Well, since we haven’t done a review in 3 months, we decided to give you a 3-fer (or is that 3-for?). I can’t believe we’re opening 3 bottles of wine for the 2 of us on a Sunday evening, but hey…, it’s all for the cause.
Here are the facts:
2008 Tempra Tantrum Tempranillo/Grenache
Variety: 60% Tempranillo, 40% Grenache
2008 Tempra Tantrum Tempranillo/Shiraz
Variety: 60% Tempranillo, 40% Shiraz
2008 Tempra Tantrum Tempranillo/Cabernet Sauvignon
Variety: 60% Tempranillo, 40% Cabernet Sauvignon
Region: Tierra de Castilla, Spain
Aging: Micro-oxygenation
Winemaker: Rocío Osborne
My take
Tempranillo/Grenache
I would describe the nose on this as pinkish-purple. The taste and feel - I’m having a hard time describing the taste; the feel is easier. It’s a bit juicy, but not chewy. It has a round, full flavor up front with a hint of spice in the middle, and a moderately long finish (not short, but not long either). However, there’s not a lot of complexity in this wine. (Of course, for the price point, complexity isn’t something I’d expect.) It’s a bit dry as well.
This wine was fine as a sipping wine and might accompany food just fine, but in my opinion, it does not go well with grilled pork that has a southwestern flavor to it. Once I introduced the grilled pork to the picture, the wine turned purple and ashy.
Now, on to the...
Tempranillo/Shiraz
The nose on this is reddish; it brings strawberry to mind. The taste – a bit on the alcoholy side. Without food, it’s a bit chewy at first, then it falls flat. It’s short and feels like there’s no middle to it. This strikes me as new world in style – big and fruity. I just wish there were more going on.
The southwestern grilled pork we had for dinner actually made this wine fuller and extended the life of it in my mouth. Without food, this was my least favorite of the three. With the pork, this was my favorite. Just goes to show you how your experience of a wine can change given circumstances!
Tempranillo/Cab Sauv
The nose on this smells purple-black and a little green. It tastes much the same – rather dark purple and it definitely has some of that musty dampness to it that I love (that’s what I smell as green). This is the driest of all three, but not in a suck-your-mouth-dry-I-desperately-need-a-drink-of-water kind of way.
Again, after introducing the southwestern grilled pork, this wine turns ashy and unpleasant. Without the pork, this was by far my favorite. With the pork, it’s not the wine I’m reaching for.
If you want more info on the wine, vineyard, etc., check out their website at www.tempratantrum.com. They also make a Tempranillo/Merlot blend that I didn't pick up because I figured 3 was enough. :)
Price Point: Between $7 and $10 per bottle.
Showing posts with label Under $10. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Under $10. Show all posts
Sunday, February 27, 2011
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
2008 Tormaresca NePriCa
The facts:
2008 Tormaresca NePriCa
Region: Puglia, Italy
Variety: 40% Negroamaro, 30% Primitivo, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon
Aging: Stainless steel tanks and in bottle.
Price point:
I picked it up for just under $10. An internet search found this wine for anywhere from $7.45 to $11.99.
My take:
A while back, I picked a bunch of random wines that I’d never had with the intention of reviewing them. This was one of those wines. Admittedly, we’ve probably had it 3 or 4 times before actually writing this review, so obviously it’s one we like.
This one quite literally has a nose of cherry vanilla with a hint of tobacco. Yes, I know, we said from the get-go that we weren’t going to talk about wines that way, but I can’t help it. That’s exactly what this wine brought to mind for me. Perhaps the wine made me want to wax poetic, to steal a term from Jonathan. In my color terms, I’d say it smells purple to dark red.
It tastes purple/dark red to slightly brown, but not too earthy. And it’s somewhat dry, but not overly so. It also has a relatively long finish, which is a bit surprising at this price point. I find the wine to be very well balanced.
This wine is definitely not one note; perhaps two or three? It has a couple of layers. The dark red cherry gets you up front and then it mellows to the purple followed by just a hint of spice. In an ideal world, I wish it were a bit more complex to match the length of the finish. But again, at this price point, I’m not arguing the point of complexity. In my oh so humble opinion, this is a very nice wine for under $10. It’s more like getting a $15 bottle for less than $10.
2008 Tormaresca NePriCa
Region: Puglia, Italy
Variety: 40% Negroamaro, 30% Primitivo, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon
Aging: Stainless steel tanks and in bottle.
Price point:
I picked it up for just under $10. An internet search found this wine for anywhere from $7.45 to $11.99.
My take:
A while back, I picked a bunch of random wines that I’d never had with the intention of reviewing them. This was one of those wines. Admittedly, we’ve probably had it 3 or 4 times before actually writing this review, so obviously it’s one we like.
This one quite literally has a nose of cherry vanilla with a hint of tobacco. Yes, I know, we said from the get-go that we weren’t going to talk about wines that way, but I can’t help it. That’s exactly what this wine brought to mind for me. Perhaps the wine made me want to wax poetic, to steal a term from Jonathan. In my color terms, I’d say it smells purple to dark red.
It tastes purple/dark red to slightly brown, but not too earthy. And it’s somewhat dry, but not overly so. It also has a relatively long finish, which is a bit surprising at this price point. I find the wine to be very well balanced.
This wine is definitely not one note; perhaps two or three? It has a couple of layers. The dark red cherry gets you up front and then it mellows to the purple followed by just a hint of spice. In an ideal world, I wish it were a bit more complex to match the length of the finish. But again, at this price point, I’m not arguing the point of complexity. In my oh so humble opinion, this is a very nice wine for under $10. It’s more like getting a $15 bottle for less than $10.
2008 Tormaresca Neprica
It’s high time we reviewed this wine. Kerri picked this one up on a lark and the first time we had it, I felt more like drinking and less like reviewing, so it was consumed sans documentation. Since we found it interesting and wanted to review it Kerri bought us another bottle.
I drank that one when she wasn’t looking. (This may have happened twice, I lose track sometimes.. but hey…who’s counting) So another bottle(s) was procured to provide the source material for this missive.
While the name is a bit kitschy for my liking, with Neprica being an amalgamation of the grapes in the wine (Negroamaro, Primitivo, Cabernet) it immediately meets one of my criteria for wines I want to drink; exotica grapes. While I suppose grapes are not exactly exotic in nature, there are varietals that you don’t tend to see every day. I find these days that I love to explore wines that are not primarily Cabs, Merlots, Pinot Noirs etc.. Given that, here we have a solid candidate with old world grapes chock full of Italian blended mystery.
Ever since running into one at Proof in D.C. I have been a sucker for a Negroamaro. There is something mysterious in the name itself, that, for me, seems to be passed down into the wine. You don’t see them every day, but in poking around in stores with a decent Italian wine selection you are sure to find them. The Negroamaro is native to southern Italy, and as such, is one more reason I need to go there.
In describing the wine, I am going to skip the usual aromatic metaphors, as I believe there are professionals out there paid to do just such a thing, and go with a visual instead. This wine, is like red satin sheets on a waterbed in a candle lit room. Think about that for a bit. I’d go into more detail, but honestly, at that point, I’d just be adding unnecessary words to a beautifully crafted image, one that is wholly sufficient to describe my impressions of this wine.
I’m a huge fan of this wine, and at under $10 there is no reason you shouldn’t have a bottle or four in your wine fridge, rack, cabinet, cupboard, sock drawer, or where ever else it is that you store your wines.
I drank that one when she wasn’t looking. (This may have happened twice, I lose track sometimes.. but hey…who’s counting) So another bottle(s) was procured to provide the source material for this missive.
While the name is a bit kitschy for my liking, with Neprica being an amalgamation of the grapes in the wine (Negroamaro, Primitivo, Cabernet) it immediately meets one of my criteria for wines I want to drink; exotica grapes. While I suppose grapes are not exactly exotic in nature, there are varietals that you don’t tend to see every day. I find these days that I love to explore wines that are not primarily Cabs, Merlots, Pinot Noirs etc.. Given that, here we have a solid candidate with old world grapes chock full of Italian blended mystery.
Ever since running into one at Proof in D.C. I have been a sucker for a Negroamaro. There is something mysterious in the name itself, that, for me, seems to be passed down into the wine. You don’t see them every day, but in poking around in stores with a decent Italian wine selection you are sure to find them. The Negroamaro is native to southern Italy, and as such, is one more reason I need to go there.
In describing the wine, I am going to skip the usual aromatic metaphors, as I believe there are professionals out there paid to do just such a thing, and go with a visual instead. This wine, is like red satin sheets on a waterbed in a candle lit room. Think about that for a bit. I’d go into more detail, but honestly, at that point, I’d just be adding unnecessary words to a beautifully crafted image, one that is wholly sufficient to describe my impressions of this wine.
I’m a huge fan of this wine, and at under $10 there is no reason you shouldn’t have a bottle or four in your wine fridge, rack, cabinet, cupboard, sock drawer, or where ever else it is that you store your wines.
Sunday, December 20, 2009
2004 The Blend of Poggiotondo
Well, as you may have heard, the eastern seaboard of the US got hit with a pretty big snow storm this weekend. And while most people were at the grocery store on Friday night picking up bread, milk, eggs, and toilet paper – you know, because you never know if you might be snowed in for a day and your family of say 12 is going to eat up all of the bread and eggs, drink all the milk, and use up all of the toilet paper in the known universe in those 24 hours (oh no! we might starve and be forced to drink water, eat ketchup, and use paper in the bathroom) – I had my priorities in order and stopped at the liquor store to get gin and wine!
I know that some folks drink wine every day and as such, purchasing wines that are around the $15 price point can be a bit spendy, so I sought out a wine around the $10 mark to review. That’s how we ended up with this....
The facts:
2004 The Blend of Poggiotondo
Region: Tuscany, Italy
Variety: 40% Sangiovese, 30% Merlot, 30% Syrah
This is where I’d normally provide a photograph of the wine. In this particular case, I’m going to refrain from that practice lest you see this wine in a store, recall the photograph from our blog, and purchase it because you can’t recall what we said about it, but you know you’ve seen it before. Read on and you’ll see why.
My take:
When you first pour the wine into your glass, it smells purple, with the slightest bit of chalky pink candy. Seriously. Not necessarily a bad thing. But, it quickly turns to something strange – I’d say gray becomes the predominant color. And it tastes exactly the same way. It’s purple, gray, and chalky. When Jonathan and I were talking about the wine, trying to figure out what it was all about, I specifically said, “it tastes like gravel and ash in a liquid mouthful.”
Yeah, not a fan. And I say this knowing full well that I do not like a gray wine. However, I know what a good gray wine tastes like – there is a gray characteristic to a lot of malbecs that Jonathan likes that I simply don’t care for. This is not that same gray. This is a bad gray, at least in my oh so humble opinion.
Other qualities, just in case you want more info – it’s dry, medium bodied, a little spicy, and there’s still some purple (somewhere between grape and currant) in there, despite the ashy flavor.
This is not one I’ll be buying again. In fact, I’m not even going to drink a full glass.
Price point: We bought locally for $10.99, but an internet search revealed bottles for as little as $8.27.
I know that some folks drink wine every day and as such, purchasing wines that are around the $15 price point can be a bit spendy, so I sought out a wine around the $10 mark to review. That’s how we ended up with this....
The facts:
2004 The Blend of Poggiotondo
Region: Tuscany, Italy
Variety: 40% Sangiovese, 30% Merlot, 30% Syrah
This is where I’d normally provide a photograph of the wine. In this particular case, I’m going to refrain from that practice lest you see this wine in a store, recall the photograph from our blog, and purchase it because you can’t recall what we said about it, but you know you’ve seen it before. Read on and you’ll see why.
My take:
When you first pour the wine into your glass, it smells purple, with the slightest bit of chalky pink candy. Seriously. Not necessarily a bad thing. But, it quickly turns to something strange – I’d say gray becomes the predominant color. And it tastes exactly the same way. It’s purple, gray, and chalky. When Jonathan and I were talking about the wine, trying to figure out what it was all about, I specifically said, “it tastes like gravel and ash in a liquid mouthful.”
Yeah, not a fan. And I say this knowing full well that I do not like a gray wine. However, I know what a good gray wine tastes like – there is a gray characteristic to a lot of malbecs that Jonathan likes that I simply don’t care for. This is not that same gray. This is a bad gray, at least in my oh so humble opinion.
Other qualities, just in case you want more info – it’s dry, medium bodied, a little spicy, and there’s still some purple (somewhere between grape and currant) in there, despite the ashy flavor.
This is not one I’ll be buying again. In fact, I’m not even going to drink a full glass.
Price point: We bought locally for $10.99, but an internet search revealed bottles for as little as $8.27.
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