Normally, a Wine Advocate 90 rating sends me scurrying away like a cockroach into the shadows of a KFC. But somehow, the guy at the LA Wine Company sold me on this one (I will try lots of things once...I don't know if that makes me gullible or not). At 9$ (most other places I looked it was more like 15$), it isn't that expensive. I was willing to give it a try based on some of the other wines he had directed me to before this one. Although I haven't been there frequently, after talking with him for a bit, it seemed clear to me that he had a similar palate to mine and wasn't wooed by the point game at the expense of all else. I'm glad that I got a bottle of this--it's an excellent value for 9$. And I'm just going to say it--I thought it was really fucking good, despite the fact that I was expecting to want to spit it out and pour the remainder down the drain. To put it mildly, I was half expecting an "oak-shake..." and was really excited when I got an awesome 9$ wine. This wine is drinking way above 9$. It's interesting enough that I think it would be a decent value at twice the price.
The winery, Senoria de Barahonda, has been around since 1925. They focus mainly on Monastrell (Mouvedre). The winery is in Yecla, which is roughly in the Eastern part of Spain and butts up against Jumilla and Alicante. The main grape grown in Yecla is Monastrell. This is an interesting wine, in that it combines 50% Monastrell (otherwise known as Mouvedre) and 50% Syrah--definitely a unique combination. You can definitely smell the Monastrell in this wine--lots of spiciness. You can also definitely smell the Syrah--lots of big, ripe blackberries, that thankfully, don't stray into raisin territory. There are also some plums, a little pepper, a little bit of greenness and licorice on the nose. Slight creaminess at first (definitely diminishes as the wine opens, as does the slight "milk chocolate" flavors), with licorice up front, leading into well-balanced, perfectly ripe (ie not raisined or pruney) and sweet blackberries/black raspberries, before a spicy, earthy finish. I wasn't expecting to like this, but for 9$ this is definitely over-delivering. Too bad that all of the 90 point Wine Advocate wines aren't this good. If they were, you could buy them with impunity! A
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