I have to admit, I'm only now becoming aware of Spanish wines. Spain is a country that has a long and rich tradition of winemaking, but they always seem to play second fiddle to their neighbors to the north and east. For the geographically challenged of you, that would be France and Italy respectively.

Like it's neighbors, Spain also has specific wine regions within its broders. The region we're looking at today is DO Montsant (the DO stands for Denominación de Origen) which is located slightly west of the well known Spanish city of Barcelona. Even though it has only recently acieved DO recognition it was part of and adjacent to DOCa Priorat. DOCa stands for Denominación de Origen Calificada a designation with more stringent requirements than DO. Priorat is only the second DOCa in Spain besides Rioja. This mountainous area of Spain is principally covered with terraced vineyard on steep hillsides. The climate produces low yields which leads to intense, full flavored, and full bodied wines.

The 2007 Can Blau Cellars Can Blau (hey, I don't make up the names) is typical of a wine from this region. It is a blend of 40% Mazuelo, 40% Syrah and 20% Garnacha (Grenache). It is a full bodied wine with a luxiorious dark ruby color that gives you a strong nose of plum and blackberry. There is a great depth to the flavor with the plum and blackberry up front and a hint of spice and a nice mineral finish. When it's all said and done, there is just a touch of blackberry that lingers teasingly. This wine is ready to drink now but a little time out of the bottle won't hurt it. A really nice value at around $20 per bottle.

 Imagine my surprise when I was cruising through the local Wegmans (yes, we have been blessed with a Wegmans within 20 minutes of our house) wine shop and I happen to spy this beauty. Now those of you that know me also know that Ms Cocktail and I share an affinity for the Zinfandel wines specific to the Lodi region of California. They tend to be very fruit forward, at times sweet and jammy, other times they can be rich and complex. This turned out to be an "other" but I'm getting ahead of myself.

This is a 2007 Zinfandel From Deep Purple Wines in Santa Rosa, California made with juice sourced from the Lodi region. Typically, I could care less about the label because it really doesn't tell you anything about the wine inside the bottle. This bottle is no different, I just love the artwork becasue I'm a quasi-hippie-throwback.

Once you pour the wine, you notice a nice deep garnet color. It's not so dark and dense that you can't see through the edges but it gets much more solid near the center of the glass. A rich, earth smell of moss undercut with blackberry rises out of the glass to meet your nose.

Upon first taste, you realize that you've just been lied to. Your nose says one thing but on the palate it is something not quite what you're expecting. There is no assault of tannins like some dry reds but the taste itself is lighter than expected. Predominently blackberry in taste, it isn't overly full and cloying like some fruity wines can be. Even though it is fruity, it is not sweet and the taste doesn't linger on the palate. It is really nicely balanced between fruit and dry.

The best part about this wine may very well be the price. It should be able to be found at most retailers for under $13 which in my mind, makes this an appropriately priced wine.