5 | Wine | Grenache | Page 5

"Black raspberry and cherry aromas are lifted by a note of peppery spice. A touch jammy, but the lively red and dark berry flavors display good clarity. A refreshingly bitter note of licorice comes up on the finish, which clings with very good tenacity. This wine is ridiculously easy to drink."

"The 2005 Grenache Hickinbotham Vineyard adds a mineral note along with wood smoke, black raspberry and licorice flavors, as well as additional structure. Smooth-textured and sleek, it will evolve for 5-7 years and provide pleasure through 2025."

"A nose of toast, smoke, earth, black cherry and black raspberry. Full-bodied and very rich, this impeccably balanced wine conceals enough tannin to permit 8-10 years of evolution in bottle".

"Ruby-red. Intense, mineral-accented aromas of candied red berries, spicecake and rose, with a peppery note in the background. Juicy, penetrating and sweet, with seamless raspberry and cherry flavors lifted by tangy acidity. Finishes on a floral pastille note, with lingering sweetness and very good clarity."

"Plenty of spicy cherry fruit on the palate. Firmly structured".

"Spicy, deeply concentrated black raspberry and boysenberry on the nose, with seductive Asian spices, lavender and incense qualities emerging with air. Sappy red and dark berry preserve flavors are enlivened by juicy minerality and pick up exotic spice and floral notes on the back end".

"Inky purple-hued, it has a totally seductive perfume of slate, black cherry, black raspberry, and toasty new oak."

"The 2011 Garnacha de Fuego, a 100% Grenache cuvee, was aged in both stainless steel and neutral French oak. There are 10,000 cases for the United States. This amazing wine boasts a dark ruby/purple color along with a sweet kiss of jammy black cherries intertwined with crushed rock notes that give the wine an undeniable minerality. As it hits the palate, a full-bodied, voluptuous texture takes hold and the flavor profile moves towards blacker fruits (ripe raspberries and black currants) intermixed with camphor and forest floor. This full-bodied, rich, glycerin-filled effort should drink well for 4-5 years, perhaps longer." -Robert Parker