWEVER, the marvellous folks at Tesco did make an amazing offer which you can read in the follow-up article by Jane on The Times' website:

Dear Times Reader,

I am very sorry you have had fruitless trips to Tesco in search of my Best Spanish red wine. Following the publication of my article in The Times on the 13th March, I can only apologise that you were not able to find the 2001 Castillo San Lorenzo Rioja Gran Reserva on promotion. I stated in my article that the 2001 Castillo San Lorenzo Rioja Gran Reserva was on offer down from £9.99 to £4.99.

Unfortunately, Tesco’s Press Department mistakenly sent me the 2001 Castillo San Lorenzo Rioja Gran Reserva for tasting, and then confirmed verbally and in writing that it would be on special offer, when in fact the deal was only going to apply to the lesser 2004 Castillo San Lorenzo Reserva.

In recognition of their error, Tesco agreed to honour the £4.99 price as mentioned in The Times on Saturday, but only until the evening of Wednesday March 17th. The shelf marker should have been altered to reflect this. However if it is not, if you take the wine to the till, the promotion price should be flagged up. Ask to speak to the manager and mention The Times article if it does not check out at £4.99.

I am sorry that this does not give you more time to revisit your local store and obviously the 2001 Castillo San Lorenzo Gran Reserva is selling out very quickly, but it does now represent even more remarkable value, £14.35 down to £4.99.

With apologies once again for the confusion and inconvenience.

Best wishes,

Yours sincerely,

Jane MacQuitty

I realise it is too late in the day to take advantage of this now, but it goes to show that the Press, the public and our retail partners think highly not only of these wines, but of fairness to the customer too.

Good on them!

Keep an eagle-eye on future articles, and you never know what bargains you might be able to source too!

Thanks for the great comments by Lar over at Sour Grapes (an excellent wine blog based in Ireland) who made Castillo San Lorenzo Reserva 2004 his wine of the week, along with helpful advice about Rioja and some nice tasting notes.

If you are a wine fan, then come on down to the Business Design Centre in London to The Wine Show (if the tickets aren't all already sold out!).

Castillo San Lorenzo is being poured on the Wines from Spain stand today, tomorrow and Sunday. You can even buy bottles to take home if you are already planning your Christmas meal matches, ... or as a treat to help you last until the holidays!

I was asked to put together a short video for the Tesco Wine Fair coming up soon (I'll post details tomorrow) so you can take a sneak peek here:

To all the wonderful people I met at Tapas Fantasticas in Brick Lane, London E1 this weekend - THANK YOU!

I brought along 42 bottles of Castillo San Lorenzo Reserva to the event "to be safe". We sampled and sold the wine non-stop for two days. In the end, we sold the last bottle just after 5pm on the second day. Perfect!

I was very happy to see so many people who were already lovers of this wine and recognised the label from their usual shopping. Having such a core of fans means we are achieving our goal of making Rioja wines accessible to consumers all over the world.

It was extremely encouraging to have consumers coming back to our stand to buy glasses and bottles of our wine after sampling and comparing many of the others being poured at the event. Wines from Rioja have many things in common with each other, such as smooth tannins and mature fruit flavours, but wineries still have their own styles which means you can still find ones that suit your particular taste more than others.

The Castillo San Lorenzo style offers mature, dark fruit aromas, smooth tannins and slightly spicy notes, but with a medium bodied style, not too heavy and with a medium level of alcohol (only 12.5%) so it can match many different occasions.

In fact, one of the greatest surprises for people visiting our stand in 30 degree weather, was to drink a Rioja Reserva wine slightly CHILLED! Try it at home when the weather is very hot but you still fancy a red wine with your barbeque or picnic. Chill the bottle for a few minutes in a fridge or with ice. Not too much (not as much as a bottle of white wine) but enough that you notice a cool effect in your mouth. You'll enjoy it even more.

If you came along and took one of our cards, please leave me a comment and say hello. I'd love to hear from you.

This year you can come and sample Castillo San Lorenzo wines for yourself at a wonderful exhibition of food and wine from the Rioja region of Spain.

Tapas Fantasticas, organised by Wines from Rioja, will take place this weekend on Brick Lane between 11:30 and 5:30 on Saturday and Sunday.

You can find the Castillo San Lorenzo wines, alongside some examples of the Castillo de Clavijo wine range made by Criadores de Rioja especially for restaurants and bars, on Stand 22.

Last year's event was a wonderful success - showcasing not only great Rioja wines, but wonderful tapas from bars in Rioja and London's top Spanish restaurants. Come and taste delicious lamb chops ("Chuletillas"), Tortilla, Jamon, delicate stuffed peppers, and more. I'm hungry just thinking about it.

Tapas Fantasticas

146 Brick Lane, London

E1 6QN

27-28 June, 2009

11:30 - 17:30

Over the next few days you will see the latest vintage of the Castillo San Lorenzo Reserva on shelf in Tesco (in the UK).

The 2003 vintage was very popular. The incredible heat we experienced in Rioja in 2003, along with the rest of Europe, allowed us to make to a juicy, fruity style that was perfect for drinking young, even if it might not be the best style for keeping for too many years in the cellar.

The 2004 vintage was officially classified as Very Good, and it was a more classic style. The Rioja region experienced a better balance of sun and cooler nights. The Castillo San Lorenzo Reserva wine style is appropriately more 'classic', with an emphasis on the wonderful smooth dark fruit and spicy style that comes from spending 2 years in small oak barrels. This wine style is perfect for matching with all sorts of lamb, beef and richer dishes, and a smooth, warming glass to savour afterwards too.

Castillo San Lorenzo Reserva is currently on offer at Tesco stores at a fabulous discount.

The retail price of this wine is £9.99 but this is now reduced until July 21st to only £5.99 - that's a massive 40% discount. Hope you enjoy it!