by Jimmy Cocktail
4. May 2011 03:43
I have to admit that even if Ms Cocktail wasn’t buying these blind wines for me, I would be on a bit of a Spanish wine kick. What I am discovering is that there are a lot of really good wines coming from Spain but perhaps more importantly, they are at a very reasonable value. Translated, is that you don’t have to pay $30 and up to buy spectacular wines.
Sadly though, this isn’t the case. If you look carefully at the label to the left, you’ll notice that this wine is not a DO (Denominación de Origen)wine, it is a VdlT (Vino de la Tierra) wine which is a step down in quality in the Spanish QWPSR (Quality Wine Produced in a Specific Region) system. So while this isn’t a table wine (Vino de Mesa in Spain), winemakers at the VdlT level can experiment more freely with their wines because they do no have to adhere to the stricter DO rules.
With experimentation you can get some great successes such as the Super Tuscans produced in a similar category in neighboring Italy but you can also get some spectacular failures. I would not put this wine in either category, I’ll just say that I believe that it misses the mark. This wine is considered a Red Blend, no specifics as to the grape varieties or percentages are provided. However, the primary red grape in the Bierzo region is the Mencia but more and more international varieties are being planted there now as well.
What you end up with is a big, chewy red wine that has an overwhelming flavor of tar or tobacco that hides the fruit in this wine. While sometimes I enjoy that characteristic in a wine, this one is out of balance and kept me trying to think of just what was wrong with this wine. That being said, this wine still had a lot of life left in the bottle, so there is still room for it to grow.
Tasting notes:
This is a clear, deep ruby colored wine with legs. It has a clean, developing, medium(+) intense nose with aromas of blackberry and tar. This is a dry wine with medium acidity, medium(+) alcohol, medium(+) tannin and a medium(+) body. It has medium(+) intense flavors of blackberry, black cherry and tar with a medium length finish. It is an acceptable wine that is ready to drink but will improve in the bottle.
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