I swear I liked this wine before...

So, sometime last year, I tried this wine.  It was mentioned on a conversation thread about wines people liked priced under $10.  I found it at Beverages and More for $10.  Drank it, liked it.  Even bought some for my parents who also liked it.

Cut to: today.  I'm at Target and I see this wine.  "Wow - that's surprising," I think.  Didn't know it was such a high production wine that it could supply Target.  Weird.  So, I buy two bottles at $11 each and take them home.  I thought it was kind of cool that I was buying wine at Target, especially one I knew I liked.

Well... I don't think I'll be buying wine at Target again anytime soon.  The wine in question is a 2006 Red Guitar from Navarra, a blend of Tempranillo (55%) and Garnacha [aka Granache] (45%).  Not sure what happened in the past year and a half, but this wine is a mess to my palate.  When we first opened it, there was a benign nose - nothing weird - dark fruit and some smoke.  But the taste was disjointed - earth and tobacco with some cherry, a sour finish.  The worst part was the residual sugar which made it pretty awful.  OK, maybe it needs to breathe.  

Five hours later in a decanter, it's not improved.  Same problems.  A bit more mellow, but not tasty to me.  The sugar component is just completely off-putting to me.  Maybe this is a bad bottle, but it has none of the signs of it being flawed.  Rachel had the same reaction.  

I checked around and this wine gets pretty good scores and is well liked.  I don't know.  Maybe they've had to increase production and, as a result, reduce quality?  Totally a guess.  Perhaps the previous vintage I had was better.  It's a head scratcher.  But definitely not a wine for me.  So, if anyone needs a bottle, I have a spare.