Wine of the Week: Red Guitar Old Vine Tempranillo Garnacha
Wine: Red Guitar Old Vine Tempranillo Garnacha
Grapes: Tempranillo (52 percent), garnacha (48 percent)
Region: Navarra, northern Spain
Vintage: 2011
Price: $7.99
Availability: Lee’s Discount Liquor
In the glass: Red Guitar wine is an inky blood-red color with a pitch-black core going out into a deep purplish-red rim definition with high viscosity.
On the nose: It is an open, inviting bouquet with layers of soft raspberry crush, black-pepper laced sauteed strawberries, vanilla bean stalk, black cherry marmalade and hints of underlying damp wood and touches of that classic spice character and white pepper from the garnacha.
On the palate: There is a swift black fruity-juicy attack laden with smashed raspberries, strawberries drizzled with black and white peppery notes, spice components, that unmistakable hint of creamy vanilla from the American oak and very clean and rounded throughout. The midpalate is ripe with firm tannins and yet there is supple fruit and quite a polished backbone in the wine through the nice finish, making this a lovely drinking wine.
Odds and ends: It would be ideal to grab the iPad and download or play a nice album from Spanish guitar virtuoso Paco de Lucia while slowly sipping this wine from an ample glass. But I digress. The label does however evoke a mixture of memories of old Picasso cubist still life paintings combined with classic Miro paintings and with both being extremely Spanish, it all works out. This tremendous wine comes from Navarra in the country’s northernmost area, close to San Sebastien and the French border. It is a blend of two famous Spanish grape varieties. The fruit is from old dry-farmed vines growing in this region and approaching an average age of 100 years, which gives this wine its concentration and backbone. Spain is full of such great vineyards and the wines are always tremendous, but at less than $8, it is a great pleasure to recommend this for your summer al fresco dinner with meaty paella full of Andalusian sausages. Drink it now through 2016.
Gil Lempert-Schwarz’s wine column appears Wednesdays. Write him at P.O. Box 50749, Henderson, NV 89106-0749, or email him at gil@winevegas.com.
