13March/June 2012

2  AraexexpandsitsportfoliowithCavaVillaConchi

4 HarvestReport2011

6 NewlabelsforValdeVid,LuisCañasandPazodeSeñorans

8 VineyardsurfaceinSpainbyvarieties•Top30

9 RedRiojawineexportsbycountryin2011

10 SpanishFineWineslaunchesnewrangeofwines

12 AraexwinesshineonDecantermagazineRioja2007tasting

In this issue

ThisNewYear2012meansforusthelaunchofnewprojects,whichwehavedevelo-pedunderthenameTHEGRANDWINES.

To the range of wineries integratedin ARAEX & SPANISH FINE WINES,we add two new projects: R&G andVILLA CONCHI. R&G is the nameof the initiative led by Michel Rol-land, in partnership with ARAEX& SFW, to make quality wines inthree Denominations of Origin:RIOJA (ALAVESA), RIBERA DEL DUE-ROandRUEDA.Theprojectstartedin2010andwillbeinthemarketinJune2012.Afteralloureffortstomakeitareality,weareveryexcitedaboutthisfirstbrandoftheARAEX&SFWGroup.

VILLA CONCHI is the brand that in-corporates a wide selection of spar-klingwinesfromtheD.O.CAVA,such

asBrutSelección,BrutReserva,BrutReservaImperialandBrutRosé.Attherequest of our clients, we will launchthisnewrangeofsparklingwinesforthe first time, which complementsthe ARAEX portfolio of still winesavailablesince1993.

Finally,Iwouldliketoaddthatin2011ARAEX represented 21% of the totalRioja Alavesa wine exports, a histori-calrecordtodate.

We hope to keep counting on yoursupportandcooperation.

ARAEX & SFWlaunchesnewbrandofsparklingwines

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Araex expands its portfoliowithCavaVillaConchiIn our quest to offer a wider andbetter service to our customers,Araex has expanded its range ofwines in its portfolio to includea cava that matches the singularquality of the wines in the Araexand Spanish Fine Wines portfoliosince1993.

Thenewbrand,calledVillaConchi,includestwocavaswithanattrac-tive and modern presentation: aBrutSelecciónandapremiumBrutReserva.Thegrapesusedtomakeboth cavas are located at an aver-age altitude of 250 metres abovesea level in the Baix Penedes, inCatalonia, where about 95% of allSpanishcavaisproduced.

We hope you like the new cava. Ifyouwouldliketoknowmoreaboutthesewines,getintouchwithoursales team and they will be veryhappytohelpyou.

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Cava Villa ConchiBrutSelección

Cava Villa ConchiBrutReserva

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Harvest Report  2011

RIOJA

ALTOS DE RIOJA, BAIGORRI, LABAS-TIDA,  LAR  DE  PAULA,  LUIS  CAÑAS, AMARENProductionthisyearwaslowerduetothelackofrainandthehightempera-turesthatcontinuedattheendofthevegetative cycle, which also inducedthe start of the harvest to mid-Sep-tember. The dry weather required amoreexhaustivecareofthevineyard,butalsomeantthatgrapehealthwasexcellent, with very low incidence ofdiseases. The intensity of the winesismedium-high,withcomplexaromasof ripe fruit. The resulting wines areexpected to be well structured, withgoodcolour,longevityandtopquality.

RIAS BAIXAS 

PAZO  DE  SEÑORANS. The 2011 har-vest was abundant -30% more than2010- and quality was very good. Theweather was more irregular: we hadplentyofrainfallinthewinter,averywarm spring and a mixed summer,with cool weather in June-July and averyhot,dryAugustandSeptember.

As a result, the harvest started onSeptember 8, eight days earlier thaninthepreviousyear.Regardlessofanearlier harvest date, the ripening pe-riod was slow and long –as it shouldbeforAlbariñograpes–withlargedif-ferencesbetweendayandnighttimetemperatures, which enhanced vari-etalaromas.

The sanitary condition of the grapeswasgood,aswellastheacidity.Alco-hollevelsdroppedalmostonedegreefrom the previous year to 12.5% re-sulting in spicy primary aromas. Weexpect wines from this vintage to beexcellent, with balanced acidity andplentyoffruitcharacter.

TORO

SOBREÑO. Lack of rain marked the2011 harvest in Toro, with 324 mm ofrainfallcomparedtothe350-400mmaverage. Mild temperatures in June,July and part of August combinedwiththescarcerainfallhaveresultedin healthy grapes with balanced and

elegant ripening levels and greatcomplexity.

Harvest began on September 16 andlasted two weeks. We picked around600,000 kg of Tempranillo grapeswhich are full of polyphenols andtanninsthatwillresultinwineswithplentyofcolour,goodstructure,greataromatic complexity and alcohol lev-elsof14.5%.Weexpectthesewinestobesuitableforprolongedaging.

RUEDA

VAL DE VID. The2011harvestinValdeVidtookplacebetweenSeptember12-26 and produced 500,000 kg of Ver-dejo and Viura grapes - a little lowerthanlastyear.Thiswasduetotheir-regularweatherthroughouttheyear,with a rainy winter, a dry spring anda very hot and dry summer. Despitethis, the sanitary condition of thegrapes was very good with an excel-lentripeningthankstothehightem-peratures at the end of August andearlySeptember.

OUR D.O. IN NUMBERS

Area Surface TotalProduction Prod.change (Ha) kg(2011) over2010(%)

D.O.Ca. Rioja  62,125 383,030,000 +3.34

D.O. Rias Baixas 3,966 41,787,783 +31.87

D.O. Toro 5,675 19,086,305 +15.19

D.O. Rueda 12,590 74,890,428 -2.18

D.O. Ribera del Duero 21,381 96,647,494 +35.84

D.O. Navarra 11,758 71,849,000 -16

D.O. La Mancha 169,900 136,500,000* -3.43

*Estimatedproductioninlitres.

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We harvested mostly at night to en-sure that the grapes were picked atcooler hours and reached the wineryin optimum conditions. Alcohol lev-els are around 13% with intense fruitaromas, especially white flowers andtropicalnotes.

RIBERA DEL DUERO

VALTRAVIESO. Theweatherwasmildthis year, with a cold winter, enoughrainfalltofeedthereservesandamildspring with rain in the first half andanabsenceoffrostwithdryweathertowardsthemonthsofMayandJune.Summerwasirregular,stormyandwithhighdifferencesintemperaturesthatrangedfrom5ºCatnightto27ºCdur-ingtheday.Asourvineyardisat915mabovesealevel,theweatherhelpdelayandextendthephenolicripening,giv-ing more balance to the grapes. Har-veststartedwiththeMerlotvarietyattheendofSeptemberandfinishedattheendofOctoberwiththeCabernetSauvignon.Thegrapes,whichshowedoptimum sanitary conditions, wereharvestedbyhandin15kgboxes.

We picked 386,000 kg in our 86 Hawhichrepresents4,500kg/Ha,wellbe-low the maximum allowed by the DORibera del Duero (7,000 kg/Ha). Ourwinesthisvintagehavegreatbalance,aromaticandpolyphenolicconcentra-tion, excellent acidity, sweet tanninsand plenty of fruit. We can say that2011 was an excellent harvest at Val-travieso.

LA MANCHA

MUÑOZ.  This year’s harvest startedonAugust18andfinishedonOctober12. The crop at Bodegas Muñoz was10% larger than last year. We had tobuy extra grapes to compensate fora 20% drop in production brought byhailstormsinMay,aspotofmildewaf-teraveryrainyspring,andlowinitialfloweringlevels.

The second half of the summer wasmarked by unusually high tempera-tures,whichcontinuedthroughouttheharvest and accelerated the ripeningprocessinbothwhiteandredvarieties.

As a result, whitevarietiesshow lessaromatic intensity than in previousharvests, low acidity and good struc-ture while alcohol levels are slightlyhigher. Red varieties present a goodtannic structure, good concentra-tion,lowacidityandripefruitaromas(plums,prunes,driedfruit).

NAVARRA

PAGO DE CIRSUS. Theharveststart-edatPagodeCirsusonAugust26.ThefirstvarietytobepickedwastheSau-vignon Blanc, followed by the Char-donnay. Both varieties, as well as theTempranillo, Syrah and Merlot thatwere harvested later, were in excel-lent sanitary conditions. Winter wasirregularwithaverycoldJanuaryandawarmrainyFebruaryandMarch.Thewarmweathercontinued inAprilandMay,whichbroughtforwardtheflow-ering.Grapesripenedatanoptimumrateduetothelackofraininthehar-vesting months. Wines are expectedtobeofhighcolourintensityandex-cellentquality.

6

BodegasValdeVid, intheDORueda,hasjustreleasednewlabelsforitsValdeVidandEyloranges.Theyarestrea-mlined versions of the former labels,whichmaintainthesilhouetteofCon-desaEylo,acountesswholivedintheValladolidareainmedievaltimes.Ano-ther bottle that sees a change is the

award winning Albariño Pazo Seño-ransSeleccióndeAñada.Therenewedlabel maintains the watercolour butadds a modern touch with new fontsandsharpercolours.

Meanwhile, Bodegas Luis Cañas fromDOCa Rioja, has also launched a new

image for its Luis Cañas Blanco Fer-mentado en Barrica, Crianza, ReservaandGranReserva.Thechangeiscon-siderable, with new labels and capsu-lesandnewcoloursandpapers.

This is what they all look like. Let usknowwhatyouthink!

NewlabelsforVal de Vid,Luis CañasandPazo de Señorans

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Val de VidVerdejoRueda

EyloRueda

Condesa EyloRueda

Luis CañasRioja

Pazo SeñoransSeleccióndeAñada

8

AlthoughSpainisknownforitsredwi-nes made with Tempranillo, the mostplanted grape across the country isAirén, a white variety found mostly

inLaMancha,wheretwothirdsofallthegrapesgrowninSpaincomefrom.Tempranillo comes second, followedbyothernativevarietiessuchasBobal,

GarnachaandMonastrellalthoughtheintroduction of foreign varieties isgradually turning the tables, with anexponentialgrowthinthelastdecade.

VineyardsurfaceinSpainbyvarieties•Top 30

Variety  Colour  Hectares  % of Total  Variation %          2010 - 2000

Airén White 239,400 23.50 -15.9

Tempranillo Red 212,443 20.86 -83.3

Bobal Red 76,138 7.47 -8.1

GarnachaTinta Red 66,963 6.57 -13.2

Monastrell Red 53,427 5.24 -2.9

Macabeo(Viura) White 35,002 3.44 4.5

Pardina White 27,566 2.71 -39.0

GarnachaTintorera Red 20,010 1.96 195.1

CabernetSauvignon Red 21,646 2.12 252.2

Syrah Red 19,615 1.93 n/a

PalominoFino White 2,626 0.26 -30.5

Merlot Red 13,362 1.31 273.4

Blend - 11,235 1.10 -70.5

BlancaCayetana White 11,705 1.15 10.3

VerdejoBlanco White 16,985 1.67 111.0

MoscatelAlejandría White 9,840 0.97 18.0

PedroXiménez White 8,471 0.83 -13.8

ListánBlanco White 9,312 0.91 -3.2

Mencía Red 8,789 0.86 -20.1

Parellada White 7,829 0.77 -15.6

XarelloBlanco White 8,412 0.83 -12.8

Chelva Red 5,040 0.49 -30.1

TintadeToro Red * 0.0 37.8

Malvasía White 4,951 0.49 -20.6

Mazuelo/Cariñena Red 6,284 0.62 -35.2

Chardonnay White 6,180 0.61 181.4

Albariño White 5,523 0.54 20.9

PrietoPicudo Red 4,583 0.45 -34.1

Zalema White 4,395 0.43 -20.6

JaénBlanco White 3,750 0.37 202.7

*TintadeToroisclassifiedunderTempranillosince2010.

Datafor2010

Varieties    Hectares  % of Total

White 443,264 43.51

Red 530,506 52.08

Other 44,885 4.41

TOTAL    1,018,655  100

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Fifteen countries around the worldconcentrate 91% of consumption ofRioja red wine, with an annual turno-verof314.8millioneuros.UnitedKing-

dom,GermanyandtheUStopthecon-sumption chart, with over 57% of thetotal.Intermsofturnover,thelargestproportionofRiojawinesoldisReser-

va,with 134,991,902millioneuros,fol-lowed by young wines (99,580,082millioneuros)andCrianza(96,665,637millioneuros).

Red Rioja wineexportsbycountryin2011

 Country  Hectolitres  Turnover E  Average Price E  % of Total

1. UnitedKingdom 284,716.40 102,238,201.44 3.59 29.66%

2.Germany 151,755.94 57,490,884.47 3.79 16.68%

3.UnitedStates 77,048.64 37,285,981.4 4.84 10.82%

4.Switzerland 63,226.89 30,549,286.4 4.83 8.86%

5.   Sweden 26,144.32 11,540,015.53 4.41 3.35%

6.   TheNetherlands 28,623.79 10,026,345.74 3.50 2.91%

7.   Mexico 17,243.76 9,389,001.86 5,44 2.72%

8.   Canada 14,192.27 9,010,026.02 6,35 2.61%

9.   China 16,378.43 8,709,992.31 5,32 2.53%

10.  Ireland 18,972.19 8,369,202.53 4,41 2.43%

11.   Belgium 18.205,19 8,233,574.27 4,52 2.39%

12.  Norway 12,658.57 7,099,968.17 5,61 2.06%

13.  Denmark 12,085.71 5,890,291.07 4,87 1.71%

14.  France 13,581.40 5,007,725.51 3,69 1.45%

15.  Austria 10,249.53 4,012,530.86 3,91 1.16%

TOTAL TOP 15  765,083.03  314,853,027.58  4.12  91%

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Spanish Fine Wineslaunchesnewrangeofwines

TheARAEXandSpanishFineWinesteam has created an attractive, ap-proachable and modern family ofwines crafted to give pleasure toanywinelover.

DomusdeVeleiatranslates20yearsofpassionintowinesthatofferthebest Tempranillo and other leadingSpanishgrapevarieties.Bysharingthe know-how of 12 wineries within7 of the most important Spanishwine regions, Domus de Veleia en-compasses the best of the IberianPeninsula.

The vineyards of Domus de Veleiaare locatedtothesoutheastofMa-dridaroundthevillageofNoblejas.At an altitude of over 737 meters

above the sea level, this region isconsidered cooler than the rest ofCentral Spain, which allows us toproducefresherwines.

And part of our vineyards has thedistinction of being one the oldestplantings of Tempranillo and Gar-nacha in the region. The Domus deVeleia range has a common base:atleast70%oftheblendsaremadewithSpanishgrapevarieties.

Domus de Veleia “Clasicos” repre-sentsthemostfamousSpanishgrapevarieties.Thewinesshowtheexpres-sionofsoilandclimate,withintensearomas emanating from the fruit,showingeleganceandconcentrationandfresh,well-balancedflavours.

Domus de Veleia “Edición especial”range aims to express the typicalcharacterofSpain’smostoutstand-ing grape variety: Tempranillo. Ele-ganceandvibrancyaretheessenceofthesewines.

DomusdeVeleia“GranColección”isa homage to the diversity of Span-ishgrapevarietiesandterroirs.Ourwinemaker uses selective blendingandanabundanceofpassiontopro-ducepremiumwines.Bothsoftnessandintensityareperfectlyachieved,whiledemonstratingthefullpoten-tialoftheDomustheVeleiawines.

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Entry LevelDomusdeVeleia“Clasicos”

Barrel AgedDomusdeVeleia“Ediciónespecial”

PremiumDomusdeVeleia“GranColección”

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Sixwines intheAraexportfolioweregiventhreeandfourstarsintheRioja2007DecanterPanelTasting,showingthat the quality across the range ofour Rioja Alavesa wines and wineriesisconsistentandsteady.

Rated“verygood”bytheDenominationof Origin Rioja, the 2007 vintage is, ac-cordingtoDecantermagazine,emergingfromtheshadowofthe“excellent”2005.

Baigorri de Garage, the signaturewine of Samaniego-based BodegasBaigorri, obtained four stars. The pa-nel highlighted its aromas “of reallydark,concentratedbramblefruit,spi-cy oak, mint, high toast and cedar”,alongwith“richsyrupyfruitwithbig

spiceandtanninsundercontrol”.Theseven panel judges, including SarahJaneEvansMW,PierreMansourfromtheTheWineSocietyandRiojaexpertJohn Radford, described this 100%Tempranillo as “expressive, layeredand really appealing” adding that itwillbe“fabulous”.

At Bodegas Baigorri, gravity is thedrivingforceinthewinemakingpro-cess,completelyavoidingtheuseofpumps.Built32metresunderground,the winery is one of the landmarkbuildingsinRiojaAlavesa.

FivemorewinesintheAraexportfo-lioobtainedthreestarsinthispanel.They were Castillo Labastida Crian-

za: “Deep and complex with plumpfruit, huge tannins and fresh acidi-ty”; Angeles de Amaren: “Generousandtypicalcherryjamflavours”;LardePaulaCrianza:“cleanfruit,hintsof chocolate on the mid-palate andgood structure”; Solagüen Crianza:“Mouthfillingfruit”andAltosdeLaGuardia Crianza: “Balanced fruit,tanninandacidity”.

Ratedthe“bestvintagebetween2005and 2010”, the judges praised the te-rroir in some of the wines: “ManyAlavesawinesshowedclass,styleandcharm”, according to Mansour. MikeRitchieMWagreed,finding“livelyaro-maticsandminerality”inthewinesofthissub-regionoftheDOCaRioja.

Araex  wines shine on DecantermagazineRioja2007tasting

ARAEX - Rioja Alavesa, S.L. araex@araex.com www.araex.comSpanish Fine Wines, S.L. sfw@sfw.es www.sfw.esRamón y Cajal 7, 1ºA. 01007 VITORIA - SPAINTel (+34) 945 150 589 (+34) 945 150 588 Fax (+34) 945 158 283