Winemaker Notes
A good pairing would be game birds like quail, pheasant, goose or duck, as well as roast chicken with garlic and dried herbs or roast pork tenderloin. Veal, pork or beef sausage prepared with savory herbs would also be a very good match.
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2011 Pinyolet Seleccion (80% Grenache and 20% Carignan) comes from some of the appellation’s oldest vines (planted between 1928 and 1945). It was aged eight months in used French oak. The result is a spicy, earthy red displaying peppery black currant and black cherry fruit, crushed rock/chalky notes, and good minerality, precision, uplift and vibrancy. Medium to full-bodied, but more restrained and elegant than its sibling, it, too, can be enjoyed over the next 2-3 years.
Spanish red wine is known for being bold, heady, rustic and age-worthy, Spain is truly a one-of-a-kind wine-producing nation. A great majority of the country is hot, arid and drought-ridden, and since irrigation has only been recently introduced and (controversially) accepted, viticulture has sustained—and flourished—only through a great understanding of Spain’s particular conditions. Large spacing between vines allows each enough resources to survive and as a result, the country has the most acreage under vine compared to any other country, but is usually third in production.
Of the Spanish red wines, the most planted and respected grape variety is Tempranillo, the star of Spain’s Rioja and Ribera del Duero regions. Priorat specializes in bold red blends, Jumilla has gained global recognition for its single varietal Monastrell and Utiel-Requena has garnered recent attention for its reds made of Bobal.