.......annnnnnnnd we are back.

Sorry for the horrendous gap in blogging. Have no fear though... even though no blogging occurred, we continued to drink wine.

Let's get right back to it.  We return to Spain, specifically to Campo de Borea. Tonight, we are imbibing a 2007 Masia D Bielsa Garnacha Vinas Viejas (grenache old vines).  For the life of me, I can't recall where I bought this, but according to the interweb thingy, it goes for about $12 or so.  On the label, this wine is listed as "joven" which means it was bottled the year after the vintage (which mean it may or may not have been put in oak barrels) and is meant to be drunk young, within a few years of release.  Can you tell I'm back in wine class?

The color is super purple - nose has a bit of spice and medium dark fruit - think I smell a little oak.  The taste is quite nice even if it is fairly one dimensional.  That intense berry fruit which is fairly typical of the Spanish garnachas.  Kind of a yucky finish - a bit sour and what my mouth thinks in tannic, but can't be - this wine probably didn't get much oak and it's grenache, which is not too tannic.  Nothing too special or unique but OK juice for $12 (if that's what I paid).

Now get out there and drink!

G5 is not a jet

Tonight, we return to what seems to be our favorite place, Spain.  The wine is a 2007 Vinos Sin Ley G5 from Madrid ($12 from LA Wine Co.)  Poking around online, I found this on the website for the wines importer (oleimports.com)...

"Vinos Sin-Ley “Wines Without Law”in translation.  The twofold objective of Vinos Sin-Ley is to create “new wines” that are value oriented.  The concept, driven by creative innovation using non-conventional methods of harvesting, fermenting, blending, ageing and labeling, results with wines processing new 

fresh fruit driven flavors that are different from those achieved in the past. Composed of a group of young winemakers from different regions in Spain, the wines crafted at Vinos Sin-Ley are value oriented, driven by experimentation and innovative insight shared by their philosophy. They meet twice ayear to set in place new 

projects of mutual interest and shared knowledge of the winemaking techniques implemented."

This bottle is kind of cool - it has a bunch of info on the back of the label about the grape (100% grenache), the soil, the climate, the vine... all kinds of good stuff - I wish all bottles were like this. Hopefully you can check out the posted photo.

Most importantly, this is a tasty wine.  A nice bright fruit component (cherry, raspberry) but none of the sugary fruit you get with some of the Aussie wines.  Nice length.  The word savory seems to apply here.  Not over oaked.  Big alcohol (14.5%), but it didn't taste like it.  For some reason, it reminded me of a beaujolais - lots of fruit and almost no oak.

Definitely try this if you get a chance.

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.