In honor of the bar results coming out this week (and by bar I don’t intend to make any alcohol related reference) my co-worker and I stopped by the wine store earlier this week.  I think we all hope to go to the wine store and pick up something decent.  That’s a large part of why we started this website – trying to save friends and family from a terrible wine experience by warning them before they picked up a bottle of trash.  So I think this week was a good experience for me – telling my co-worker what I liked and picking up a couple of recommendations from him.  Move over, Wine Spectator, I have wine drinking friends. 

And so, enter the Rioja – a varietal from a country that I have rarely ventured down the aisle for.  He told me this is a wine that you can drink a lot of, and that is certainly a true statement.  It is, in a word, smooth.  The red fruit tones compose the majority of the flavor, and it doesn’t have your usual oak or vanilla to complicate things.  As I’m drinking it, I feel like I should find it boring, which it sort of is, but in a very pleasant way.  At least, a very drinkable way.  This is a wine that everyone will have to like, including those non-wine drinkers in your group.  It’s the equivalent of the doctored coffee that you give to the person who “hates coffee.”  But even though it would be great for novice drinkers, it’s also something a more discerning palate can enjoy.

The bottom line – get this when you don’t want to have to think about a wine but just want to enjoy it.   (or when you’re waiting for bar exam results???)

Score: 86