90 POINTS FROM WINE SPECTATOR AND WORTH MORE

One of the things I love about Spain is that you can pluck wines like this straight off the supermarket shelves. Six years old and quite possibly drinking at its peak without us having to worry about any cellaring. It's a mere 4 euro and an extreme bargain.
Medium weight with plenty of serious complex flavour from the bottle ageing. 



SENORIO de la ANTIGUA 2012 MENCIA
GRAPE VARIETIES: Mencia
REGION: Leon, Spain
A/V: 13.5% 
PRICE: 3.99 euro 
FROM: Aldi, Spain
        RATING: 5/5 from me 

A MINI EL CHEAPO MERCADONA TASTING

When you see them aligned on a supermarket shelf it's impossible to resist grabbing two wines from the same maker, five years apart in vintage and a mere 3.2 euro. For both of them. What could possibly go wrong?
As it turned out: nothing. These are two intriguing little wines from La Mancha. I assume the grape is tempranillo but unsure. But I am sure these are two little bargains if what's on offer is to your taste

FIDENCIO 2012 RESERVA A/V: 13% , 1.99 euro from Mercadona. Quite charming in an earthy feral way. A little brown round the edges but still sound and will appeal as a quaffing aged red. Well worth a try but needs to be drunk now. 4/5 rating

FIDENCIO 2017 TINTO A/V 12.5%, 1.20 euro from Mercadona. Absolutely no wood but the fruit and acid is in perfect balance. The tannins also kick in once the wine has had a chance to breathe. We tasted it over 3 days and it started well and finished even better. If I lived in Spain I'd be buying a few dozen. 5/5 rating

OUTSTANDING WINE TASTING NUMBER ONE

Chateau Bellevue Medoc : Vintages 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015
October 8, 9 and 10 - 2017

The starting point for understanding wine is drinking the stuff. We in the wine biz used to say "we had a look at that wine" or "have you seen it?".It meant have you tasted it? And that's just like drinking although you may spit. 

I can't see the point of spitting if you've only got four wines and you're planning to taste them over three days. This tasting was inspired by the opportunity to buy four sequential vintages of the same label. We wanted to see the extent of vintage variation and how the wines evolved once the cork was pulled.

The vintage variation was HUGE!

2012 was the strongest performer on Day 1. A little bit all over the place but a big opulent wine offered plenty of optimism for Day 2. Sadly it had fallen over by then and never got back up. If you have some, drink now

2013 was by far the lightest bodied and the biggest surprise. It evolved each day in a positive subtle way. Medium cellaring should be fine.

2014 was oak dominated and didn't show anything but oak for the life of the tasting.

2015 not surprisingly opened as a young wine and evolved really well each day into the best of the line up. Enjoy it over the next three years.

The wines were all around the 9.5 euro mark. I wouldn't jump up and down about any of them but for under 40 euro this was a priceless tasting experience.

Vinaceous 2012 "Raconteur" Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon

PUTTING THE FUN BACK INTO WINE
The best find from the first Trade Show of 2015 were eight beauties from WA's VINACEOUS WINES. I've seen them around, not tasted them and dismissed them as yet another concept label designed to justify high prices and stand out on the shelves.
Having tasted them I now see them as outstanding wines and I LOVE the labels.
Check out their website and you'll see what I mean about putting the fun back into wine.
http://www.vinaceous.com.au/

And if you're going to have a cabernet in your range it makes sense if it also comes from Margaret River. It's a bargain with all you'd expect from a $30+ MR offering.



Our Price: $20 per bottle by the dozen

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