Challenge: Spanish Red Wine with Italian Food.
Specifics of the challenge:
Well, I buy a decent amount of wine. (You should expect that, what with me running a wine, beer, and spirits review site. Right?)
Sometimes, I’ll pick something up specifically for a certain thing – a meal, or an event.
Other times, I grab something because the price is right…then I leave it in the cellar (which is a corner of my basement that’s dry and stays a pretty constant temperature all year) and wait for the right occasion.
Yesterday – the right occasion was lasagna that needed wine. And all I had were Spanish Reds. So this was the winner…but is it something you should check out?
To the review: Cruz de Piedra 2011 Garnacha.
Cruz de Piedra 2011 Garnacha Review
I’ll admit to forgetting what I spent on this wine – only vaguely remembering that I likely picked it up for less than $10 somewhere. (So I’m writing the review before Googling this wine and figuring out the price.)
Garnacha is the exact same thing as Grenache. Wikipedia says so!
Seriously, in France, a good chunk of the Southern Rhone Wines are Grenache. In Calatayud, where this particular wine is from, half the wine is Garnacha.
Taste
First round of tasting, the nose was very fruity – but the wine itself wasn’t overly so. It DEFINITELY needed a “long decant” – second round (hours later) yielded more fruit on the palate, with some black pepper, too. Blackberry and black cherry flavors are the winners, yet, on the “semi-dry” to “dry” spectrum, put this one over on the dry side.
Interestingly – and not totally what this palate experienced – the website for the folks behind these wines, Axial Wines, says Cruz de Piedra is known for “authentic Garnacha fruit flavors.” So we won’t totally argue – but it was still rather dry to us.
I’m imagining this wine as an easy-peasy pour with any tapas.
Or lasagna, which isn’t tapas.
Profile
This is a 2011 Garnacha, and it’s from Calatayud – one of Spain’s “DOs” (Denominacion de Origen). (You can learn more about the wines of Spain here: Wines From Spain.)
Value
Time to get to Googling…
Wine Searcher tells us we should expect to pay around $8. And, a check of the receipts shows us spending $6.97 at Costco. Score one for the value shopper!
Metasip Grade: B
This will not knock your socks off – but it won’t disappoint you, either. I think it’s a great value – if $7-$8 works for your “house red wine,” then you could do a lot worse.
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