Tapas time out - La Casona, Friday night, and a less than $10 price tag

ROCK ON - it's Friday night.

I arrived home and was met with plans for a night of Tapas - Serrano ham, chirozo sausage, a smoked roasted red pepper sausage on the Big Green Egg, with a selection of cheeses, fresh baguette and salad as a side. If I haven't mentioned it lately, I have a great husband. I had to do nothing.

So. Perfect, unplanned evening fare to go perfectly with our final wine in the Top 10 under $10 series from the LCBO; La Casona Monsatrell 2007 from Yecla, Spain.


So, admittedly, after a VERY long week at work, I opened this wine with breakneck speed and, giving it a perfunctory sniff, dove right in. Yes, I got some cassis on the nose, and deep cherry and all that stuff, but for all that, it was just good, rounded, plump and juicy wine. WINE. oh, yeah....wiiiiiine.

This one has some nice tannins, and nice finish. This is a GREAT value for $8.95. If it was a blind tasting, I probably would have been able to peg it as Spanish...it just has that slightly gritty, earthy, round and yet fruity characteristics. Would I have been able to pick out that it was the monastrell grape on not a tempranillo? No...

Hey. Sorry. A little break. Just saw that Toronto is eating what Washington is dishing and it tastes like 1-6... ha!

So yes. Great value wine. of the 5 wines I have tried, it's number 3 on the list, I think.

So here's my ranking folks, after all that:

#1 is the Portugese Pedras do Monte Castelao 2007
#2 is the The Castillo de Monseran Garnacha Spainish treat (so unique)
#3 is tonight's La Casona 2007 from Yecla Spain - it's as good as any $15 I have tried
#4 has to be the Mezzomondo staple from Italy that I have been drinking for a while when looking for a bargain deal.
And last on the list was the Italian Casal Thaulero - not bad at all, but it was the only one on the list that had that slightly sulphery 'cheapy' kind of layer to the tongue. I have no idea how else to describe that 'element', but it is something I can both smell and taste. Maybe something that happens with the sulphites in cheaper wines? Not sure.

Okay folks. Now you have the scoop, or at least my interpretation of the wines I most wanted to try from that list. It was fun to do, and I hope you all don't go out and buy up all the damn Pedras bottles, 'cause I want them, dammnit!

And...the Caps "steamrolled" the Leafs tonight. Happy Friday everyone!