Community Tasting Note

• CMN wrote: 83 points

  August 14, 2017 - Purple colored with a scents of purple fruits and some medicinal notes. The palate is more complex than the nose suggests, with flavors of plum, iodine, green herbs, coffee and a bit of tar. A bit thin with slightly coarse and drying tannins.
  
  Not a showstopper by any means, and certainly not worth the "94 Parker Points" that the label exclaims. A fine wine for a Monday and a good QPR at around $7/bottle, so long as you give a healthy decant.

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5 Comments

• Halfeel commented:

  8/21/17, 7:40 PM - I don't get all of the comments about this wine being "cheap" like $7 or $13, etc.
  
  There are only two vintages available on Wine-searcher.com:
  
  1) The 2010 vintage is available for $35.50 from a shop in the very part of Spain where the wine is made (La Mancha).
  
  https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/los+aljibes+selectus/2008
  
  2) The 2008 vintage is $66 from a retailer in Portland, OR and $85 from one in Seattle, WA.
  
  https://www.wine-searcher.com/find/los+aljibes+selectus/2008
  
  Can someone please help explain this weird discrepancy? Thank you.

• CMN commented:

  8/21/17, 7:53 PM - It is available at Costco. The prices across the country vary a bit. The bottle I had was picked up for $7. At my local Costco it's $12. At $7 it's a lot better than what you'd typically find at that price. At the prices you found it is simply not worth the coin.

• Halfeel commented:

  8/21/17, 9:10 PM - CMN, Thank you for your comment and info.
  
  I figured the 2007 was available at Costco given that there are over 100 ratings for this vintage on CellarTracker. I still don't understand how a wine that sells for ~$35 right where it is made in Spain on a different continent can sell for $7/bottle at Costco across the U.S. It's kind of insane and baffling at the same time

• Halfeel commented:

  10/8/17, 8:47 PM - I have not yet tasted my bottle which was a gift from my GF's parents. My theory on this wine is that this batch from 2007 got unevenly "cooked" due to some cellar failure or shipping exposure to the high summer heat of La Mancha. Since the whole lot was exposed, they cut their losses and sold all of it to Costco for next to nothing. Hence the discrepancies between the Costco price for the 2007 vintage and the far higher prices for other vintages of the wine, both in Spain as well as in the U.S. (OR and WA). The very uneven scores here on Cellartracker (and high score of 94 points from RP) likely reflect some bottles being much more affected/cooked than others, in addition to the personal taste preferences of the many raters here.

• CMN commented:

  10/9/17, 5:26 AM - I doubt the wine was cooked. It's not impossible, but I don't see why Costco would risk their reputation in order to make a couple bucks (even though I prefer buying wine from a proper wine store). The wine tasted correct, just so-so. My hunch is that few bottles are ever sold at MSRP and it's a marketing tactic to allow them to sell their wine at a "big discount". I'd say try it at some point soon and make your own decision.

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