Tuesday, February 06, 2007

A New Low

Came across an interesting one. Called Monastrell IX. No brand. Just a Spanish grape, Monastrell (Mourvèdre in France, Mataro in New World) with one selling point: it's 15 percent alcohol by volume. What tragedy is this?

Wine is a socio-economic beverage. The one alcoholic drink linked to the most miracles, thank you very much. To sell based solely on the fuzzy factor, seems just plain wrong. And it's not cheap, 5 pounds at the Co-Op. Certainly it would be awful, but some fool has to blog it, doesn't he?

Monastrell is a popular grape in Spain, with limited success in the rest of the world, outside of France. The thick skin and sludgy juice make it too grapey for most winemakers. And too provincial and tannic. The IX had this, plus a heavy helping of dark, dank, thick dirt. Half of Spain seemed to gloop out that bottle.

Telling you, that wine was so bad, and it took forever to finish. Every last drop.

Also had two great Montepulciano d'Abruzzos. Thinking about doing a few reviews on these wines. Who likes Italian?

2 comments:

Duncan Webster said...

Jacob, I am looking forward to hearing a review of the Italian wines!

Anonymous said...

Yes, tell us about Italy!