A new selection of five great wines is ready for Iberia’s Business Plus-class travellers in the months of February, March and April. The airline is now highlighting three new reds --Pujanza 2005 (Rioja), Juan Gil 2007 (Jumilla), and Cadozos 2005 (Zamora)—and two whites --Pazo Señorans 2009 (Rías Baixas) y Viñas del Vero Chardonnay Colección 2007 (Somontano).

The selection reflects not only the great diversity of the finest Spanish wines, but their remarkable evolution in recent years.

Passengers wishing to enhance their tasting experience aboard Iberia’s long haul flights can read about these wines in the in-flight magazine Ronda Iberia and in La Revista Todovino, also available on board, and the wine list itself. And they can use their touch-screen monitors to see a video of the sommelier Custodio L. Zamarra tasting the wines as the vintners look on, to learn even more about the origins, styles, and grapes of these fine wines.

Wines for the Quarter

• Pujanza 2005 Tinto (D.O.Ca. Rioja). This is the flagship of a winery founded in Laguardia in the late 1990s by the young and brilliant winemaker Carlos San Pedro. A particularly well-groomed red, it is made from a variety of grapes from the winery’s own vineyards, which are fermented and aged separately and then assembled to reflect the characteristics of each year’s vintage. A towering example of a very modern Rioja.
• Juan Gil 2007 Tinto (D.O. Jumilla). This is an excellent example of the new Jumilla that has been achieved by dressing up the local monastrell variety of grape. Well-made, beautifully presented, and offering great value for money, this is a red that stimulates and seduces all who sample it. Boasting sun-drenched sweet fruitiness, a hearty Mediterranean character, and voluminous and caressing tannins, it is accorded the highest honours in La Guía Todovino 2010.
• Cadozos 2005 Tinto (V.T. Castilla y León). This red is a delicious rarity that springs from the meadowlands of Zamora, about 30 kilometres from Arribes del Duero, and a small, family-owned winery more than 800 meters above sea level, where it is cool enough to cultivate the delicate French Pinot Noir variety alongside the Jumilla. The combination of the two spawns a highly original red with spicy notes, fine tannins, and a perfect balance.
• Pazo Señorans 2009 Blanco (D.O. Rías Baixas). One of Galicia’s most renowned Albariños and a trail-blazing exponent of the variety among connoisseurs all over the world. Just bottled, the 2009 has been hailed as the best in years, thanks to a meatiness in the mouth, an excellent fruity character, and a lively acidity. It emergence coincides with a subtle change in the winery’s image and labels. And this wine, too, is given a special rating in La Guía Todovino.
• Viñas del Vero Chardonnay Colección 2007 Blanco (D.O. Somontano). This Chardonnay from the San Miguel estates is a wonderful example of a white fermented in the barrel, when fruit and wood combine to perfection. It also illustrates how this French vine thrives in Somontano. Its breeding is impeccable, like everything that emerges from Viñas del Vero. It is a dense, full-bodied white with a touch of citrus and great complexity, with the toasty, smoky, and buttery aromas of the finest Chardonnays.
  

Up