If you’ve spent any time following wines at all, you quickly
realize it is a very trendy world, where rumor can quickly grab hold in
people’s minds (the French make the best and/or only drinkable wine in the
world) and where something as relatively trite as a Hollywood movie can sell
cases upon a cases of a particular varietal, as the movie “Sideways” did for
the formerly much less publicized and formerly considerably less popular Pinot Noir.
Several countries have taken their turn as “the next big
thing” and Spain had their moment in the sun before rising prices drove the
seekers of bargains and hidden gems elsewhere (I believe the current locations
for TNBT are somewhere in South America, either Chile or Argentina). While
Spain was hot, it introduced the world to some of the wonderfully luscious and
sweet offerings of that locale that was perhaps best known for a crazy practice
of letting enraged male bovines run rampant through the streets, footloose,
fancy free and horns wild.
One of those was the grape behind this wine, the lively
Tempranillo, which yields a very fruity taste, highly reminiscent of berries,
both blue and black. Rioja refers to the area from which this comes, probably
the most famous wine region of that country, up in the northern part. This
particular wine, which is a blend, but clearly utilizing Tempranillo as a
backbone, is one that feels light in the mouth and tastes fruity out of the
gate. The closer you drink it from opening the bottle, the greater the
backbite, though it loses the majority of whatever minor harshness is there
starting about 15 minutes after airing. The longer it airs, the greater
complexity and fullness emerges, with the full effect coming right around the
60 minute mark. It’s a very adaptable and enjoyable wine and is a fantastic
representative of both the wines from that country, as well as that particular
grape and region.
For $13 or less a bottle, however, this is another that is
mostly SPA Only as my tastes tend towards some of the others that come in on
SPA that can be had for less. Still, if
you’re interested in taking a wine tour of the world via package stores, as I
did when compiling the list initially, this is a good starting point for Spain.
No comments:
Post a Comment