First off, allow us to congratulate Lenn Thompson of Lenndevours for the 50th Anniversary of Wine Blog Wednesday, and to Russ Beebe of Winehiker for choosing such an appropriate theme for WBW #50: wine you’d go hiking with

And oh how we wish we were hiking right at this very minute. To be up in the mountains hearing the crackle of the leaves underfoot, the gentle brush of the cold wind across your cheeks, and the awe inspiring vision of the valleys sweeping down below you, while perched on a small outcropping. Sigh, I wish I could teleport us there, feeling my head on the soft, slightly wet ground staring up at the wispy clouds. But alas, we are here, in Terrassa, imagining a beautiful, relaxing day in the mountains, pondering what we would bring.

At first, we considered a light red to pair with our traditional hiking cuisine, consisting of cured Manchego cheese and a freshly baked baguette. But then we thought, “what about a big bold Spanish red that is so tightly wound, it would take hours for that bad boy to open and relax?”.

After much contemplation, we both agreed that this would be a great way to go. Pack in some fuet, a sharp Manchego and a baguette, hike for 3 to 4 hours after double decanting your bottle, and voila, you’ve got a fabulous little lunch. The only problem being, you’ve got to get back down the mountain. And as many of you know, these big ass Spanish reds pack in a fair amount of alcohol. So unless you’ve spend the entire afternoon tossing around a Frisbee, while downing a few …

Today, we have an announcement. This Thursday, if the planets align and Twitter stays live for more then 10 minutes,  we’ll be tasting wines with the prestigious wine importer, Eric Solomon of European Cellars and the new online wine retailer Binendswine.com. When I started in wine, 10 years ago, Eric’s wines were some of the first inspirations that brushed my young immature palate. Wines like Hecula from Yecla, motivated me to learn about unknown regions and wines. Hence, I was super excited when Craig Drollet of Bin Ends Wine invited Gabriella and I to help host a tasting with Eric on the micro blogging platform of Twitter. On the 17th of July, around 7pm eastern, you can sign into Twitter and taste with us, as we discuss the following wines:

I would be hard pressed to find a more agreeable wine producing region than Jumilla. Adventurous, avant garde wines being made with grapes less commonly found in Spain mixed with Spanish grapes such as Monastrell that has been making its comeback for years but that always seems to miss out on the glory. A red, very sweet grape, Monastrell makes deeply colored wines characterized by a high alcoholic content and often a cherry liqueur kind of undertone.

1998 Bodegas Olivares Jumilla Dulce Monastrell - Spain, Murcia, Jumilla (6/30/2006)Dark purple almost black in color. Incredibly complex wine that reminded me of a port. It is a sensuous wine to me that needs to be appreciated with either a pungent blue cheese or chocolate, but is too sweet and cloying to be appreciated alone. Fortunately, I was able to both try it before a fabulous blue cabrales and after, and my appreciation for the wine increased tenfold after the creaminess of the blue danced with the Monastrell.

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.