sean brendan

Campos Reales 2003 Tempranillo

According to the Francisco Aragon Guiller (another wine blogger who is an exceptional writer by the way): In the glass, this young Tempranillo shows through in ruby with violet tones. The aromatic profile includes well defined notes of strawberry, blackberry, red fruit, toasted vanilla, light smoke, oak, pepper and an exotic spice element. This surprisingly complex wine for the price is medium to generous in body, nicely rounded out by young tannins, providing a nice structural backbone to the strawberry and berry sweetness and red fruit acidity. The oak comes into accentuate nice toasted vanilla and spice alongside the fruit. Leading into the finish are notes of strawberry, blackberry, pepper and subtle banana with soft vanilla.

According to Me: A tasty Spanish Tempranillo.  I’ll admit that I am not very familiar with typical Spanish varietals and don’t think I’ve had more than one glass of Tempranillo ever, but I’ll tell you this much - this wine is an exceptional value. At right around $7 this wine was crafted on a large scale (48,000 bottles) in the La Mancha region of Spain.  While I’m not much a fan of hyper sweet wines, this one is nice and dry.  It’s not spicy, but rather smooth and exceptionally balanced.  I read up a little bit about the La Mancha region, and apparently it’s not far from Madrid and features very warm climates, dry clay filled soil, and the vines producing this wine are over 30 years old.  A new favorite - time for a trip to La Mancha!