Mozares Rueda Verdejo Vintage: 2006 Purchased: Jul 19th 2008 Price: $5.99 Purchase Location: Esquin - (http://www.esquin.com/) Categories: Spain - White

Tasting Notes:

This wine is a bright, pale lemon color in the glass. You get aromas of green apple plus a slight herbal smell of fennel and a lot flinty minerality.

The taste is crisp, and refreshing, with absolutely no wood. The herbal notes were just perfect for the squash blossom frittata I was serving.

The finish was not very long and the acidity kind of puttered out leaving a flat almond taste behind. That kept the wine from being outstanding. But really, at $5.99 can you complain?


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Bodegas Piqueras Castillo de Almansa Reserva Vintage: 2002 Purchased: Jun 21st 2007 Price: $10.50 Purchase Location: Maple Leaf Wine Cellar - (http://www.mapleleafcellar.com/) Categories: Red - Spain

Tasting Notes:

I drank this alone with a hamburger while Kathrine was out of town. It's a good value, but nothing I would call special. It was very rustic, but nothing seems to make me remember it well.


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Sangenis I Vaque Priorat Porrera Vintage: 2004 Purchased: Jul 2nd 2007 Price: $14.99 Purchase Location: Garagiste - (http://www.garagistewine.com/) Categories: Red - Spain

Tasting Notes:

I didn't have an Italian wine on hand to drink with a quick pasta dish I was making to eat alone, so I debated whether the South of France or Spain would be a better place to go. I grabbed this one first. I didn't remember the description I got from Garagiste about it, but the back said it was a blend of garnacha, carinena and Syrah. This sounded like a food friendly blend, so I opened her up.

The wine is a very deep purple, just translucent red on the edges. At first the nose was all alcohol and minerals. I couldn't coax anything out of it. The same was true of the first sip. It was tight. I could taste the hints of black fruit and a touch of fennel, but the tannins and intense minerality on the finish just dominated. After about an hour it really opened up. The alcohol had blown off of the nose and there was a fruity blackberry pie sent to go with the minerals . The blackberry pie mingled with cassis on the palate. The mid palate was very herbal with fennel and what I took as eucalyptus. The finish was earth and minerals, almost a rusty flavor with tannins that were still pretty rustic. This was another wine that could have used an hour of decanting.


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Guelbenzu Vierlas Ribera del Queiles Vintage: 2004 Purchased: Aug 23rd 2007 Price: $10.00 Purchase Location: Maple Leaf Wine Cellar - (http://www.mapleleafcellar.com/) Categories: Red - Spain

Tasting Notes:

This is a perfect mid week wine, or a wine to drink with a simple Sunday dinner. It's not very expensive, and not overly complex, but it is tasty and enjoyable. I served it with a take on a Sunday roast: turnip mash, mushroom gravy, and sous vide short ribs.

The color in the glass is a dark bing cherry color, with a small lighter purple at the rim. The nose is pretty strong with cherry, raspberry, and blueberry scents. On the palate it is thick and velvety with very fresh fruit flavors and quite a long finish with just a hint of oak. It's a very international wine, but not quite a fruit bomb. It has a touch of anise on the finish, but it is not a complex mineral/herbal wine. It's just a delicious wine that doesn't make you think, and sometimes that's what you want.


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Senorio del Aguila Reserva Vintage: 1995 Purchased: Jun 21st 2007 Price: $15.50 Purchase Location: Maple Leaf Wine Cellar - (http://www.mapleleafcellar.com/) Categories: Red - Spain

Tasting Notes:

I wanted something a little different to have with a sous vide "roast beef." I thought this well aged Spanish red; from a blend of grenache, tempranillo, and cabernet sauvignon; would be great.

It was a deep ruby purple color in the glass, with no sign of age at the rim. The nose was full of black fruit, herbs, and a hint of tobacco. It was very full bodied in the mouth with black fruit dominating at the start (blackberry and black currant). On the midpalate, the acids and soft tannins balanced the fruit well. This led to a nice long finish of earth and dried thyme.


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Alquezar Moristel Vintage: 2005 Purchased: Aug 23rd 2007 Price: $10.00 Purchase Location: Maple Leaf Wine Cellar - (http://www.mapleleafcellar.com/) Categories: Red - Spain

Tasting Notes:

Moristel is a native red grape variety in the Somontano wine zone in northeastern Spain. I didn't have anything Italian to go with a pizza I was making, so I picked out this as well.

It has a deep ruby color with berry aromas and just a touch of herbs. It similar in weight and complexity to a good Beaujulais, but I found the taste was some what different. This is a very quaffable wine and quite a good QPR.


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Torremoron Ribera Del Duero Vintage: 2005 Purchased: Mar 24th 2007 Price: $9.99 Purchase Location: The Spanish Table - (http://spanishtable.com/) Categories: Red - Spain

Tasting Notes:

I think this wine is indicative of how far I've come in my appreciation. When I first tasted this wine, I considered it one of the best $10 reds I'd had. I bought a couple more bottles and have just now finished them off. Now what do I think? It's not nearly as good as I gave it credit for.

The color and fruit components are right on, but there is a floral component that I missed the first time, and actually feels somewhat muted. I kept trying to coax it out, but it was elusive. In the mouth any floral component is lost as the fruit dominates. I remember it having more acid, but on second taste, it really didn't. The tannins were good and there was an interesting licorice taste on the finish, but it all seemed to lose focus at the end. Maybe the food I was eating it with had to high of an acid for it to handle this time?

It's still a good wine. But I can no longer call it the bargain I once did.


Also Tasted On:
May 6th 2007


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Virgen de la Sierra Yasa Garnacha Vintage: 2004 Purchased: Mar 30th 2007 Price: $7.99 Purchase Location: Garagiste - (http://www.garagistewine.com/) Categories: Red - Spain

Tasting Notes:

This wine was drunk in two parts. On a Monday night, we had a Salumi spicy pepperoni pizza. The second half of the bottle was finished off with a Greek spiced sirloin steak and roasted yellow squash.

Yasa is made from 100% old vines garnacha (grenache) grapes, produced with temperature controlled fermentation, and several months aging in large stainless steel tanks. Yasa is a term used in southern Rioja and northern Aragon (Calatayud) which means a dry stream bed.

The wine is a deep bright purple color and almost opaque in the center, similar to a black cherry. The color fades to an almost strawberry shade and much more transparent and thin on the edges. Both the nose and the taste are much more complex than any wine at this price point has a right to be.

The wine has a nose that contains black berry, smoke, mint and a hint of tobacco. On the first taste, the dominating flavor was of tart cherries with a touch of vanilla. This was balanced by a very high acidity that went well with the spicy tomato sauce. On the finish, there was a very spicy black pepper component and a slight herbal component as well. The tannins were fairly strong and rustic.

This would be a great red wine for an every day drinker. I don't know if it will age well, but it is drinking great right now.


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Segura Viudas Brut Rose Vintage: NV Purchased: Mar 24th 2007 Price: $6.99 Purchase Location: The Spanish Table - (http://spanishtable.com/) Categories: Rose - Spain - Sparkling

Tasting Notes:

We were invited to a Cinco De Mayo party for some chipotle ribs. I decided to break out the Spanish wine for the occasion.

We had this with appetizers before dinner. It was very impressive pink in the glass with a very fine bead. It had a muted nose of red fruit and yeast. The texture in the mouth of very good and thick. The initial taste was of strawberry with the fresh baked bread taking over on the end. Not a lot of acid, and no sugar to speak of. This was not a great sparkler, but for the price it is hard to complain.


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Torremoron Ribera Del Duero Vintage: 2005 Purchased: Mar 24th 2007 Price: $9.99 Purchase Location: The Spanish Table - (http://spanishtable.com/) Categories: Red - Spain

Tasting Notes:

This was the second wine I was going to have for Cinco De Mayo. I've been curious about this one for a while since Jay Miller gave it a 90 in Robert Parker's Wine Advocate. The wine is 100% Tempranillo from 60- to 90-year-old vines. With those old vines and the high rating, it's hard to believe you can get it at this price.

In the glass it was a medium ruby color. The nose was a very strong aroma of red fruit including raspberry, strawberry, and cherry. On the first taste it was almost jammy like some California zin's. Black Current, blueberry, and other fruit dominated but with a nice zest acidity that brought it all in to focus. There were some tannins, but they were perfectly balanced.

This wine was all about the fruit. There was no hint of earth, mineral or herbs in this one. This is probably the best $10 red wine I've tasted.


Also Tasted On:
Sep 25th 2007


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