Last Friday I joined an online tasting for #GarnachaDay. It’s a day when you can drink garnacha, just like any other day, except it’s called #GarnachaDay. It’s one of those special days invented by marketing/PR folks to give us a reason to talk about their wines. Seems as good as any other reason to taste […]
Every year I find myself loving rosé more and more. At its best it’s a light, refreshing wine with floral, mineral, fruit and spice characteristics with vibrant acidity and and a smooth mouthfeel. And some of the best rosés I’ve tasted have been made from grenache, as this one is. At one time a few years […]
Garnacha was the first wine I wrote about at Cheap Wine Ratings and continues to be an easy choice for delicious and affordable wine. And Las Rocas was one of the wines that I included in my early reviews, but I haven’t revisited it since then, until now. This garnacha comes from a co-operative winery […]
Happy New Year! I know that was over a week ago, but I’ve been preoccupied with my day job and a big kitchen remodeling project, so admittedly I’ve been neglecting this site. But I haven’t forgotten it. I wanted to start the new year with getting back to my wine blogging roots and write up […]
Back in 2007, when I started this website, I drank a lot of Spanish garnacha (or grenache). It tends to be an approachable, affordable, fruit-forward style of wine that’s easy to drink and easy to love. It’s often not a sophisticated wine (for lack of a better word) but tends to be just kind of […]
More rosé. Yay! This one comes from Rioja, Spain, which is probably the most well-known Spanish wine region in the US. It’s a region that lies at the confluence of the Pacific, Mediterranean and continental climate influences in Spain. The wine from El Coto is made from 50% Garnacha from an estate named “Los Almendros” […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]
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 […]