Okay so here's the scoop. I had a couple of big fat Whole Foods pork chops in the fridge and I decided to turn them into a meal. I pulled out the cast iron skillet and got to work. Well needless to say the first bottle of the evening was not going to stand up to this meal so it was time to see what else I had lying around.And there she was, the old standby. Castano Monastrell 2006 from Yecla Spain. Yecla is in south east Spain maybe 50 miles from the coast in the same vicinity as Jumilla my other favorite Spanish "value" location. I had always thought that Monastrell was Spanish for Mourvedre but a little research (and some expensive DNA testing) revealed that it in fact is a grape known as "Graciano". This is good news for someone looking to try a hundred varietals.
This is a darker wine with some significant tannins. I appreciate the "bigger" wines, the ones that have a backbone and seem to fight back a little. This is one of those. Its a fairly straightforward $9 wine with some cellaring potential but I like it because it is still able to taste like wine in the face of some very spicy foods.
[UPDATE: I have continued looking into the Monastrell-Mourvedre-Graciano issue and it seems the consensus says Monastrell is Mourvedre so I will with great sadness modify my list accordingly.]
2 comments:
Dang, 2 wines, one evening. Welcome to the blogosphere, friend. I can't wait to try the Graciane varietal. I also can't wait to head to the liquor store this weekend to begin searching for some different varietals
yes, yes, but Ted the real question here is -- was it "grapey"? :-)
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