Medium-dark ruby color, maybe headed toward garnet at the edge. Beautiful nose that just smells like an excellently made claret-style red wine. The fruit is ripe and clean, leaning to black cherry, plum, and black currant, and you can tell that the grapes saw lots of sunshine. But it's very fresh, and there are smoky/earthy undertones of cigar box, cedar, and turned earth, as well as dried rose petals and cinnamon and other baking spices from the oak. So well integrated and delicious-smelling. Hard to take your nose out of the glass. Every bit as good on the palate, but a little more masculine, with the spicy, smoky flavors leading the charge, but the fruit follows close behind, juicy and clean and just -right ripe. Very well structured too, with a nice dusting of spicy tannin that is already pretty well developed and smooth. Medium bodied and long on the finish. My only slight criticism is that the alcohol is just a touch more perceptible on both the nose and palate than I'd prefer, but only slightly. Otherwise, this is really cracking good wine, absurdly good for the price and at the crianza level. And as a side note, I don't know if it's bottle variation or what, but I don't understand the reviews that say this is past it's prime already (even 2 years ago in some cases). This still presents to me as quite youthful or at the very most just beginning to develop. I wouldn't hesitate at all to hang on to this for another decade and maybe longer than that. It's still bursting with fruit, looks young in the glass, has very little in the way of developed flavors, and has the structure to keep going for a long time, it seems to me. Love it.
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Gorgeous sweet dark fruit and spiced wood nose. Low acid, medium tannin. On its last legs but still utterly delightful for $12. Nose is an easy 91. 13.5%.
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Evokes a Christmas evening in a snowy cabin. Smells of ginger biscuit - cinnamon, nutmeg, butter, toasted bread, and vanilla. It even has hints of a fern tree. Beyond that, some leather and red berries. The mouthfeel is medium, with a lingering caramel sweetness, touch of cacao astringency. Acid is medium+. Overall, a comfort drink that is impressive for the price.
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10/24/2016 - JVG wrote:
Medium-dark ruby color, maybe headed toward garnet at the edge. Beautiful nose that just smells like an excellently made claret-style red wine. The fruit is ripe and clean, leaning to black cherry, plum, and black currant, and you can tell that the grapes saw lots of sunshine. But it's very fresh, and there are smoky/earthy undertones of cigar box, cedar, and turned earth, as well as dried rose petals and cinnamon and other baking spices from the oak. So well integrated and delicious-smelling. Hard to take your nose out of the glass. Every bit as good on the palate, but a little more masculine, with the spicy, smoky flavors leading the charge, but the fruit follows close behind, juicy and clean and just -right ripe. Very well structured too, with a nice dusting of spicy tannin that is already pretty well developed and smooth. Medium bodied and long on the finish. My only slight criticism is that the alcohol is just a touch more perceptible on both the nose and palate than I'd prefer, but only slightly. Otherwise, this is really cracking good wine, absurdly good for the price and at the crianza level. And as a side note, I don't know if it's bottle variation or what, but I don't understand the reviews that say this is past it's prime already (even 2 years ago in some cases). This still presents to me as quite youthful or at the very most just beginning to develop. I wouldn't hesitate at all to hang on to this for another decade and maybe longer than that. It's still bursting with fruit, looks young in the glass, has very little in the way of developed flavors, and has the structure to keep going for a long time, it seems to me. Love it.
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5/31/2015 - dsilver wrote: 89 Points
Wet leather and barnyard nose, little tannin left, with some acidity left on palate. A great bargain for a nice old world wine.
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11/18/2014 - gordoyflaca wrote: 90 Points
takes a while to come in, but dark cherry tart fruit.
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11/14/2014 - Benj Likes this wine: 88 Points
Gorgeous sweet dark fruit and spiced wood nose. Low acid, medium tannin. On its last legs but still utterly delightful for $12. Nose is an easy 91. 13.5%.
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9/10/2014 - jibby Likes this wine: 88 Points
Evokes a Christmas evening in a snowy cabin. Smells of ginger biscuit - cinnamon, nutmeg, butter, toasted bread, and vanilla. It even has hints of a fern tree. Beyond that, some leather and red berries. The mouthfeel is medium, with a lingering caramel sweetness, touch of cacao astringency. Acid is medium+. Overall, a comfort drink that is impressive for the price.
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