Ye Olde and the New

Quite the contrast in wines, these two. I expected the Palha-Canas, Estremadura, Casa Santos Lima, 2004 to be nothing more than an average Portuguese monday quaffing wine, but boy was I wrong. This is a full bodied serious wine, tannic but balanced and quite tasty. Very old world style and much better than some of the "newer" style wines coming out of Portugal. I give it a definite thumbs up, a GOOD wine and an excellent value at $11. Buy it by the case at that price.
The Yalumba, Bush Vine Grenache, Barossa, 2004 is a very different wine. It received rave reviews so I expected a lot. Unfortunately, I was a little disappointed as the wine was not the concentrated, thick, rich fruit bomb I had hoped for. It is called "bush vine" because it is harvested from gnarly old free-standing grenache grapevines with a short trunk and only a few grape bunches - they actually look like bushes. This kind of grapevine is "low yielding" and expected to produce concentrated must (the mix of grape juice, skins, stems, etc that comes from the crusher)...hence I expected a thick rich wine. Now, don't get me wrong, this is not a bad wine, it just isn't that good. It has the requisite berry nose, is medium bodied (almost light on the tongue), with bright but not lasting fruit and a short finish. Not very tannic or complex, just new style in your face fruitiness. All you beaujolais lovers out there, this is right up your alley (like a beaujolais on steroids). I'd really like to give this one a "good", but just can't bring myself to upgrade it from "OK". Oh - for value - forget it, it is a rip off at $20. If it cost 8 or 9 bucks, I'd buy this one to drink on a monday....

Cheers!