Thursday, November 12, 2009

atw - vines are old, wine is new





Last night I had the pleasure of trying a pretty exciting wine. One of those wines that are good to the last drop ... yum yum yum tasty. I tried it during a game of Balderdash on Julien's parents' boat, and it was fantastic. What was the wine, you ask?




Well, it was the Atteca Old Vines Garnacha 2007. At $15.99 a pop, you wouldn't immediately expect this wine to be such a knockout - but alas, it was. It clocks in at a whopping 14.5% alcohol by volume, so again, you wouldn't immediately expect this wine to be such a knockout - but again, it was. It's a Spanish red from the city of Calatayud in Spain, in the province of Zaragoze in Aragon. Sounds so exotic, doesn't it?
Anyway, so the color on this wine was dark. I mean, really really really dark. Full purple and deep burgundy, which was quite interesting. The first thing that hit me when smelling this wine was burnt popcorn. In other words, a lot of smoke and butter. There were also hints of blueberry, tobacco and chocolate.
The mouth - oh my gosh the mouth on this thing. It's so smooth and luscious, with just the slightest hint of acidity. It had quite a bit of blueberry, with some jammy berry fruit and pretty noticeable smoke and oak. Something I especially loved about this wine was the finish. For some inexplicable reason (which is often the case with wine, of course!) the wine finished with a sort of cleansing eucalyptus/menthol. It seemed to open my throat and refresh my senses as it lingered on my palate. Extraordinary! I was really pleased to have tried this wine - it was sublime. I'd recommend it for anybody looking for a great tasting, but affordable, Spanish red to try. You'll probably have to find it online, though. I don't know if it's offered in any major stores. If you find out it is, let me know! I'll have to go pick a couple of bottles up for myself!
Certified grade AWESOME.

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