N.V. Bodegas Herederos Ribas Binissalem-Mallorca Sionata Dulce - Spain, Balearic Islands, Binissalem-Mallorca (6/21/2006)Light steely pink in color. The nose shows peaches, flowers, and vanilla. Sweet and rich with a medium acidity, very fresh. Flavors of peaches, flowers, and fresh apricots dance in the mouth. Great wine.

Carbonic Maceration: A winemaking technique used to produce light, fruity red wines with a distinctive character. This definition taken from Answers.com goes on to explain the process with which this “light fruity wine” is made. Last month, I wrote about my experience drinking a Carbonic Macerated Spanish wine, terrified that I had found a Beaujolais Nouveau like wine with simple fruit and lacking in character. However, I concluded with a bit of astonishment that although the wine was relatively simple, it was actually quite interesting – shattering my previous assumptions that all CM wines mirrored one another.

Since then, I have done a bit of research on Carbonic Maceration in Spain and have discovered that this form of winemaking is more prevalent than I once thought. Often times it is used in part to add some fruit to a wine that is made the “old fashioned” way - blending back a small percentage of CM into a wine that might need a little extra fruit.

Intriguingly, not a week after my first experience with a Spanish wine made with Carbonic Maceration, I received an invitation to a wine tasting of approximately 33 different bodegas all showcasing their “new” Carbonic Macerated wines of 2005. With a longer than usual growing season, bodegas were really pushing their limits with only a few weeks from harvest to the final bottling.