In a recent article I compared two great Garnachas from France and Spain:  Atteca and a Cairanne Côte du Rhône.  I’ve since wrote about many great Garnacha’s from around Spain.  Today’s wine is an old vine Garnacha, from Calatayud, the same region in north-eastern Spain that the Atteca comes from.  This region, though still rustic, is producing an amazing array of old-vine Garnacha wines that are great value.  An interesting thing about Calatayud is that the cooperatives are producing some of the top wines.  Cooperatives in many regions produce pretty ordinary stuff, but here they can excel.  The Baltasar Gracian 2006 is from one such cooperative…San Alejandro…their whole range of inexpensive old-vine wines are really worth trying.  This wine is easy-drinking, but offers exuberant, attractive fruit, some spiciness and some good intensity and decent complexity.  For about 5-6€, it’s a steal!  Read on for more details on the wine. 

I’ve been writing about Grenache in its various forms over the past month…for me some of the most exciting wines in Spain have Grenache in the mix.  Whether it is is an intense, mineral Priorat based in a Grenache blend or a soft, sweet fruit, old-vine Grenache from Aragon….the variety is endless!  I wanted to talk today about two more of my favorite Grenache’s that are so interesting because they are about as different as two wines can be.  They both show the great results that the grape variety can give when a lot of care is taken in the vineyard and the winery.  Beautiful wines at great prices!

The wines that have given some of the most hedonistic drinking pleasure lately have been Garnachas from northern Spain.  Not just any old Garnachas but old vine Garnachas that retain the grape’s softness and approachability, but that also offer a unique concentration of intense fruit and fresh acidity.  They are wines that offer sufficient complexity for the wine lover yet also are so easy to drink that they are the perfect reds to convert novice wine drinkers with!

We just joined a new wine tasting group and Monday, we went to our first dinner. This group has a fun format: once a month dinner with a chosen wine theme. Each person brings a bottle and they are served blind to the group. We vote at the end on the best wines and then they are unveiled. The owner of the winning bottle doesn’t have to pay for his dinner! Great motivation!

This iteration, the theme was Ribera del Duero and Aragon. I knew everyone was likely to bring Ribera, so one of our bottles was from DO Campo de Borja in Aragon.