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.