Temps de Flors Vino de la Costa Catalan – True To Its Name

40% Muscat, 48% xarel-lo and 12% Gewürztraminer from Penedés, Spain.

SRP of $14 and available for around $12. Sample received courtesy Gregory White PR for review purposes.

From the bottle:

“Temps de Flors, “The time of flowers” in Catalan, is an outrageous festival of flowers, held north of Barcelona to celebrate the arrival of spring bloom. This blend of Muscat (40%), Xarel.lo (48%) and Gewurtztraminer (12%) tastes like spring in a bottle. Enjoy outdoors with amistades and anything you want on a warm day. Salud!

12.0% Alcohol”

As mentioned on the label, this wine is produced specifically for the flower festival that happens every May for 9 days in Girona, a town north of Barcelona. This isn’t your run of the mill flower festival either as it attracts over 400k visitors every year. Evidently the whole city is decked out, so it is quite a sight.

This wine also comes from Sumarroca who is a producer well known for their Cava (Spanish sparkling wine). I’m guessing this is the reason for use of the Xarel-lo grape here as it is best known as one of the primary varieties used in Cava; however, based on how well it works in this wine I wish we had more still wines using this variety available to us in the U.S.

The 2010 Sumarroca Temps de Flors Vino de la Costa Catalan is true to its name with very nice floral aromas plus some tropical fruit. Taking a sip reveals really quite a delicate and beautiful tasting experience. This wine has smooth and balanced flavors, good acidity and just the perfect sweetness level with flavors of peach, apricot and a little honey. It ends nicely with some lemon/lime zest and a pinch of white pepper. Overall this is an excellent wine, and definitely an interesting blend. The winery recommends pairing it with calamari which I think would be fabulous!

See a listing of local retailers selling this wine here.