Monday, January 29, 2007

Taste of Spain: #1 of 5

I'm glad that our readers decided to choose Spain for our next stop. I am particularly fond of the great wines of Spain and in the past couple of years have really made an effort to taste as many different and unique wines from this beautiful country.

Today we're going to kick off the tour with a duel tasting, a bottle that both The Vine Guy and myself tasted at a dinner party on Saturday. Thanks to our newly engaged friends and of course Mrs. Grape Nut and Mrs. Vine Guy, we were able sample a few bottles that night. I believe the tally ended with 7 bottles but that may just be a rumor.

Enough jabbering, lets rate this wine.

The Wine: Altos de la Hoya 2005 Monastrell (Bodegas Olivares)

Country: Spain
Region: Jumilla
Category: Monastrell
Vintage: 2005
Price: $13
Decanted: No



Tasting Notes

Color: Dark Ruby
Nose: The Vine Guy: Cherries, raspberries, plum and melon; Very sweet fruity nose with light oak and leather.
Grape Nut: Lots of fruit on the nose, almost a tarty cranberry, with dried cherries, currants.
Taste: The Vine Guy: Intense fruit up front: cherry, plum and melon. Notes of liquorice and earth, smooth finish, but dry and slightly bitter.
Grape Nut: Fruit forward wine with cherries and other red fruit flavors. Certain tartness and bitterness, with a touch of earth, developed on finish. (A curious thing, bottle seemed to get more and more dry the more air it got. Not over period of hours, but a period of 20-30 minutes. Arriving at an almost overly dry finish.)

The Verdict:
The Vine Guy: 7
Grape Nut: 7

4 comments:

The Vine Guy said...

Thanks for the post GN. I like the 2 rating system, unfortunately we can't do this everytime. I also would like to point out how close our notes are...

For the readers checking this out, we made private notes, and the wine wasn't really discussed between the two of us until after the notes were entered into the journal.

The good news is we have a few Spanish reviews coming from that same dinner party, so you'll get a few 2 rating wines.

Cheers!

Grape Nut said...

I don't like super sweet wines. I generally like a little fruit, with sometype of earthy-ness in the wine. I like to taste the soil. Too much fruit reminds me of boones farm and other crap. I like dry wines that pair well with food, as I'm generally having my glass or two with my dinner.

The Vine Guy said...

Generally I don't mind fruit in wine, as long as it isn't overpowering.

MyManMisterC said...

I like the two ratings as well -- it is like Ebert and Ropert