spain Archives : Me, Annie Bee.

Weekly Winedown #29 Altozano Tempranillo Syrah

Anna — Fri, 05 Jan 2018 20:25:51 +0000

Welcome to the Weekly Winedown. Each week I selflessly drink wine for you and offer a review. Please don’t expect anything professional, I consume a lot of wine but I’m no pro. The only real ‘rule’ I’m putting in place is that the wine is to be under £8 a bottle. #keepitclassy. Happy New Year! Reader, it’s been three weeks since my last winedown, I have sinned. To be fair, I declared back then that I needed a break so I took a bit of a step back from blogging over Christmas. Not QUITE the break I had hoped for, but one less thing to fret about was liberating. Now order is restored and I am back to grace your eyes with my thoughts. And wine. This week I have a Spanish red. I am quickly running out of reds to try from Ocado. Altozano Tempranillo Syrah is currently on offer at £6.74. £6.74, what a random price. It is what it is though. The Label A Neutral colour with red and black text. Very simple and unoffensive, nothing to shout about though. I originally thought they little picture on it was an acorn. Further inspection leads me to believe it might be a helmet or something? No idea. The Blurb The top bit of the blurb was written in Spanish. “Oh how exciting” I thought. Then I Google translated it and I realised it said exactly the same underneath in English. I can’t help but think it’s showing off with it’s bilingual skills. “Juicy red cherries, ripe plums and warm spices burst from this delicious blend of Tempranillo and Syrah with subtle hints of oak from cask ageing. You can enjoy this smooth and fruity wine on its own or as the perfect match to succulent roast meats and rich pasta sauces.” It sounds more interesting in Spanish to be fair. Though plums, spices and a hint of oak sound like a jolly good blend to me. I always find it interesting when they ‘match’ wine with a food. Especially when it’s as vague as ‘roast meats’. Roast chicken tastes entirely different to roast beef. I should imagine that roast venison taste different to those. Does the wine maker truly believe this wine will go with all those equally or are they hedging their bets? This really is a pointless discussion for me to be having as I don’t have one roast meat, never mind a variety to test out this claim. Anyway. Onwards! Hmmmmm. The nose (oh yes) is very plummy with a hint of cloves. Not a bad start! The taste. Well. It’s very tart, like unripened plums with an aftertaste of pepper. I wouldn’t say it was vile but it’s not entirely pleasant. As a frugal Yorkshire woman, I’m going to finish the bottle but I won’t be buying this again. Name – Altozano Tempranillo Syrah. Price – £6.79 Colour – Beautiful – like a blood red. Smell – Plums and cloves. Taste – Tart and peppery Goes well with – Dinner parties with those you want to leave early. Overall score – 1.5/5

The post Weekly Winedown #29 Altozano Tempranillo Syrah appeared first on Me, Annie Bee..

Weekly Winedown #27 Carta Roja Crianza

Anna — Fri, 01 Dec 2017 20:31:22 +0000

Welcome to the Weekly Winedown. Each week I selflessly drink wine for you and offer a review. Please don’t expect anything professional, I consume a lot of wine but I’m no pro. The only real ‘rule’ I’m putting in place is that the wine is to be under £8 a bottle. #keepitclassy. It’s happened. It’s finally happened, it’s been a long time coming but by heck it was worth the wait. December is here! The children were really giddy when they woke up as Advent had begun. I asked Aoife why Advent was important, she mumbled something about family, her birthday and chocolate. Priorities. Still, I’m glad family topped the list – just. I have finally caught up with myself, it snowed yesterday and I made about 100 biscuits on Wednesday so I am definitely in a festive mood. Life is feeling very cheery at the minute.. This festive spirit clearly made me leave my senses elsewhere when ordering my wine this week. Let us say Hola to Carte Roja Crianza, a Spanish beauty(?) currently half price at £4.99. The Label Red and gold. I guess it’s aiming for a plush and posh kind of vibe. Like a throne or something equally as regal. It’s a nice colour scheme to be fair but the paper feels a bit cheap. The label is nothing to write home about. I’m down on this one already aren’t I? The Blurb Carta Roja is made traditionally from Monastrell and Syrah grapes which produce rich and intense wines, it is full-bodied with red fruit aromas and intense flavours of ripe plum and vanilla. Aged in American oak barrels, this wine has soft, smooth tannins. It makes a fantastic partner for game and lamb dishes and also hard cheeses. Plums, vanilla and intensity. Well, that sounds nice doesn’t it? Maybe I have been a little hasty… The only thing I would maybe like bit of spice as well. I guess I can’t have it all! Also, a great partner for game? I am currently reviewing Don’t be a Donkey. Should be perfect! The Verdict Meh. The red berries are tart, there is a smooth peppery finish which isn’t entirely unpleasant. Plum and vanilla have completely passed me by. From the promises it makes and the tastes it has I would hope for something ‘bigger’. It is a very thin wine. Had I paid full price of £9.99 for this I’d be kicking myself. For a £5 wine it’s ‘OK’ though. Just OK. You can get a lot better for a fiver. Don’t rush and get it for Christmas! Name – Carta Roja Cianza Price – £4.99 (should be £9.99) Colour – Insipid red. Smell – Muted. Taste – Bitter with a peppery finish. Goes well with – Come back to me on that Overall score – 2.5/5 Painfully average.

The post Weekly Winedown #27 Carta Roja Crianza appeared first on Me, Annie Bee..

Weekly Winedown #9 Vinas del Vero Crianza.

Anna — Fri, 16 Jun 2017 19:59:52 +0000

Welcome to the Weekly Winedown. Each week I selflessly drink wine for you offer a review. Please don’t expect anything professional, I consume a lot of wine but I’m no pro. The only real ‘rule’ I’m putting in place is that the wine is to be under £8 a bottle. #keepitclassy. Given the roaring success of Australia and New Zealand, this week I once again opted for a wine from a country I’m not usually impressed with. Spain, it’s your turn to impress me and you’ve got a LOT to live up to! To be fair, I’ve only really tried Rioja from Spain (and sangria but that’s not REALLY wine is it? It’s more like 20:20, (those who get that cultural reference will be showing their age)) I rather dislike Rioja and so have since ruled out an entire country of wine based on that. I am willing, and hoping, to be proven wrong with my sweeping generalisation! We’re onto week 9 and this week I will be chugging delicately sipping Vinas del Vero Crianza currently on offer at £5.99 but generally around the £9 mark. The label is pretty, looking out over vineyards and olive(?) trees on a starry night, with a cat. Who doesn’t love a cat on a bottle of wine? Who doesn’t love starry nights in warm climates? It’s not a quirky label but it’s an image I’m buying into! Let’s take a look at the blurb… “Tempranillo, Cabernet Sauvignon, Garnacha & Syrah – Red Spanish Wine… Made from grapes harvested from our own vineyards, the wine is aged for of 8 months in American oak barrels, followed by a further 18 months in bottle before being released. Deep cherry red in colour, with distinctive aromas of ripe berry fruits with hints of toast and vanilla and sweet oak spice. The palate is full and long, with mature fruit flavours and hints of violets.” I have mixed feelings about this wine, on the one hand they look like they’re covering their backs with the list of grapes they use, ‘we just use all the grapes’. On the other hand it takes them AGES to make it so maybe there’s something special in that….But if it takes 26 months to make is 2012 the year it was started or the year it was complete? With aromas of “berry fruits…toast…vanilla and sweet oak spice” I confess to having no idea what to expect it to smell like. Ice cream on toast with strawberry sauce and a tree??? Why would a wine have a hint of toast smell when bread isn’t used to make it? Or does toast mean something entirely different in Spanish? It’s a complex description. To counteract the VERY specific description of the smell, the description of the taste couldn’t be more vague. Essentially they’re saying it tastes of old fruit and flowers. Is it going to smell better than it tastes? Let’s find out! It’s the first cork I’ve had to contend with in a while, it was tricky.. It was a glorious red, red like Christmas trimmings. This was pretty much the highlight. I could definitely smell the vanilla undertones (said like a pro) and the spicy. I still have no idea where the toast smell was meant to kick in. It didn’t. It smelt a bit preserve-y. It doesn’t taste of old fruit and flowers. I’ll be honest, I don’t know what a violet tastes like but I don’t think it was in that palate! It was a bit bitter, it sucked all the moisture from my mouth. It was maybe a little sweet for my liking but not entirely awful. I won’t be rushing to buy it again, I’d probably buy it as a gift for a friend. You know, that crap friend we all have. Name – Vinas del Vero Crianza Price – £5.99 Colour – Christmas red. Smell – Sweet vanilla, no toast. Taste – Bitter berries. Goes well with – Life when it’s the only red you have in. Overall score – a terribly average 3/5.

The post Weekly Winedown #9 Vinas del Vero Crianza. appeared first on Me, Annie Bee..