Garnacha: Spanish Grenache

A recent "Twitter Tasting" brought wine lovers together for the sake of Garnacha. That’s what the Grenache grape is called in Spain, and I’m always up for some Spanish wine. I was invited to play along and was provided with samples for that purpose. Over the next week we will examine some of the great Garnachas that were sampled.

Pirineos Seleccion 2013

From the Somontano area of Aragon, the land flows from the foothills of the Pyrenees into the Ebro Valley in Spain's extreme northeastern corner.

This wine is extremely full of minerals and loaded with an oaky essence that, while a bit heavy-handed, plays right into the rustic sensibility that I love in a wine.  The oak blasts through with tobacco, clove, cinnamon, allspice and a wisp of vanilla. It’s a big, dirty red - it smells of the dirt and rocks and it tastes of it ,too. Beef, please. It has an easy-to-swing $15 retail price tag.


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