Tasting: Tres Ojos Garnacha

• Name: Tres Ojos Garnacha
• Variety: Garnacha
• Region: Calatayud
• Country: Spain
• Year: 2011
• Price: $6.95

Shop Review: This wine has a brick red color with a bouquet of red raspberries, spice and white pepper. The palate is incredibly concentrated and rich. The modern styles of Garnacha in Spain are continuously being perceived worldwide as wines of extraordinarily good quality. This wine is fruity, juicy, and shows a gread depth, ripe tannins, length but yet with wonderful elegance and lightness. Enjoy with sausages, roasted meats, aged cheeses ect.

My Review: This wine has a high alcohol content at 14.5%. It has a fruity and fig smell with a sweeter mid taste and an almost vegetal finish. There were so many tastes in this wine, however they complemented each other well. If all of these flavors had been present throughout the tasting I would not have liked it, but they came one after another, complementing each other nicely and smoothing out the alcohol.

I did not try this wine with food.

Tasting: Montebuena

• Name: Montebuena
• Variety: Tempranillo
• Region: Rioja
• Year: 2010
• Country: Spain
• Price: $8.95

Shop Review: 100% tempranillo. Ripe cherry and blackcurrant on the nose and in the mouth. Pliant and seamless in texture, with good heft and back-end energy. Finishes smooth and sweet with fine grained tannins providing shape and grip. Still on the young side but this wine drinks very well with an hour or so of decanting; it’s an excellent value for Rioja.

My Review: This wine is 14% alcohol but did not taste that strong. It has a candy apple and dark cherry nose. I tasted an almost yogurt taste on the finish with not as much of a mid taste as I would have expected. Thus it was not as rounded out as I would have liked. It was not decanted, so maybe that would have changed my opinion.

I did not try this wine with food.

Tasting: Sainte Victoire Cotes de Provence

• Name: Sainte Victoire Cotes de Provence
• Year: 2011
• Price: $8.95
• Region: Provence
• Country: France
• Variety: Grenache, Syrah, Cinsoult

Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault. Bring salmon pink; typical or the fresh but warm Provence style. Refined and complex on the nose, with summer fruit and floral notes. Dry and crisp, with a delicate flavor and full texture.

My Review: The color of this wine is almost clear, one of the lightest pinks I have seen in a wine. This wine had a very sugary smell. I tasted honey and flowers in the mid taste. It had a short finish. 

I did not try this wine with food.

Tasting: Canyon Road Chardonnay

• Name: Canyon Road
• Variety: Chardonnay
• Region: California
• Year: 2011
• Country: United States
• Price: $6.95

Shop Review: Medium bodied wine with notes of crisp apple and ripe citrus fruit with a hint of cinnamon spice. Delicious complement to grilled chicken, lighter pasta dishes or mild cheeses.

My Review: There were hints of ripe pear on the nose. I found the wine to be lightly acidic, but still well balanced. I definitely tasted a light oak in the finish. 

I did not try this wine with food

Tasting: Potluck Sweet Malbec

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• Name: Potluck Sweet Malbec
• Variety: Malbec
• Region: Mendoza
• Year: 2010
• Country: Argentina
• Price: $7.95

My Review: I smelled a strawberry and cherry scent. I had never had a sweet malbec and I thought that the combination of dry and sweet was very interesting. There was almost a V8 juice flavor combination on the mid palate. I defnitiely liked it more than a bitter malbec.

Shop Review: Deep red brilliant with violet hints. Complex, fruity, and predominant red fruits. Easy to drink, round with persistent sweetness, very well balanced with sweet tannins.

I did not try this wine with food.

Tasting: Domaine de Grange de Payan

• Name: Domaine de Grange de Payan
• Variety: Blended, Grenache
• Region: Côtes du Rhône
• Year: 2011
• Country: France
• Price: $8.95

My Review: I smelled a spice and another scent I could not place, possibly vegetal. I was surprised when a berry flavor came through on the mid taste. This wine was full bodied and the finish was a bit more earthy.

Shop Review: Intensely spicy and precise, with lively red berry flavors and a hint of black pepper. The Grenache, which makes up the majority of the wine, is deeper and more powerful, offering cherry and black raspberry qualities lifted by zesty minerality. 

I did not try this wine with food.

Tasting: Tinto Figaro

• Name: Tinto Figaro
• Variety: Garnacha
• Region: Calatayud
• Year: 2009
• Country: Spain
• Price: $6.95

My Review: This wine had a blackberry scent that I expected from the dark purple color. I tasted a surprising spice on the mid palate. The finish was very smooth.

Shop Review: Figaro is 100% Garnacha, made from a selection of the best grapes grown in the oldest vineyards. While not truly an "oaked wine", a short stay in oak barrels provides a nice spicy flavor boost. Bright violet. Dark berry and cherry aromas show a jammy aspect. Supple and gently sweet, with good lift to its black raspberry and boysenberry flavors. Smooth and broad on the finish, leaving behind a hint of spiciness. Extremely easy to drink and an excellent value.

I did not try this wine with food but I would have liked it with a red sauce pasta dish.