WTN: 2005 Las Rocas de San Alejandro Garnacha Calatayud Viña

2005 Las Rocas de San Alejandro Garnacha Calatayud Viñas Viejas - Spain, Aragón, Calatayud (1/18/2009)

Decanted for ~1 hour.

Concentrated, full bodied and somewhat confected. Simple and uninteresting. Noticeable oak treatment. Ponderous and awkward on the palate. Probably is a great cocktail wine that would be a crowd pleaser, but not at all food friendly. Not a style that I enjoy. A couple of glasses left to try on day 2.

Next Day:

Much less confected but the tannins firmly in control now. Still not a wine I will seek out in the future.

Wm.

[David M. Bueker]

I've tried it in the past (when it was originally hyped), and had about the same reaction.

Same here.

Tried it when some folks first started raving about it. Vaguely remember somebody...Parker?...talking it up.

First time, just what you said, confected.

Second and third time, contrived, pumped up, overstretched, trying to make far too big a wine out of what it was. Which is easily doable with grenache.

For all its admirable traits, it's easy to overcrop grenache. Then it makes glossy, but empty wine. Like you said, confected.

So I stopped trying.

Same here.

Tried it when some folks first started raving about it. Vaguely remember somebody...Parker?...talking it up.

First time, just what you said, confected.

Second and third time, contrived, pumped up, overstretched, trying to make far too big a wine out of what it was. Which is easily doable with grenache.

For all its admirable traits, it's easy to overcrop grenache. Then it makes glossy, but empty wine. Like you said, confected.

So I stopped trying.

Same here too. Had one vintage on the Grill wine-list 2 yrs back and found bottle variation problems.

Same here.

Tried it when some folks first started raving about it. Vaguely remember somebody...Parker?...talking it up.

First time, just what you said, confected.

Second and third time, contrived, pumped up, overstretched, trying to make far too big a wine out of what it was. Which is easily doable with grenache.

For all its admirable traits, it's easy to overcrop grenache. Then it makes glossy, but empty wine. Like you said, confected.

So I stopped trying.

Bob,
Were/are there bottle variation with the V.V. version? I had heard issues with the regular bottling, but was under the impression, perhaps mistakenly, that the V.V. was not as viariable.
Thanks.
Bill

Same here too. Had one vintage on the Grill wine-list 2 yrs back and found bottle variation problems.

This wine is the top of my list of wines that I suspect Parker gets a "special" taste of when he's doing his notes. Either that or it has some element to it that he loves, because he always scores it very very high and I've tried a few vintages and get nothing from it at all. Cellartracker shows that few of it's tasters get much out of it either.

Count me as another non fan (of the regular or VV)

But for those that like it, it's the current wine on Winestilsoldout.com, $12.99 w/free shipping for 4.