Welcome back to my wine series! If you’ve been a long time follower of the blog then you know that I dabbled in wine reviews a couple years ago here and there but never really held on to the content consistently.
Well, I’m back with the series and you can thank my wine club for that 🙂 Around November of last year my company, Macy’s, partnered with Direct Wines Inc. to bring us Macy’s Wine Cellar. The wines are hand-selected by an expert team, who tastes thousands of wine variations from all around the world. They select the best in quality wine at a tremendous value. For the cost of buying wine weekly you can get better quality and a more curated assortment to your taste at a savings.
My wine club is about $180 per shipment and I have it shipped every three months. In the shipment I receive 12 bottles of wine that has been selected according to my taste profile and preference. The math works out to be about $15 a bottle. How many times have you gone to the store to buy a bottle of wine under $20? Wouldn’t it be so much better if you had a whole assortment ready for to choose from whenever you wanted it? I think the thing I love most about the wine club is that it completly takes away the need for me to go to liquor store or wine shop. Don’t get me wrong, I love a good wine shop as much as the next person, but unfortunately, in my neighborhood there aren’t any that are close by, which means I get my wine from a liquor store that likely is not curating their assortment to my needs (*whomp, whomp*) This wine club has been such a blessing and I absolutely love it.
It’s opened up my senses for new varietals of wine and increased my knowledge base. I figured why keep all this goodness to myself, sharing is caring, so here goes! My first review from this months shipment.
The Wine :El Bombero Garnacha, 2016
The Grape: Garnacha
The Region: Aragon region, Cariñena. Winemaking is tough here, but the region has a rich wine heritage and is home to some of Spain’s oldest vines.
The Food: By itself or paired with hearty stews or roasts.
Aroma: Enticing aromas of red berry, cinnamon spice, and black currant.
Taste: Luscious, juicy mouthfuls of sun-ripened blackberry, raspberry, and cherry, with a spicy, velvety finish.
Final Thoughts: I loved how smooth the wine was. Most bold red wines have harsh tannins.
According to vinepair.com, “What makes a wine have strong or weak tannins depends on how long the juice sits with the grape skins, seeds and stems after the grapes have been pressed. The longer the skins, seeds and stems soak in the juice, the more tannin characteristics they will impart. This explains why red wines have stronger tannins than white wines. When producing a red wine, the winemaker wants the skins to impart more color, thereby adding more tannins to the juice.”
This was a very easy drinking wine. It’s something you could pull out and not necessarily pair it with anything in particular. The alcohol percentage of this wine was really high at 15%! I think that might be the highest I’ve ever had. Good news is you actually couldn’t taste how strong it was so that made it really enjoyable. I would classify this as a good introductory bold red for those of you out there who might be interested in experiencing a more luscious juicy red.
Cheers!
I’ve never tried this wine before! And I’m a big fan of Spanish wines. I don’t know if I can handle 15 percent though. Things might get out of hand for me very quickly. I’m a true light weight!!
This wine club sounds great. I get so much free wine that I never thought to use a wine club, but I might have to check it out.
I highly suggest, Raimat and Anna de Cordeniu both from Spain. However, I highly suggest Artesa Pinot Noir, it’s from California but one of my favorites.
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Thanks, Terri! It’s interesting because I’ve noticed a lot of Spanish wines have a higher alcohol content, I’m not sure why! luckily, with this one I couldn’t really taste it all that much which is great. it would slice through any steak dinner lol thank you for your wine recommendations 🙂