2009 Armantes Old Vine Calatayud DO
Last Friday, it was almost weekend and I realized I didn’t have a single glass of wine all week. Frustrating. While a casserole was simmering in the oven I decided to open up this wine that we picked up at Plum Market a while back for $8 (marked down from $12).
The wine is produced by San Gregorio Sociedad Cooperativa Limitada, a cooperative in the Calatayud region of Spain. I had to check where that is because I am not very familiar with Spanish geography or wines. According to Wikipedia Calatayud is a city and and municipality located in the western part of the province Aragon, pretty much in the heart of the Iberian peninsula. Calatayud has its own denomination of origin (DO), see here. Unfortunately the website is only available in Spanish, and my Spanish is virtually non-existent. It seems like the area boasts 60 vintners and some cooperatives. In 2009, it produced 5.72 million bottles of wine and is supposed to be a “muy buena” year.
The winery’s website can be found here. The website states that DO Calatayud was established in 1989. The team at the winery is said to have an average age of 34 (exciting!) and is producing for the international market, whatever that means. It looks like this wine is their basic wine (it better be at that price), although they changed things up a bit from the website. This wine has, according to the bottle, 90% Garnacha and 10% Tempranillo and 14.5% ABV.
Armantes poured in a dark, ruby red. The nose is initially a bit sour and alcoholic. After 15 minutes in the glass that is reduced. Then it smells fresh, earthy, a bit of red fruit. On the palate it shows some smokiness, medium tannins and a nice touch of acidity. It’s light to medium bodied, feels silky at times and is actually enjoyable in the middle. The short finish, however, is rather harsh with bitter and unripe notes which are even too long for this short of a finish.
Not sure what to make of this. The finish definitely ruined the wine for me, although the initial stages of tasting were alright. Nothing special, definitely not fun. Not something I will likely pick up again.
the winegetter 