Barranc Dels Closos Negre 2006: Full-bodied red with Old World roots
You can't get much worth drinking for $20 a bottle on most Philadelphia restaurant wine lists. It's little wonder we're big on BYOs. But when the State Store is inside a BYOB, as it is in the Garces Trading Co., buying wine at retail prices feels like an even bigger bargain.
You can't get much worth drinking for $20 a bottle on most Philadelphia restaurant wine lists. It's little wonder we're big on BYOs. But when the State Store is inside a BYOB, as it is in the Garces Trading Co., buying wine at retail prices feels like an even bigger bargain.
This 2006 Barranc dels Closos Negre, for example, normally $50 or more on a restaurant list, was the best $21 mini-splurge I've had this month. Created by Mas Igneus, one of the newer wineries in the popular region of Priorat in Spain's northeast, this full-bodied red was a great example of a modern wine that still shows its Old World roots. Made primarily from garnacha, with some carineña, it exudes a spice box of exotic aromas on the nose - clove and cedar and herbs.
The first sip is lush and seductive, with drinkable deep-purple fruit, tiny ripe berries, and licorice. Then it sails along smooth tannins to reveal a much drier, earthy finish that I associate indelibly with Spain. It's amazingly smooth and polished for such a big wine (14 percent-plus alcohol), and the perfect accompaniment to the grilled meats (especially lamb), charcuterie, and chorizo-spiked rabbit paella featured on GTCo.'s menu.
- Craig LaBan
Mas Ignaeus Barranc Priorat (PLCB code: 5114), regularly $21.99 but $19.99 from July 26 through Aug. 22, is widely available in local PLCB stores, though vintages vary ('05 and '06).