Price: $6.77 at Total Wine

Style: The “Tom”

Rating: “Good”

Recommendation: “Grab a few bottles”

Review:

A really great deal at the $6.77 price at TotalWine.  This wine is nicely balanced, smooth, and gives just a little more flavor complexity than the basic red blend. None of the unbalanced alcohol, metallic taste, or lack of acidity that you so often run into at this price. The nose is medium carrying dark fruits and some light spices. The palate is a tab thin, but provides subtle dark fruits, sweet tobacco, and black pepper. It finishes longer than average and leaves you wanting more. It’s not great enough to justify a case but, at this price, I think it’s definitely worth grabbing a few bottles.

More info:

http://www.alamoswines.com/ 

Per the winery website…

“The Catena family began to make Alamos in 1993 as a second label to Catena. Alamos is sourced from some of the Catena family’s younger vineyards in the best areas of Mendoza’s high altitude wine country. Yields are kept low and all our vineyards are hand harvested. Our goal is to be true to our “house” style of rich and concentrated wines that have distinct varietal character.

Grapes for Alamos wines are sourced from high altitude, mountain vineyard sites at elevations of 3,000 – 5,000. Half of the grapes come from young vines in the Catena family estate vineyards and half are purchased from growers who are closely managed by Alamos vineyard managers.”