Jumilla, a virtually unheard-of vineyard area southeast of Madrid, is one of the gems in a country that is full of great wine. The soil in Jumilla is made up of sand and chalk, and as a result, the area escaped the devastation of Phyloxera, the North American root louse that destroyed most of Europe’s vineyards towards the end of the 19^th century and forced the majority of vineyards throughout the world to be planted on the roots of different (mostly native American) vine varieties. This has two great benefits: first, Jumilla is one of the very few (less than 10 I think) sources of vines that are more than one hundred years old in all of Europe; and second, that Jumilla vineyards are planted on their own rootstock – a distinction that many serious wine geeks (me included) believe allows the wine to have a more intense varietal flavor and a purer expression of the place that they are from. But don’t tell anyone . . . I’d prefer to keep Jumilla as our little secret.

Bodegas Olivares,  as a winery is a relatively new creation. The Olivares family has owned some of the best vineyards in Jumilla for some time, but always sold the wine off in bulk to other producers. In 1996, they hired Francisco Selva as a winemaker, and began keeping their exceptional grapes for themselves and making some stunning wines. The vineyards the family owns are all planted on their own rootstock, and many of the vines date to 1872! The wines are made almost entirely from Monastrell (a.k.a. Mourvèdre, Mataro or, in rural Roussillon, estrangle chien – the dog strangler), with occasional tiny bits of Grenache thrown in. The winery employs mostly 2 to 3 year old French oak barrels, which they purchase used from the best Burgundy producers. All in all, a classy operation, with some of the most exceptional vineyards in all of Spain.

Altos de la Hoya Monastrell Vielles Vignes is Bodegas Olivares’ flagship dry red wine (they also make a stunning sweet red called simply Monastrell Dulce). Altos de la Hoya refers to the location in Jumilla of the vineyards: it is the coolest, and therefore best, subdistrict of Jumilla. The Monastrell plantings that make up this wine are all from original rooted vines, a large part planted in 1872. The wine is dry and immensely powerful, with a stunning dark purple color and a heady, spicy aroma that is haunting. This is a wine that requires big food: think Southwestern cuisine, Barbeque, steak, venison, lamb, and the super rich, slightly sweet food from the best restaurants that serve “New American” cuisine. This is also a great wine for Blue Cheeses like Spain’s Cabrales. This wine will also age admirably, and can be drunk now through 2015 without a second thought.

Daniel is the tenth generation of Alary’s to make wine in the village of Cairanne in the Southern Rhône Valley, and his son Denis is the eleventh. The Alary’s are the most respected producers in Cairanne, with land in the best vineyards in the village: Font d’Estevanas, Brunotte, Gerbaude and Jean de Verde. They use oak sparingly, but effectively, and all of the wines have an amazing depth of flavor.

Cairanne lies on the east bank of the Rhône river, north of Gigondas and east of Rasteau. The soil substrate is sandy marl that is typical of this area of the Rhône, covered with conglomerate (read: stones and dirt). The wines from Cairanne are consistently good, and nearly always full, spicy and well-delineated mixtures of Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre and the other typical Southern Rhône grapes.

The Alarys also have a small plot of forty-five year old Cabernet Sauvignon that has very low yields and offers exceptionally characterful fruit. However, Cabernet Sauvignon is not permitted in any of the AOC wines in the Rhône Valley. It would be a shame to let these beautiful vines go to waste, so the Alarys blend them with roughly equal parts Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault and Counoise (Cinsault and Counoise are to of the less well-known, but very important blending grapes of this region). Because of the Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend, this wine can’t be given a proper appellation, and is instead labeled as Vin de Pays de la Principauté d’Orange. Because it lacks a fancy Appellation, even though it is every bit as good as their other wines, this wine is always high on my list of the best deals in France. This year is no exception.

A dry, medium-full-bodied red, the spicy notes in this wine make it nearly infinitely flexible with food. A couple of don’t miss combinations, however, are beef in any form, roast lamb, and any sort of stew (in Provence & the Southern Rhône they serve a stew called daube that consists of beef, garlic, vegetables, olives, wine and herbs de Provence and tastes like it was made for La Grange Daniel!). Drink this wine from now until 2011, maybe longer.

In the United States, Austria is much better known for white wines (Riesling and Gruner Veltliner), than for its red wine. But there are a lot of really good red wines here as well. What I particularly like is that they are full of fruit and spice, almost like a good Zinfandel. Anyway, this wine is made from the Zweigelt grape (Blauer just means blue, and doesn’t signify any special type), which is the most common of Austria’s high-quality red varieties.

Kremstal is the name for the vineyard areas around the town of Krems on the Donau (Danube) river. The area encompasses both steeply terraced vineyards along the banks of the river (where the whites are grown) and plateaus to the north of the river where the reds thrive. The soil is a strangely soft loess, composed of half soil and half rock, with large portions of limestone and clay. This soil composition, as well as the long, sunny growing season (because it is cool here, grapes stay on the vines for a long time) make for full-bodied, luscious reds.

Weingut Berger is a humble but very forward-thinking, family estate, that makes consistently delicious wines from its own, very small vineyard holdings. No oak is used at all here, on either reds or whites, and the family was one of the first in Austria to have temperature-controlled fermentation tanks and cellars – they were installed in 1990, years ahead of many of their much more famous (and expensive!) neighbors. The total production of all wines at this estate is 5400 cases.

This is a very flexible wine, and will go well with a variety of foods, from charcuterie and cheese, to fatty fish (this is a great red wine and fish pairing), to poultry of all sorts, and even leaner cuts of beef such as flank steak. This is also a wine that, despite its very forward and fruity character, will age admirably, so drink it between now and 2012 . . . maybe longer.

This Wine is an especially good deal because it comes in a very unusual one-liter bottle (you get 33% more for free!).  The winery has stopped using corks altogether because of the risk of cork taint in the wines, but there are no one-liter bottles available to accommodate screw-caps yet, so they have chosen to close the wine with a crown cap (like on a beer botle!) rather than using a cork.  Don’t worry, the wine is really classy despite the pakaging.