It’s a better red wine for dinner perhaps than for just sipping. Letting this wine breath 20 minutes before imbibing will help, but may not totally overcome all its issues.

This wine is a clear, bright, deep, violet-purple color, with mild structure to the it. There are strong definite blackberry and cherry notes that follow through onto your palette. It’s a dry wine but not to the point of excess and there’s enough acidity here to cut through most foods making it a better dinner wine than a sipping wine perhaps. The balance is good, the finish very crisp and the tannins dry to puckering. And letting the bottle breath at least 20 minutes seems to really help.

This does not go well with roasted chicken, mild cheese, or light crackers. Try this with a hearty venison or beef stew; add dark crusty bread and some strong blue cheese and you might have nirvana for this extremely robust and intricate red table wine. Good for a night with the boys who aren’t total drunkards or with a mature forest Dryad who likes complexity.

– Silenus

Look for Silenus' new book "Food, Wine & the Gods" available in the spring of 2008.

Grade: C+ Price: $12

Castano Solanera
2004
Red Wine (65% Monastrell; 20% Cabernet Sauvignon; 15% Tintorena)
Spain
Alcohol: 14.5% by Volume
www.europeancellars.com
Closure: Cork
Wine Spectator says: 92 points.