Was the 2013 vintage a good one for wine in the country of Spain? Questions similar to this are often asked by the so called "wine professionals" who in reality, don't have the answer themselves. The reason why they don't have the answer is simply because there is no real answer as each property is
different in its care, soil, weather and of course, Winemaker. America as well as the other wine producing countries are no exception. I could own a piece of land in a particular location which produced terrible wine
in that particular year. You on the other hand could literally own land right next to me or perhaps a mile or more from my property and your grapes &
wine came out fantastic. There could be many reasons why this is possible.
This leads me to my final question that I have for you which is why do some wine magazines provide (as if it's some
kind of a bonus) a "Vintage Chart" that hints to you that you shouldn't buy a particular vintage from a particular country? I'll go ahead and answer this particular question for you. They offer this "Vintage Chart" because it's a
marketing tool, that's why. Buy this Magazine and get this limited edition "Vintage Chart". By now I think that you might be asking yourself why did I
bring these questions up? While doing some research on this wine I discovered that 2013 was supposedly a bad year for Spanish wine and I just wanted to kill that whole fallacy because it really bothers me, that's why. Now that
I have gotten that off my chest and hopefully started some conversation between your guests as well, let's
get down to reviewing this wine.
So guys, here we are and very quickly I will tell you that the Alcohol percentage of this wine comes in at 13.5% and the wine costs $16.99. I received this wine from the Wine of The Month Club
(https://www.wineofthemonthclub.com/About-Wine-Club) which I belonged to at the time and which I still highly recommend by the way.
Let's start off now with how the wine presents itself on the the nose. A good amount of Cocoa is presented upon initially bringing the wine to my nose. A note of smoke comes roaring out of the glass as well here, super wow. That Cocoa & Smoke when combined together bring a sense at least of huge depth and to me, a certain promise of a huge wine overall as well. A little deeper into the Bouquet is a dark cherry note that seems to be more then content
where it is as it seems to know the positive impact it already is having
on the nose. There was a good note here of Tobacco as well which added a certain sense of smoothness on the nose.
Let me take a look at this wine now as it sits in my glass and tell you rather quickly what there is to tell ya. Looking through the glass I see a fairly dark and impressive looking wine whose color is consistent throughout the glass and without any fading along the edges. I think the last 5 years might have done this wine very well indeed. By now I think that you are probably dying to know how this wine tastes, am I right? How if at all, is this wine going to hold up on the Palate in comparison to the visual inspection and the nose tests that it so awesomely passed? We will now see.
Bringing the glass to my mouth and taking a fairly big tasting of it I was immediately really impressed with what the wine had to offer. What exactly did it have to offer? Well.....you are about to find out but first I have to admit something to you. I have been tasting this wine all along and have already began the process to making my determination as to where it stands on The Desert Wine Guy rating scale. Upon the first sip there was a moderately rich yet smooth note of Cocoa that I enjoyed a lot as it was not too sweet. This is the same note that I got on the Nose and at the same strength. That Tobacco that was on the nose came through as well here and together these notes were super delicious. Spices such as a light yet tasty Black Pepper are exposed on the Palette. There is a very nice note of Cigar Box/Leather that throws itself out there screaming to be noticed and I promise, notice it you will.
Are you getting all this folks? Are you able through simple reading to taste what I am tasting? If you are not, please allow me to go on. This is a semi rich wine as it does have a good bit of fruit forwardness to it but please don't be alarmed as it does not even come close to ruining this wine or anything of the sort, in other words, this is not a fruit bomb. This note along with all the others creates a deep and complex Merlot. There is one problem with this wine guys. I think that I can best describe it like this. Simply put, this wine got......confused along the way and decided that it was actually much more of a Cabernet Sauvignon rather then a Merlot. This wine presented itself with a lot more robustness then what is supposed to be the typically lighter varietal of Merlot. I have had wines like that before and I usually love the wines that are confused and do this. Continuing on now I will tell you that the Tannin's are simply.......superb. Yeah, I said that. Not too strong and not too weak, these Tannin's are an integral part of how this wine tastes. Let's throw a fresh overripe Plum into the mix. This Plum continues the dark note thing and couldn't be better placed than it is here in this wine as it compliments the Cigar Box/Leather and Tobacco and Cocoa notes. Let's go ahead and wrap up this review guys.
I am impressed folks. I only wish that I had tasted this wine sooner because I would have bought at least two more bottles and put them away, I seem to do that a lot by the way. What a powerful wine this is, full of dark flavor. I want to remind you that this is a rich wine and I do want you to go into this knowing that. I also want to remind you that this richness shouldn't cause you to shy away as there is way too much going for this wine in the area of depth, as well as it's various notes for you to worry. The Tannins I mentioned above assist greatly in steering the taste buds away from focusing too much on the fruit forwardness and direct you towards everything else the wine is screaming to offer you. So....that's it, that is all I have to say. Oh, I do have one last thing to say before I give you my rating. There is a review of this wine that I came
across on line and the person who wrote it was for some reason not impressed with this
wine. Now I don't know what the person was thinking but I will remind
you that wine tasting is indeed very subjective. This particular person
did not like the wine and of course that is his prerogative but I just find it interesting how a wine one person might really like is a wine that someone else might dislike. It is now time to give you my rating of this wine and will tell you that on The Desert Wine Guy rating scale I am awarding this wine 93 very well deserved points.
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