Welcome spring with palate-pleasing Evodia

Occasion: To celebrate the advent of an early spring, this prettily designed, blue-labeled Spanish wine will certainly get you going in the right direction. It is mainly made from old vine garnacha, which is a rustic and tasty grape variety that also is known in southern France. Calatayud, where this particular bottling hails from, boasts some of the oldest, gnarliest vines at quite high altitude, producing dense, concentrated wines that really please the palate. This 2014 version of Evodia has a smidge of syrah in it, making it an even more powerful statement with your grilled meat.

Wine: Evodia Red Wine

Grape: Garnacha (90 percent), syrah (10 percent)

Region: Calatayud, northeastern Spain

Vintage: 2014

In the glass: Evodia Red Wine is a bright purplish-red color with a semi-translucent core, going out into a fuchsia-purple rim definition with high viscosity.

On the nose: It has very bright red fruit coming right at you like a fruit roll-up express with red cherries, red plums, raspberries, boysenberry sorbet, crushed marionberries and hints of Red Vines licorice, sweet tobacco and Chinese hibiscus tea.

On the palate: Red fruits coat the inside of the mouth with dominance by the equivalent of cherries jubilee, followed by bright acidity to go along with the bright forward red fruit melee, complemented by soft underlying tannins. The midpalate is equally fruity, but in the dry sense of the word, being endowed with red plum skins and cranberry juice going into the nicely balanced finish, flicking a soft touch of licorice at the very end. This is not a wine that has any brettanomyces or volatile acidity, nor does it have any astringent acidity or tannins. It is nicely done for this price.

Price: $9.99

Availability: Cost Plus, Whole Foods, Lee’s Discount Liquor, other retailers

Gil Lempert-Schwarz’s wine column appears on Wednesdays. Write him at P.O. Box 50749, Henderson, NV 89106-0749, or email him at gil@winevegas.com.