Does it bug you as much as it does me when a wine label puts a tasting report right up front and center?
The Cellar Clearance Sale Ending Soon!
The California Wine Club is making room for more wines by opening their cellar to you. Treat yourself to award-winning, handcrafted wines priced as low as $7.99, with $1 shipping. You do not need to be a member to take advantage of this sale. The Cellar Clearance ends on June 15, 2016.
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Consider if you will La Posta Tinto, an Argentine red blend that I picked up the other day for a penny under 13 bucks. There’s not a lot of information on the label. “Crafted” in Argentina, it says, without the legal language that guarantees where the grapes were grown. There’s no vintage on the label, although the all-knowing Internet suggests it’s 2013.
But right up there in front, in gold letters on red, the label tells me what I’m tasting! “Raspberry and red cherry aromas with hints of mocha & spice,” in block letters on the front of the bottle.
Frankly, even though I have reasonable trust in my analytical skills, I try to avoid reading winemakers’ suggestions, because once I’ve seen them, I can’t un-see them. Even after years of wine tasting and periodic wine judging gigs, I can easily get tangled up in the tricks that your mind plays on you. “You say there’s fennel pollen and elephant sweat in there? Oh, yeah, I’m picking up a little of that, now that you mention it.”
But these tasting notes didn’t work for me. I didn’t find any raspberries, but maybe some kind of tart cherries instead. Mocha? I’m not feeling that, although there’s some warm spice in there. It’s a pretty good, rustic table wine, tart acidity and wisps of tannin surrounding full but rather undifferentiated red fruit and spice. It went pretty well with spaghetti with meat-and-mushroom sauce.
So, please, Mr. Winemaker. You make the wine. I’ll take my own notes, thanks,
If you’d like to try this wine, it’s imported in the U.S. by Vine Connections, of Sausalito, Calif. You can check prices and find online vendors via this link on Wine-Searcher.com.
Check out another affordable Argentine red below, along with a link to our online “Wine Focus” for June, “The Southern Hemisphere.”
Today’s Sponsor:
The Cellar Clearance Sale Ending Soon!
The California Wine Club is making room for more wines by opening their cellar to you. Treat yourself to award-winning, handcrafted wines priced as low as $7.99. Plus, with $1 shipping, you’ll save up to $36 in shipping on every case.
The wines they feature are typically handcrafted in very limited amounts, and in many cases, they are down to our last few cases (or bottles!) of each.
You do not need to be a member to take advantage of this sale. And, as always, every wine is guaranteed to be delicious.
The Cellar Clearance ends on June 15, 2016.
Shop Now
1-800-777-4443 www.cawineclub.com
Wine Focus for June: The Southern Hemisphere
“Book your flights, grab your mosquito repellent (Beware! Zika!) and let’s head for the Southern Hemisphere this month. Got a Pinotage you have been dying to open? Chilean Carmenere? Have an orphan bottle of Penfolds Grange staring at you from the cellar? Well, drink up!”
Want to join the fun? Simply grab your choice of any wine from any nation below the Equator, and bring your observations to this month’s Wine Focus on our WineLovers Discussion Group (WLDG) and our WineLoversPage Facebook page.
You can read the discussion on the forum without registering, but if you’d like to participate in our conversations, you can quickly and easily join the forum via Facebook, using the “Social Login” button at the upper right corner of any forum page to register automatically and log in.
I look forward to seeing you in our wine social media. Welcome!
Today’s Tasting Report
Alamos 2014 Mendoza Malbec ($10.99)
Primarily Mendoza Malbec with a bit of Syrah and Bonarda, this is a dark, reddish-purple wine shading to a clear garnet edge. Ripe cherry-berry fruit on the nose carries over intact on the palate with a juicy, zippy flavor of black cherries, blackberries and plums plus a distinct grind of black pepper. A hint of warm spice suggests a touch of oak, but it’s not overpowering. Mouth-watering acidity and light but perceptible tannins build a good, food-friendly structure with a bit of warmth, not out of line at 13.5% alcohol. U.S. importer: Alamos USA, Hayward, Calif. (June 9, 2016)
FOOD MATCH: Argentina is famous for its beef grilled on the parilla, and it would be hard to imagine a better match for the country’s trademark Malbec. That said, this one worked nicely with a gently spicy Korean style bulgogi made with Beyond Meat beefless crumbles.
WHEN TO DRINK: Perfectly drinkable now, but this bright, well-balanced red should drink well for a year or several. I wouldn’t count on significant improvement with extended cellar time, though.
VALUE: With a $10 average U.S. retail price reported by Wine-Searcher.com, it’s a good buy for a simple, rustic table wine.
WEB LINK
Here’s a short fact sheet on the producer’s web page in English. Oddly, the winery’s internet folks haven’t caught up with the 2014 vintage, but I expect the details are similar.
FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Compare prices and locate vendors for Alamos Mendoza Malbec on Wine-Searcher.com.
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