Sips: a winning Spanish blend

Let’s start off the week with a very good, widely available red wine for everyday drinking and beyond. As I’ve written many times before, wines with catchy names help establish brand identity but are sometimes more memorable for their names than what’s inside the bottle. A Spanish offering called Red Guitar is distinctive on both counts and outperforms expectations.  This 2008 Navarra made from old vines is an appealing blend of tempranillo (52 percent) and garnacha (48 percent), Spain’s two most important red varieties. Tastes include spicy raspberry and dark chocolate with a firm tannic grip. With nice complexity, it will match well with all kinds of foods, from burgers and steaks to pizza to Spanish tapas. At about $13 or less, it’s a top value from the up-and-coming Navarra region, which borders Rioja in northern Spain. Imported by  International Cellars, Gonzales, California. (Received as a press sample.)

del.icio.us Tags: Navarra,Spanish reds,Edward Deitch,Red Guitar,Under-$20 wines,Tempranillo,Garnacha,Spanish blends