Archive for category Grenache
Yellow Tail – 2008 Shiraz Grenache
I’ve been trying new wines. Odd, I know, but I’ve been branching out. My most recent guilty purchase was a bottle of Yellow Tail’s Shiraz Grenache blend. Yellow Tail has a wider than usual variety of Shiraz blends, including Merlot and Cabernet, but the one that really caught my eye was the Grenache. We’ll pretend that it wasn’t because of the pink bottle, so as to not sound like Lisa. There were initially three things that drew me to this wine: 1) It’s an interesting mixture (80/20, by the way) that you don’t see from many other wineries 2) It wasn’t terribly expensive, so nothing wasted if it was awful and 3) It’s a Yellow Tail, which means there should be reasonable availability almost everywhere wine is sold. Was my curiosity to be rewarded?
Somewhat. The Shiraz / Grenache blend is interesting. It does have a rich fruity character that is certainly not a garden variety Shiraz, but I think it would be very hard to place Grenache as the second varietal. Behind the fruity surface lies a light sweetness and subtle spice that balance together nicely. As I’ve consumed the bottle over the course of a week, one thing that I continually notice, however, is that my last taste is just a bit … lacking. That’s not to say that the wine itself tastes bad, but just the overall impression I have when I’ve finished the bottle isn’t really anything like what I experienced while drinking it. Instead of wanting another glass, I’m left wanting something to wash down the slightly mysterious flavors that are left behind, rather than reaching for another glass to enjoy some more.
Even out of the bottle, this is a mediocre wine. It’s not awful, but it’s not great. At close to the $6 price point, there are better wines, but there are definitely worse ones as well. This does not suffer from the syndrome of many cheap wines we often discuss here – that is to say it does have flavor and is perfectly acceptable to drink. But sadly, I doubt it’s one I’ll ever buy again.
Score: 82
Menguante – 2007 Grenache
So I’ll just get the obvious out of the way. We can be a little one note around here, always trying zins and cabs. Of course, these are the things we like, so who can really blame us for trying wine that we, you know, like. That said, when I was on my quest for my brother’s Divine Reserve 8 tonight, I made my first use of a wine guy – you know, the guy who stands in the aisle and asks you if you need help (or perhaps you don’t know, as this is my first time to really encouter such a useful thing). So I say, “yes, wine guy, I do need help. I like dry, red, full-bodied wines that aren’t outrageously expensive.” (I’ll just note here that I probably also like the same but that are outrageously expensive, but I felt like I had to give wine guy some realistic parameters within which to work.) “Grenache,” he says. I nod, feeling a bit uneasy about this new type of wine, this so-called grenache. He takes me to the row, hands me a bottle, and gives me a tip on how to get the Divine Reserve a little cheaper – so even if you don’t like wine guy, maybe you should talk to him for money-saving tips.
Ok, enough about my story and our hesitation to try new things and on to the wine. Red? Check. Full-bodied? Check. Dry? Check. Not super expensive? Check. This bottle comes from old vines in Spain, and not that I didn’t believe in terroir before, but this wine sort of harkens back to the idea. It tastes like where the grapes must have been grown, and I as I drink it, I imagine a vineyard somewhere in Spain with a mess of overgrown vines doing what they want since they are ancient and no one is going to tell them what to do. It’s got this deep, subdued fruit taste, complemented by this earthiness that balances it out and it’s just so mellow. I really like this wine.
Wine guy, you did me good. Twice.
Score: 86