Wednesday, January 7, 2009

2005 Las Rocas de San Alejandro Garnacha Calatayud Viñas Viejas


Type: Red
Producer: Las Rocas de San Alejandro
Variety: Garnacha
Designation: Viñas Viejas
Country: Spain
Region: Aragón
Appellation: Calatayud
Price: $19.99

The color is very dark purple-tinged crimson, but slightly translucent.

The first impression on the nose is fruit and spice, and lots of both. It takes a little longer to separate them out. Cherries, cranberries, and dried orange peel are the fruit. Pepper leads the spice, but there is something else there, too. It's sage. The last smell on the nose is a very light background, adding nutty richness more than the clear smell, of hazelnut liqueur.

Oh gosh that interesting. Give me a minute. The palate is not as sweet as the nose. The fruit is cranberry juice and orange peel, with very little of the cherry from the nose. A little bit of charred meat, plenty of black pepper and toasted pecans make up the mid-palate. Sour cherries and cranberries appear, and then linger for a long time, on the finish, ending with a surprising aftertaste of red licorice. Tannins are very smooth.

It will be interesting to see if some of the unsweetened-cranberry bitterness fades from Night One to Night Two. Join me and we will find out together.

Night Two

Missed it. Sorry, I had a National Championship football game to watch, and my mighty Gators won it all! By Night Three, though, it was over the hill, slightly oxidized, and I can not fairly rate it.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I love this wine, and the cheaper non old vines designated garnacha by las rocas is also very good and a steal at $10 or less

Anonymous said...

Recently had this exact wine and it was overwhelmingly milk chocolate in the nose and palate. A very enjoyable new world effort in my mind. Definite baking spice to accompany the chocolate on the nose. Well made. I'm a little stunned not to see a chocolate descriptor in your notes! Maybe I was off that night.