Spain and Friends 4.0
- Mixed
- Various
Ah Spain! And its proud neighbour Portugal. Amazing contributors to world of wine in their own rights, but when you combine them - that’s when the magic happens. This pack of six wines covers the Iberian peninsula and is a small step into the wondrous world of their wines. All red, all delicious. With the colder months approaching, this pack covers Spanish superstar tempranillo and the classic Portuguese blends. Salud! Saude!
Each case contains ONE bottle of:
Red
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- Red Blend
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- Douro
- Red Blend
- Douro
This wine from the famous Quinta Nova is a great place to start if you are not familiar with Portugese red blends, made of touriga nacional, touriga franca, tinta roriz and tinta cão. This is their unoaked wine, so what you are seeing is pure fruit power, and my is it powerful. Sitting right on the border of medium and full-bodied, this wine is full of flavour and generosity. It’s rich, ripe and robust with a basket of fresh blueberry muffins jumping out the glass, interwoven with cinnamon and spice. The palate is fleshy and fun with deeper black cherry notes with refreshing acidity.
Red
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- Red Blend
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- Rioja DOC
- Red Blend
- Rioja DOC
This tempranillo is full of dark berries and spice. The palate is awesome. Fresh as it should be from a high altitude place.. concentrated, with abundant tannin, nothing course, really nice tannin, slightly piquant on the finish. Medium body. Classy wine - really concentrated and tightly wound. The wine will live for a long time.
Red
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- Red Blend
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- Lisbon
- Red Blend
- Lisbon
This wine is from a winery and region new to the ‘fo - Adega Mãe, which is based north of the Portuguese capital of Lisbon. Portuguese reds are known to pack a punch and what makes the Adega Mãe wines so compelling is the influence of the cooling Atlantic, bringing freshness and minerality. But don’t worry, there is heaps of punchy fruit. This red blend is medium-bodied and full of dark berries, and a beautiful balance of savoury and sweet notes. It reminds me of Mencía but more generous and quite plush.
Red
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- Tempranillo
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- Rioja DOC
- Tempranillo
- Rioja DOC
This is Rioja’s new wave tempranillo that’s named after a crazy cat! Far from the dusty leather armchair wines most associated with the region, this is young, racy and much more fun. It’s for a young-at-heart crowd, bright, juicy and exuberant. Though, for all its fun, it tastes like a wine well above the price bracket. Raucously red fruited, with 10% American oak to give it some spice, it is compact and punchy in form. Great value for all of the spice, plums and tannins in this delicious wine.
Red
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- Red Blend
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- Lisbon
- Red Blend
- Lisbon
This red is delicious - there is fruit compote and a touch of cinnamon on the nose. The medium-bodied palate has so much fruit, it’s just delicious. A little lick of vanilla is there but the stars are the red fruits and berries, complimented by a bit of spice and mellow tannin. It’s not dissimilar to Grenache-based wines - a side step from Spain and plusher than what you’d find in the Rhône.
Red
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- Tempranillo
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- Rioja
- Tempranillo
- Rioja
This is the fun side of Rioja. Somewhere between the vacuous berry-laden boppers and the leather-armchair-and-cigar-smoke intensity of the Gran Reservas. Arrestingly bright, but not lacking for complexity, this is a cracking wine to pull out for dinner at your place. Blueberries, black plum, red cherries, a tickle of oak and a titter of black tea. Charming as hell and doubly delicious.