This winery, Finca La Estacada, has often impressed me with their extremely inexpensive, easy drinking wines. The winery is in La Mancha, but is not in the Denominacion de Origen (DO) area and therefore makes wine under Vino de La Tierra (VdT) de Castilla. The category of VdT is quite trendy at the moment and excellent wines are made under it, especially in Castilla Leon and Castilla La Mancha. Under European law, therefore Spanish law, Vdt is not considered quality wine, but rather falls under table wine. It is equivalent to Vin Pays under the French system. VdT guarantees origin but the wines are subject to much less restrictive regulations with regards to yields, aging, and grape variety etc. VdT is being used by wineries outside the officially designated DO areas, but also by winemakers who want more flexibility in making their wines.

Though I have enjoyed their wines in the past, I was very disappointed in this wine…read on for a negative rating!

Wine: Finca La Estacada 6 meses en barrica 2004
Winery: Finca La Estacada
Appellation: Vino de la Tierra de Castilla
Alc: 13.5%
Grape variety: 100% Tempranillo
Oak regime: 6 months in American and French oak
Price: Around 3 euros in Spain

Tasting notes:
Visual: Medium intensity with quite a lot of brick notes at the rim
Nose: Medium intensity…first impression is green pepper…and not the nice kind! Some good, mature fruit does show through…ripe plum, as well asome black pepper. But the green pepper dominates and leads to a sharp, unpleasant nose.
Mouth: The mouth is not as bad up front…some nice fruit, but in the mid-palate, something funky and dirty kicks in. The fruit fades quickly and a metallic and tannic finish also ends quickly.
Food: No food around!

Retaste: No retaste…wasn’t going to get any better!

Conclusion: Really disappointed in this 2004…this wine in 2002 and 2003 was quite nice, especially for 3 euros. I have several of these and will re-taste at a later date. It might be a bottle problem, but there was no obvious defect. It was just a sharp, thin wine. Rating: 1/10