I usually rate wines that retail under 20€ because I think they are more useful for the typical wine buyer, but the other day I tasted a great wine that I really wanted to put out there.  The wine Cenit 2005 costs about 35-40€ retail here in Spain, though I’ve seen it for less on US sites at 40$.  Cenit is from one of the most recently created wine appellations in Spain, DO Tierra del Vino de Zamora…not the most practical name!  But it’s an interesting region located in northwestern Spain right on the border with Portugal…  The region is best known for reds made from old-vine Tempranillo, some of them on original rootstock….though there are only a handful of wineries so far, some very interesting wines are being made.  The climate is very extreme with big temperature changes between the day and night.  The best wines are generally big, full-bodied and intense.   If you want to check out this new wine appellation see http://www.tierradelvino.net/home.html.  Read on for more details on the wine.

Wine:  Cénit 2005
Winery:  Viñas del Cénit
Denominacion de Origen (DO): DO Tierra del Vino de Zamora
Alc: 14.5%
Grape varieties: 100% old-vine Tempranillo
Oak regime:  19 months in new oak
Price:  35-40€ retail in Madrid

Tasting notes
Visual:  Intense opaque purple color.
Nose:  The nose is really intense, attractive with black fruit, blueberry and blackberry, mineral and spice nose.  Really impressive.     
Mouth:  A bit closed at first and the tannins are huge…also a bit hot on the finish.  Needs air…the wine continued to improve in the glass for hours and hours.  Lots of black liqueur fruit and spice, with good acidity.  After some air, the wine really came into balance, the fruit opened up and balanced the tannins and alcohol really.  Big, blockbuster mouth, but delicious. 
Food:  I didn’t have it with food, but this would be perfect with some game dishes from the Zamora area. 

Conclusion: This is a really impressive wine.  Definitely will improve in bottle and is very youthful and a bit closed still.  But with some air, the powerful fruit opens up and the wine really takes off.  It’s a pricy wine but it gives a lot of bang for the buck!  I was thinking about it long after I drank it.