A little wine trip beyond Rioja via the Holloway road...

In Spain there lies mucho mucho vino. You probably know some spots; Ribero Del Duero, Toro, Navarra, Catalonia. There's loads. The magic and fun of wine partly lies in discovering new ones, particularly in Spain where Rioja is so prevalent in peoples' minds. One of least known and most interesting Spanish wine regions is Bierzo in the north-west of the country, Castilla-Leon, south east of Galicia. There they produce red wines made from a grape called Mencia which are full of character. The microclimate and the soil, yes the "terroir", darling, create rich fruits such as plum and blackberry with good structure and nice earthy tannins, in other wines very drinkable balanced wines; they can be a little TOO tannic for those of you who grew up drinking Jacobs Creek Merlot but that's nothing that a good piece of  beef (Galician beef from just up the road is very good - and very trendy for you dedicated followers- if you've won the lottery recently) won't fix. The one I had recently however wasn't too dry. I found it by chance in a new independant wine shop on Holloway road called Provisions. I've know idea where else you'll find it because I'd forgotten about this particular wine, but if you do see some, buy it.