You know what they say about first impressions.  That’s right, they’re very hard to change.  And the Viña Don Royo red makes a really nice first impression, which I think benefited the wine as I reviewed it.  Pop the cork on this vino tinto and it offers up a rich and robust nose, with ripe raspberry, hints of fig and marmalade, with singed toast.  I was eager to see what the wine would offer up on the palate.   If it delivered half as much complexity and intensity at it teased up in aroma and bouquet, then surely we would have a winner on our hands.

So, excited for what I was about to experience with this wine that had so quickly captured my admiration, I diligently sipped a small amount to acclimate my palate.  The wine’s rich fruit quickly activated the taste buds on the tip and edges of my tongue.  It offered an intriguing sour-ish tang that further built up the excitement.  I was eager to begin a thorough examination of what appeared to be an impressive wine.  It seemed this Spanish charmer had made an impression on my palate as well.  However, in my enamored state, I failed to notice that this wine made very little to no impression at all on the finish.  I’m sure I simply dismissed it, assuming that I was distracted by what was going on in the front of my mouth.  I tasted again.  And again a burst of raspberry, plum and acid tantalized my tongue, smoothly transitioning through to the mid-palate and finish.  And again, as the wine finished, my mind was still focused on the initial impression the wine was imparting on my tongue.  I was enamored.  This wine had seduced me.  It had tricked me.  I continued, taking another sip….and then another.

Now I was catching on.  That first impression was beginning to flicker, and it was allowing me to come to my senses.  The lack of finish was now becoming the most prominent element.  Lack of finish may be putting it kindly.  The Don Royo’s finish seemingly drops off a shelf, and flat goes away, leaving the wine a bit unbalanced.  I checked the bottle for the alcohol content, expecting 12.5 – 13%……..not even close.  This wine is 11% alcohol by volume, not enough, in my opinion, to provide any real amplification to the complex fruit the wine was offering.  But the first impression persisted, and I still found myself enjoying this more elegant style of Spanish Grenache, despite missing an important aspect of a quality flavor profile.  You know what they say about first impressions….…..they’re very hard to change.

A  Salute!

Wine: Viña Don Royo
Variety: Grenache
Vintage: NV
Alcohol: 11%
Rating:  84
Price: $4.50

Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.

There is a thing that wine bloggers do each month called Wine Blogging Wednesday and today is the 67th time this event has occurred.  It’s a day when numerous wine bloggers from around the world all write about the same thing.  There is always a “host” for Wine Blogging Wednesday who picks the theme and afterward writes a roundup of all the contributions.  The host for today is Joe Roberts from 1winedude.com and the theme is “Seeing Red for the First Time.”  The idea of this theme is to write about what wine you would recommend to someone who only drinks white wines, but would like to try a red.

I actually didn’t have to think long on this theme, because I’ve been in that exact situation.  I met a couple at a party a few months ago and, of course, we got into a discussion about wine.  When they found out about what I do, they asked me for a similar recommendation.  The guy in that couple preferred white wine but wanted to find some reds that he would like too, so he asked me where to start.  It wasn’t really “red for the first time” but it was someone trying to find a red wine that would appeal to someone with a preference for white wines.

I actually didn’t have an answer right off the top of my head, I had to probe a little.  “Why don’t you like red wine?” I asked.

“It’s too dry.  It makes my tongue feel like cotton.” was his response.  Aha!  It’s the tannins that don’t appeal to him, I thought.  I didn’t want to send him to a sweet red wine, as part of the goal was to find a wine that they both would enjoy (and she was a red wine fan).  But I did want to find a young, fruit-forward wine without a lot of tannins.  And I knew they wanted something inexpensive.  Cheap Garnacha (or Grenache) from Spain is my answer!

Garnacha is an interesting wine that can actually take on a variety of characteristics, depending on the appellation and the winemaker.  Sometimes it can be rather bold and spicy (which I really like), but the cheap stuff tends to be simple, fruit-forward and tasty.

So in order to pitch in to Wine Blogging Wednesday, AND do a review (like we normally do here) I looked through my wine samples for some Garnacha.  There was only one bottle of Garnacha there, and so that’s my pick for today, Tapeña.  Due to the fact that I only had one—and I knew what it was—this wine was not tasted blind.

Unlike many Spanish wine, Tapeña does not come from a DO-certified appellation, but is from several appellations outside the DO system.  One thing this does for the wine is keep the price cheap… but it’s still a yummy wine.

The nose is really vibrant, with loads of fresh fruit aromas like cherry, strawberry and raspberry.  There’s also a fabulous vanilla fragrance that brightens the aromas and makes this wine more interesting.  The palate has plenty of ripe fruit without being an overly sweet fruit bomb.  Cherry, blackberry and strawberry flavors do a tango with your taste buds, and a touch of spice gives it a fun finish.  The bottom line is that I like this wine.

Wine: Tapeña Garnacha
Variety: Grenache
Vintage: 2008
Alcohol: 13%
Rating: 88
Price: $10.00

Find Tapeña Garnacha with Snooth

Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.

One year ago today I published my first post on CheapWineRatings.com and I wanted to take a couple minutes to reflect on the past year and revisit some favorites.

As I look back at my first reviews (only a year ago) I feel that the quality has improved significantly.  The tasting notes are better now, the photography is better and I now employ a more analytical approach to ratings than when I first started.  I hope it continues to improve and I’m saying the same thing a year from now about today.

I had a lot of fun over the past year and I especially enjoyed the Wine Blogging Wednesday events.  I’m looking forward to more fun and more wine over the next year.

Some of my favorite wines of the past year include (in no specific order):

• Cellar No. 8 Cabernet Sauvignon
• McManis Petite Sirah
• Casa Catelli Negroamaro
• Cardinal Zin Zinfandel
• Veramonte Chardonnay
• Kuentz-Bas Riesling

There is one other wine that stands out as a favorite of mine and it was from my first review, Yasa Garnacha 2003.  I enjoyed this wine so much that it is locked in my memory as “the best value wine of all time.”  And it was a wine that inspired and motivated me to create this website.  To celebrate my fond memories of that wine I decided to revisit the more current vintages of Yasa.

I picked up both the 2005 and 2006 vintages of Yasa Garnacha and what I found was disappointing.  It was a validation of how important vintage is when identifying great wines.  2003 was an extraordinary year for Spanish wine and it’s not surprising that the Yasa was much better that year.

They updated the label since 2003, raised the price a couple bucks and lowered the quality.  That’s not how it’s supposed to work!

Here’s what I found from the ’05 and ’06.

Yasa Garnacha 2005

Butterscotch, black pepper, cedar and cherry make up the nose.  The palate is quite acidic is shows mostly a sour cherry flavor.  There is also some walnut, plum and some spicy black pepper.  There is a slight metallic aftertaste.  This is not what I expect (or want) from a Grenache.

Wine: Yasa
Varietal: Grenache
Vintage: 2005
Alcohol: 14%
Rating: 78
Price Paid: $9.99

Yasa Garnacha 2006

The nose is fairly tight.  It opened up to show some blackberry, cedar, black pepper and a touch of bubblegum.  It has a slightly dirty/barnyard aroma too.  The palate brings loads of blackberry and plum.  It’s a little jammy.  There’s a very floral black pepper spice on the finish.  There are also some black tea tannins on the finish.  It’s a step up from the 2005, but not nearly as good as 2003.

Wine: Yasa
Varietal: Grenache
Vintage: 2006
Alcohol: 14%
Rating: 83
Price Paid: $9.99

Oh well… not every bottle of cheap wine will be a winner.  Here’s to another year of searching for the gems.  Cheers!

Here’s is a follow up on Project Garnacha.  First, a quick summary of all the Grenaches I tasted and how they ranked.  In general, I preferred the pure Grenache over the blends.  Spanish Grenache also outperformed Australian in this tasting.  You’ll also notice that the most expensive bottle is at the bottom of the list as a bad bottle.  I didn’t provide a rating for it as the bottle had obviously gone bad.  I guess I got suckered on that one.

100% Grenache (all Spanish Wine)

Grenache Blends (Spanish except the last two are Austrailian Wine)

What Others are Saying

I was curious what other bloggers had to say about my top picks for Grenache, so I did some exploring and it was rather interesting. 

Here is a video review I found of Michael Lam of the Beverage Review (whatever that is) tasting Abrazo.  He claims to be a professional taster.  He’s somewhat of a tool, but I like his assessment.  Except for the part about seaweed… I didn’t taste that and really don’t want to taste seaweed in my wine.  I also like the fact that he’s Asian and the audio doesn’t synch up with his lips… it’s like watching a kung fu theater wine tasting.  At least he’s not as obnoxious as Gary Vaynerchuk.

Chelsie’s Tasting Notes (a site with $5 and under ratings) had a different opinion about Abrazo.  She gave it a 2 out of 5.  That said, she was tasting the 2005 vintage, which could be very different.  And she found it for $3 which leads me to believe that the quality has declined.  I’ll have to do a follow up.

The 2003 Yasa Garnacha got a positive review but there wasn’t much out there on this one.  It is a from a small batch producer, so I guess most folks will just have to miss out.  Sorry.

My first tasting series for cheap wine ratings is Grenache (Garnacha en Español).  Grenache is a superb everyday wine.  It also tends to be a ”drink it now” wine versus an aging wine.  At least I don’t know of anyone who’s aging Grenache and the older bottles that I’ve tasted haven’t held up.  But bottles in the 2-3 year range are outstanding and affordable.  In fact, nearly every bottle of grenache that I found in my search was within my $10 target price.

Grenache is one of my favorite “value wines,” so I thought it would be appropriate to be the first varietal I write about.

Altogether I tasted 16 different Grenaches.  Some were outstanding, some were mediocre, but none of them were undrinkable (other than one bad bottle, but I do think it was just a bad bottle - not a bad batch).  I included pure Grenache as well as some Grenache Blends, but I will break out the results of the blends separately from the pure Grenache wines.

The majority of the wines I tasted were Spanish Garnacha, although I included a couple blends from Australia.  But I was unimpressed by the Australian Grenache.  Interestingly, according to Wikipedia, “Grenache is probably the most widely planted variety of red grape in the world.”  I was surprised to read that.  Perhaps that’s why it’s so affordable.

Top Picks
My favorite pure Grenache and my favorite bottle overall in Project Garnacha was Yasa Garnacha 2003.  This is a great wine.  It has an amazing herbal bouquet and a complex, interesting flavor.  It has nice berry flavor with an herby/peppery twist.  I really enjoy this wine.  This is more than an everyday wine, it is exciting.  I kept saying, “Wow! That is incredible!” as I drank this wine.  I gave Yasa a 92.  That said, I have since had the 2004 Yasa and was not as impressed.  The 2005 should be available soon and from what I hear, it should be more like 2003.

My favorite Grenache Blend was Abrazo 2002.  This is a nice wine.  It has very prominent black cherry flavor, nice tannins.  Good flavor all around.  I definitely recommend this wine and gave it a 91.

Other Grenache Worth Mentioning
My other picks were all pure Grenache:

• ía Garnacha (2004) 89: This is the only 2004 Grenache to make my list.  This is probably the spiciest Grenache I have tasted.  It still had good fruit flavors, primarily cherry.  But it was the pepper and crisp acidity of this wine that I enjoyed most.
• Garnacha de Fuego (2005) 89: Drinking this wine furthers my appreciation for old vines grenache.  This is an intense wine.  It has a lot of flavor and high alcohol to boot.  The bouquet is nice, as is the acidity.  It has good cherry flavors without being overly fruity.  The finish is slightly peppery.  Very good.
• Borsao (2005) 89:  This is a nice wine.  It has a full flavor, nice acidity, a bit of a fruit bomb.  Very drinkable. Quite enjoyable.  This wine is a sure bet if you like Grenache.

Viña Borgia (2005) 88:  Wow.  At $5.99 I was surprised how much I enjoyed this wine.  I had to buy two more bottles to make sure it was as good as I thought.  One of the bottles had a hint of carbonation, but it wasn’t bad.  Some call that “effervesence” — it sounds nicer that way.  This wine has a great flavor, although a little sweet for my taste.  But the price makes it all more enjoyable.  This one wins for best value, although I’d gladly spring a couple more bucks for one of the other picks.