Days that end in “y” are red wine days, and today I am pouring Garnacha. I snagged this bottle for $10 or $15 at Salado Wine Seller, the best little wine shop you’re likely to find while driving between Dallas and Austin.
This evening’s wine is from Calatayud, in southwest Aragón: The Peña Garnacha. I recall (from a Duolingo lesson) that pena means “shame” in Spanish and briefly wonder what this Garnacha has to be ashamed about.
No dummy, it’s peña. Peña, it turns out, means “club” or “crew.” So, the wine is called, in English, “Garnacha Club” and refers to a street festival where people dress up and celebrate Calatayud’s most important wine grape, Garnacha Tinta.
In this region of Spain, Garnacha Tinta is king. 92% of plantings are of black grapes and Garnacha is the most important of those. Old bush vines–many over 50 years old and sparsely planted–sprawl over its rugged hills. Catalayud has a motley collection of soils and a notably arid climate, which contribute to the expressiveness and concentration of its DO wines.
If I ever visit Calatayud, I hope I can be an honorary member of the Garnacha club because it is one of my favorite grapes. I love how it’s spicy and savory without ever being short on luscious fruit. I’m not ruffled by high alcohol. And (perhaps most importantly) I appreciate how Grenache/Garnacha-based wines can be found at great prices and enjoyed right away.
This wine looks and smells great right out of the bottle. It’s a medium-ruby, medium-bodied wine–red-fruit dominant with a handful of mulling spices and vanilla. Cherry, red plum, crushed sage. The first sips declare Peña Garnacha as a fruit-forward dry red with some appetizing meaty flavors.
Perhaps like a costumed Garnacha crew may tire when winding their way up ancient cobblestones, Peña Garnacha starts strong but afterwards loses a step. The punchy fruit aromas don’t carry themselves though to the palate, and the acidity isn’t high. There’s a thinness to the finish, some tea-leafy tannins that build with each sip, and a slightly ferrous aftertaste.
The winery behind this wine (although it doesn’t appear on the label) is El Escocés Volante (“The Flying Scotsman”). Specializing in Garnacha, this small family winery is the passion project of Scottish winemaker Norrel Robertson MW.
My value bottle, Peña Garnacha, appears to be a wine club bottling for WSJ, Laithwaites, Omaha Steaks, et al. So it assuredly doesn’t represent all the complexity and intensity that this grape and this winery can achieve.
Apart from powerful old-vine Garnacha, El Escocés Volante is known for punk-ish and often self-effacing wine names and labels. Past releases have included Mataquemada (“burnt bush”), Cismático (“schismatic”), El Puño (“the fist”) and Manda Huevos (regional vulgarity, loosely “bloody hell!”).
But my favorite El Escocés Volante wine name out of all of them is Es Lo Que Hay (“it is what it is”). That’s really a perfect motto for opening an inexpensive red to drink with dinner.
Peña Garnacha is one of those “it is what it is” type of red table wines. It’s also one of those wines that benefited from aerating for a while. (If you can hold off that long after smelling it!) After an hour, some of the harsher tannins softened, yielding to nutty, smooth carob flavor that complemented the juicy red fruit.
Anyway, decanting the wine gave me time to cook. I made a stovetop chili (grass-fed Texas beef simmered with smoked paprika and a cinnamon stick) and boiled some macaroni. The homey, earthy dish was ideally complemented by the bright and spicy flavors of this young Garnacha.
Further reading:
EU Garnacha & Grenache: Garnacha Calatayud: Regal Reds from Rugged Land
Catalayud DO: Official Website
Bottle: Peña Garnacha Calatayud (2023)
Variety: Garnacha Tinta
ABV: 14.5%
Suggested retail: $15.99
My rating: 7.8 (out of 10)
Review disclosure: I was not compensated or provided any free products for this review. Opinions expressed on The Wine Fairy blog are entirely my own.
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