Gary does a Grenache wine tasting and review. Watch and see how these four fare, plus a new QOD.

Another bargain find.  Grenache/garancha is probably the mostly planted grape on earth. The grape is light in color and tannin but high in alcohol and has profound natural sweetness. Most grenache were gone into fortified dessert wines as well as rose or a major component in blending. The Abrazo is typically lighter red in color and saw little wood maturation. Profound nose of cotton candy, dark cherry liqueur or kirsch mixed with black plum brandy with a whaff of rose water, sweet seaweed and southern French mixed herb. This medium body wine is round and soft in tannin. A juicy offer but leaves a long finish that laced with dark chocolate and subtle white pepper. A top grade quaffer indeed. This wine naturally accompanies with a light tomato sauced based dish and pizza. 88-90 points.

Domaine Brusset is a relatively large producer in Rhone. This wine is from an appelation in Southern Rhone called Gigondas created in 1971. Unlike Northern Rhone, which employs solely Syrah. The wine would probably be a combination of Grenache, Syrah, Mourvedre, Carrigane and Cinsault. On the nose, some cherry liqueur or kirsch character popped out mixing with some earthy barnyard but the wine was not giving much. I deliberately aired the wine before tasting but still…more cherry fruit and dry berry/flower characters came out upon tasting. It has a medium to full body followed with some astringency characters like bitter lemon/tangerine. The tannin is sandy, mouth coating and immediately dried out the tongue. The finish is relatively short and leaving my mouth dry. The style is traditional and backward. I fail once again why the both WA and WS rated this wine so high (93 and 94 points respectively) in the past. (87-89 points) rated by Michael Lam of the Beverage Review.

The Black Rock is a true Rhone blend consisting of 76% shiraz, 14% Carignan and 10% Grenache. The first impression from the nose is the wine is rustic…sweet ripe cherry fruit, cherry stone and cherry based cough cordial, earthy and with a hint of volatile alcohol. (*** Mistake on the video: Not sherry nose but Shiraz or Syrah nose ***) The wine when tasted offered more assertive waxy cherry stone character intermixed with dry wild flowers, wild berries, game, burnt earth, smoke and black pepper. This upfront, full body and reasonably complex wine still has a film of grippy tannin and is somewhat hot and spicy. The finish is quite long with a feel of hot peppery attack. This is a marriage of new world fruit and old world rusticity? A delight to drink with wild game or a lamb roast because of it’s slightly elevated acidity as well as spiciness. I am curious to see what the 2005 has to offer in comparison but this is this is definitely my first steal of 2007. (Rating 87-89 points) by Michael Lam of the Beverage Review.

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