This week marked the end of the parade of Portuguese wines. I was ready to move on. We had also been having a cold few days so I had made a pot of chili and was ready to get down to work.
This bottle of Grenache was gorgeous for starters. The label felt like a printed work of art and I know it sounds funny, but the chosen font appealed to me.
I had never tried Grenache before so I started in on my research. There are three main types of Grenache wine, Spanish, French, and American. While Spanish and French wineries usually go with pure Grenache, American wineries will sometimes blend in Syrah in order to achieve a more balanced flavor profile. Spanish Grenaches can be quite high in alcohol content whereas French Grenaches are known to be lower. *
The Shatter label produces only Grenache vines and is a fairly new label having only been around since 2012. The vines are located in Maury, an area of France known generally for sweet wines. *
This Grenache was not supposed to be a sweet wine though, so I was interested to see what type of dry red wine would be coming from the same region.
This wine was from Maury, France and sampled on May 5, 2017. My nose came alive with the very distinct scent of cherries. The first taste was loaded with acidity. I figured it might be high, but this was surprisingly so. The aftertaste produced a pleasant enough fruitiness with just a hint of something herbal that I could not quite put my finger on. I was listening to “Da Vinci” by Weezer. It did help to cut through some of the spice in my chili. After trying it with food, I realized that I would not want to have it again without food.
I gave this wine a rating of 2.5. It could not stand on it’s own, but when paired with food it was okay. If you can appreciate label art though, then you can appreciate this wine.
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