Description

Well, this wine has certainly been the focus of a lot of media attention the last few years.  For anyone who has never had Spanish Garnacha, you are surely missing out. This is not to be confused with the feeble American Grenache, or even worse,  the pitiful “American white Grenache”. True Garnacha, is a robust, high alcohol content red wine. It is grown in Spain, and in the Rhone region of France (called Grenache in France).  The 2001 Las Rocas Vinas Viejas Garnacha scored a hefty 93 points from the Wine Advocate, and the 2002 received 91. The wine can be found in the $10 range, and is widely available, hence the media circus surrounding this wine.  A few words of clarification are in order. Firstly, there are two Las Rocas Garnacha wines. One is the regular bottling, made up from fruit of 75 year old vines. The deluxe bottling is called “Vinas Viejas”, made from fruit of 100 year old vines.  Up until the last few years, all of these grapes were mixed with grapes from a variety of growers in Calatayud (about 150 miles northeast of Madrid), and made into wine at the San Alejandro Winery Coop. Importer Eric Solomon and French winemaker Jean-Marc Lafage of Roussillon “discovered” this coop, and asked them to separate the premium grapes of the oldest vines from the rest of the fruit, and make a special highly extracted cuvee..  The rest, as they say, is history.

Since I generally don’t go for hype, I ignored this wine after Mr. Parker’s block-buster review a few years ago.  But the wine is still around 2 years later, so I figured it must be more than just a flash in the pan, so I picked up a bottle of the 2003 vintage (not yet reviewed by the mainstream press).  I paid eleven dollars for it at Barrons Market in the Del Mar area. It can be found for a dollar or two cheaper if you want to shop around. The wine is a little closed upon opening the bottle, but it comes to life after a brief decanting in the glass.  No need for prolonged decanting on this one. Like most Garnacha, it has fairly high alcohol content (14.5%), so there is a little alcoholic sweetness to it. If you prefer low alcohol wines, stay away. There is a moderate amount of tannin, but well integrated.  The bouquet is pleasant, but a little soft for my tastes. The wine has a lot of coffee/chocolate notes to it, and a slightly tart acidic/astringent character to the fruit (think raspberries). All in all, it was a pleasant wine, and well worth the price. I will buy more.  I don’t think it will gain much from stashing in the cellar for more than a year or so. I don’t think this wine would get a “93” if I used that scoring system. To me, 93 means very memorable. I found this wine to be quite pleasant, but not extraordinarily. Granted, the vintage I tasted was not the 2001 which created all the hype, but still, I think I expected more given the ravings of so many critics.  Perhaps the emperor has no clothes! Nevertheless, I still would heartily recommend this wine for a mid-week high quality value wine with your pizza. Three stars (sorry Mr. Parker).

* Prior Wine of the Week Winner!