2003 Monasterio Del Pueyo Reserva

Country: Spain
Region: Somontano
Alcohol: 13%
Price: €6,99
Closure: Cork

I purchased this wine at the Aldi without having a clue what I was really purchasing.  The little advertisement on the left-hand top corner of the label stating "90 point Robert Parker" did catch my attention even though I am neither a fan, nor a reader of this particular wine critic.  I was, however, interested enough to grab two bottles just to have a look see.

On arriving home wack the wine name into good old google.  Nothing much available about this wine.  Certainly not what I would have expected from a 90 point Parker wine.  Anyway, after further searching I found that, according Aldi marketing and advertisements, this wine is a Marboré produced by Bodegas Pirineos located in the Somontano region.  According to the Aldi it was not possible to use the original labelling so it was labelled as Monasterio Del Pueyo Reserva.  Of note was that the Marboré was not actually rated by Parker, but by Jay Miller.

The wine comes from the foot of the Pyrenees in Spain, from a region called Somontano.  Somontano, which actually means under the mountains, has a long oenological history with grapes having been grown since at least since the beginning of 2nd century BC.  The region is generally known for its full-coloured, rustic reds with high tannin content, good acidity and good cellaring ability.

The cepage of the Monasterio is temperanillo (60%), cabernet sauvignon (20%) and merlot (20%) according the etiquette.  However, if this is really the Marboré then it also includes lesser known local varieties parraleta (5%), and moristel (5%) at the expense of the same percentage of temperanillo.  Whether this is so remains to be seen.

Ok, now to what I thought about this wine:

Deep, dark purple in colour.  Powerful nose, especially when the wine was first opened and poured.  Definite vanilla on the nose along with plenty of red and dark berry fruit and some spice.  Plenty of power, yet quite elegant, on the palate with sweet, black, spicey fruit.  Some tannin in there which probably needs a little time to settle down.  A nice drop, certainly for the price, and certainly worth stashing a few away in the cellar.  Whether the 90/100 is justified remains to be seen.  I'm not such a big fan of this system myself; you either like the wine or you don't.

WBW#49 A toast to the end of the Bush Era

I got married last month which is the reason that this blog has been neglected over that same period. This will then be my first post for quite some time; hopefully of many more to come.

The current Wine Blogging Wednesday topic, a toast to the end of the Bush Era, is hosted by Dhonig of 2 Days Per Bottle. This is an interesting topic, and one that I could not let slip by. My bottle of wine for this theme is one from France seeing they were one of the few countries stand up the US when it counted (despite much criticism). I have great respect for that, thus a French wine.

Well, like the citizens of most countries world-wide I've never been a Bush fan, and over the term of his office he has proven himself to be worse than I imagined when he was elected the first time around. The fact that he got a second term boggles my mind and probably says volumes about the majority living in the United States. Needless to say I won't sad when he leaves the Whitehouse for the last time.

Domaine du Jas Le Chevre d'Or

Country: France

Region: Cote du Rhone

Alcohol: 13%

Price: €14.95

Closure: Cork

Anyway, onto the wine. The wine I have chosen is the 2004 Domaine du Jas La Chevre d'Or produced in the Rhone Valley. This wine is 100% Syrah and produced by organic and byo-dynamic methods.

Here's what I thought of the wine:

Dark, purple-red in colour. Nose is not all that powerful, but is distinctive with red and dark fruit, hints of wood and dusty, earthy aromas. Again plenty of concentrated red and black fruit on the palate. Oak is hidden away nicely behind the fruit. There is also some earthiness there too along with nicely integrated tannins. A lengthy, dark fruit finish to a very good wine. I really like this wine; very concentrated but not over the top in power.