2005 Luzon

[Drew]

Jumilla Spain. Monsatrell.
Even better than the '04. Wonderfully concentrated and a bit rustic showing blackberry and dark fruit, red berry, bittersweet chocolate, truffle and a hint of licorice. Plenty of fine grained tannins on the midpalate and finish should help in short term cellering. For my $ this is the best Luzon so far. 14.5% Alc/vol. $7.99

Drew

[dananne]

This is good news. Thanks for the notes.

[Thomas]

14.5%? That seems excessive.

[Drew]

That's the one thing that drives me CRAZY about most wines, Foodie. The continuing increasing levels of alcohol. It seems that wines destined for the American market have higher alcohol levels. Europeans consume as much alcohol, I assume, what's driving this market?

Drew

[brappy]

Foodie, I've had this wine on two seperate occasions. The wine is very well balanced. I'd almost say graceful. Maybe others that have tried this can chime in, but I did NOT get any unbalanced high Alcohol in the nose or palate of this wine. Definately not hot at all.....

The price of this wine makes this a great qpr.

mark

[Thomas]

Well, a quick look-up tells me the wine generally is high in alcohol, but I have always equated that with 13 to 14%--tops.

Not having tasted this one, I suppose if it didn't bother Drew, and Mark thinks it's balanced, they must have gotten away with the alcohol, which of course could be as low as 13%--won't even think in the other direction...

I'm sipping a Vinho Verde (9% alc) here in hot, humid, NY State--can't imagine any more alcohol than that today.