Spanish Red Wines Review

Gary Vaynerchuk retastes three different wines that were some of the most loved and controversial from Wine Library’s sister site, Cinderella Wine

Spanish Red Wines Review Hello everybody and welcome to Wine Library TV. I am your host Gary Vaynerchuk and this my friends is the thunder show AKA the internet, most passionate wine program and this is an episode that a lot of people have been waiting for, for a long, long, long time. Lots of chatter and an amazing community, kind of a constant community for this Wine Library TV over at CinderellaWine.com. Now, Cinderella Wine like the guilt group, group on, deal on a day one product. It has an amazing community over there, ‘John Arb and El Bob. You might see all those guys right, awesome stuff! He’s in every community. He’s just amazing now and he does amazing, a great guy. Anyway, so the genesis of this show is unlike most episodes, not most, 99.8% of the episodes where I've not had the wines before. This is an episode of wines I have had before. But what I’m excited about is I have them in the head of tasting a lot of things for CinderellaWine.com. So, these are controversial wines. This is probably the single most popular wine in Cinderella Wine history the Elias Mora that got tremendous press, no rating here from K Murph. K Murph missed the bond on this one. This is a very, very controversial somewhat wine, the Lirac Clos de Sixte from Alain Jaume and this is the single most controversial wine in the history of all time. These two do not have the ratings. This is a 95 Spectator, 91 Parker. And so this is like the most favorite wine of all time. This is the most insane debatable all time. People claim there is great food in it, you see that. I’ve seen some people this on it. But I mean this is like 80 dis 20 like. This is like 95 lag, five like. And this is like 90 like 10 dis. Okay so really popular but not more popular than this. I mean this is the whole reason for the show so okay let’s do it. So anyway, I am very excited. This is fun show, it’s already started off fun. I'm in a good mood. And so I love doing the show. I love you guys and let’s see what happens so just to give you a thought I love this wine. This wine was very interesting. I've notes from it from a million years ago. I remember liking it. I’ll be brutally honest, the deal was so staggering that I thought it was going to be a huge homerun. I do not remember being like weird or thrown the off. I thought it was going to be a very popular wine but clearly there is some stuff going on with it. We’ll find out in a second. And this I thought was completely no brainer. So, let’s get right into it. Alain Jaume, Lirac Clos de Sixte. This wine is in the 50% Grenache, 35% Syrah, 15% Mourdeuvre. We saw it for 22 bucks but it was on Cindy for $14.94, one parker. Snippy sniff. I mean hundreds and hundreds of people have tasted all three of these wines so I want to make sure these smells are a point because that’s how we do. The first thing I got across on this is a little radish on the nose. I'm sure nobody brought that out. I like to keep that one. A lot of people use little black pepper and spiciness coming through beautiful strawberry fruit, just a gorgeous little nose. It kind of really comes across bigger than its category Lirac, marrying under the radar, a lot of people have talked about Lirac, kind of forgotten Rhone area but the Lirac delivers consistently. Some of the best value wines in the world and best on what K Murph said, very popular wine as you could tell. So, I get a little cushiness coming through, it smells big. Let’s give it a little whirl. Little black fruit, kind of like prune, almost I could see on this Cinderella form, lot of people love the Amarone, the wine that cannot be mentioned. But I kind of see almost like that resiny flavor profile on the backing of this wine. I could see why so many people would have liked it. Beautiful fruit, very clean, strawberry jam, raspberry jam like, red fruit, black fruit has crumbled both so that’s kind of cool. It reminds me a little bit of a cherry fruit roll up, just beautiful, great tannins, dark chocolate on the back and almost a bitter high coco count, little hint on the alcohol on the back end, getting a little bit of that. So, let’s not make this a love fest, 15, I feel it from my palate but again, interesting little tidbit, getting into the mindset. I'm a little sensitive to it but boy do I know people like it. So, when I am doing this especially when I am buying, off of Wine Library TV, I really think wine Library TV, it’s more like “Hey, this is what I think.” And you find that line and you evaluate the wines based of me being consistent hopefully and you’re making decisions. Here, when I buy, I really try to think about what consumer wants. And so this little spike of alcohol in the backend bothers me a hair, makes me say “huh” but I know the consumers for the most part don’t taste that as much of a little more sensitive to alcohol than most people I've noticed. So, that makes me anomaly out of the circle into a consumer. And this really comes across like baby Chateauneuf du Pape. No question about it to me. This actually tastes better than a lot of Chateauneuf du Papes that I've had in the $30.00, $35.00. It’s a very good bottle of wine if this was Wine Library TV. This is Wine Library TV. Score it 90 plus points, I think it’s very, very good, 90 plus, 90, right there really, really good. ‘03, very hot vintage in the Italy, the Rampolla Sammarco, great producers in 90 point colony, 92 points spectator wine, 77 bucks or so. It was delicious, completely just rock my socks off. I feel that we’re hanging here, riffing. By the way, July 10th, a Cinderella party here at Wine Library. We’re going to get more details very shortly but please block off that weekend now, please get here. Big event in the store, free cheese, free wine. We’re going to tape some episodes. I'm going to grab a crumple of you to be in that episode and then that evening, we’re going to take it to NYC. I'm working on the details right now for a big party. Bring your own bottle kind of thing. We’re going to bring a ton of stuff that’s been on Cinderella and all that. Be here or be square like the sign. Please be here if there was ever a time to come to Wine Library. This would be it. Open house, you know, we did this a couple of years ago. It was a huge success. You might remember, a lot of fun. I mean would this not be a great time for one of our favorite all time Tampa Steve who’s made a stunning come back in the forums to make a reappearance in the dirty jurors. We’re going to have a great, great night. All the characters will be here, all the famous ones. Alright, a Coteau La Tour Les Cretes VDT, this wine guys, what’s about to happen over the next seven minutes may pretty much categorize my career. Now, this is L.12-A05, let’s show that. That is kind of like the vintage that’s kind of how they do it. They do it by lots of 05, vintage is the 05. There are so many different thoughts on this wine that I wondered if that has anything to do with what have you but I don’t think so. I'm very excited. This was in the pack, the three pack. I think it was three-pack, maybe two-pack A. There is some sediment coming across on the bottom. I'm going to show that. We can see that through the backend. Do you see it? And a little at the front, let’s make note of that. This is 100% Syrah. And I’m excited about trying this. I'm looking at it because I am trying to remember. And we sell it for $48.99 by itself which a lot of the Cinderella pips said they wouldn’t pay $4.88 cents for this month. As a matter of fact I'm not going to let the last wine do anything. Big rinse. I’m building up to this moment because I’m darn excited. I think we’re going to find out some interesting things. Let me be quite upfront with the Cinderella Community, a lot of you have voiced your opinion on anger towards this wine but a lot of you have emailed me directly saying that I don’t want say it in there. And you were fans of this wine so I’m very, very interested. Anyway, here we go, snippy sniff. Okay, the first thing I get across in a big way is that this is outrageously over the top of black pepper. There is a lot of black pepper. And so, if you are a huge fan of black pepper as I am, you probably have that apex moment where you just use it so much that it starts to bother you. So, I literally got headaches at times from black pepper. This smells to me like a over black peppered piece of beef jerky. So, if you’ve had beef jerky, real made homemade beef jerky, it can get very black peppery. So, right off the top, lot of beef jerky black pepper to put it into context, it’s been opened for about an hour and 20 minutes. I'm going to hold off. I mean this is really dominated by black pepper. There is a little gaminess on these but just enormous amounts of beef jerky black pepper coming through. It’s a little subtle red fruit on the backend, almost like cherries meeting red peppers. So, I get a little kind of like cherry red pepper thing going on. Let’s give it a whirl. First things first, no question, it’s pretty light and so this is where it starts getting into an interesting debate of why so many people got emotional about this wine. It’s very delicate. It almost has burgundy like characteristics on the mouth feel. It’s a light wine. Two things, first of all, I decided to swallow it because I want to try being in the mindset of the Cinderella user. I do get a little hint. I understand this great fruit flavor, that people are referring to. I just got a little splash of it. The power suggestion is powerful but there is no denying there is almost like a ruby red grape fruit thing here. The first thing that I can really think about with this wine is it reminds me of salted fish, Taranka which is a fish that my parents would eat and it’d be really dried fish, outrageously salty, you would get bread with lots of butter and like rip the fish apart and put it on top, eat it with Heineken. My parents never drink Heineken, my grandma, uncles, but boy oh boy if they had Taranka and we got real Taranka in, in the mid80s, Heineken’s would come flying out. So, this on the way down, the biggest thing that comes across to me is fishy and salty which is definitely a menu start adding in this citrus vibe that that palate gets in and you start really understanding why so many people won’t like it. Now, you’re talking about a flavor profile that is very near and dear to my heart. Why you’re seeing the saltiness is there is an enormous amount of minerality in this wine and over the top minerality, probably disproportionate and off balanced minerality to the body weight of the actual wine. For Syrah to come across this light is very confusing to the normal palate, like advanced palate to any palate. Let me be bold, is that okay. 98% of me wanted to pan this wine. I wanted to show that I’m real because at the end of the day we got four cases in building of this. Those wines have been sold. We’ll take anything bad, we’re awesome like that with our clients. We’re always going to do the right thing. Through the wheel wind, find actually one way or the other for me to go any direction plus if you know me at all, I think you recognize my word which then becomes my brand. It’s far more important to me than doing the wrong thing and jockeying and trying to sell more, save pace because I think most of you in the Cinderella and definitely in the Wine Library TV world know who I am and how I rule. And so I think this is a classic example of two things happening. One, the wine is disjointed and awkward. I don’t think it comes together, I don’t. But it is off balanced with its minerality for sure. However, it’s light. And this is an interesting debate. I think a lot of people are not respecting wines that are lighter, I just don’t. I mean I think they respect burgundies and they tend to be light but–completely get dismissed. I think there is a lot of complexities and intriguing flavor profiles that are coming through in this wine. I think people caught off guard because of how light it is coming from a Syrah. But I don’t think this is anywhere close to the awfulness that so many people have decided to jump on the Bandwagon on Cindy. At the same token, for such a conservative wine critic like Antonio Galloni, 92 might be hair high. Third, I have a very near palate. I like things that are maybe too mineral driven like this, little different with the rose petal. I love this little kind of sour red pepper thing it’s got going on. I am enjoying this in some ways for it’s appeal. It’s definitely thought provoking. I’ll be honest. I am actually going to go all the way here. It’s outlandish to me that people would dis this wine and say it’s not worth four bucks or whatever. There were some pretty big emotions on it. I do not see that all. I think you got to check your palate if you think that this is great garbage. That’s crazy. This is really kind of ax like–meets a Pinot Noir. It’s got some really intriguing stuff. It’s a weird wine. One Wine Library TV, I probably would have scored it 89 to 91 question mark. It’s that strange and all the controversy comes from a good point. We have done a lot of wines in the show and very few wines have been this intriguing, but I think it’s interesting. I've gotten eat with all my soul. I was definitely walking in one thing at some level to dismantle this wine. That’s what I hate about preconceive notions. I know some of you wanted me to do a brown paper bag. I just didn’t know how to really do that. It’s so hard. Maybe we can bring his. Maybe one of you can bring the wine to the July 10th party, put in a brown paper bag, mix them with a bunch of different wines. Maybe we’ll do a whole blind tasting at dinner that night, maybe that’s a good idea. We’ll do all double blind, all of you can bring it. We’ll see how many people can pick it out consistently. It’s a pretty distinct taste so I think people will. I kind of like it, I think people should give it a shut. It’s different on the palate. There could be massive bottle variation. I don’t know. But I like the minerality. I like this wine. I like it. I probably even thought of it 99. This is really, really Wine Library TV, it wouldn’t stop me. I don’t know. Actually, you know what the funny part is? I think it has a hollow mid palate. I'm not surprised Galloni we scored it 92 points because it is something that’s awkward flavors in the minerality and maybe that grape fruit thing that you’re tasting. I'm Surprised I scored it 92 because I think that mid palate is kind of hollow. That’s probably what’s making me think it’s an 88 to 89.1. That’s probably where I’d put it. Yeah, 80 plus to 89. It’s one of these great wines I think evolves and probably changes quite a bit over time and let’s definitely revisit. And finally, Elias Mora, Grand Mora, Toro 45 alcohol, 100%—$60.00 at Wine Library right now and it was $34.98 originally in Cinderella Wine, pretty good, 95 points Spectator, big dark black. Just did this for myself more than anything else, a little snippy sniff. A little bit of coconut. I got a little coconut on the nose. I get a lot of coconut, lot of coconut. I'm getting like some raspberry flavors as well, little oak, big fruit, big bold black cherries, coconut. Let’s give it a whirl. Little big for me. I remember this now. Just try to remember—this is the kind of wine that I knew, this is something we’ll be offering in couple of weeks. But right on the spot had this kind of profile which is big bold delicious structured, not big, just perfect. You don’t need implants for your ass. This was just like bad. That’s what this wine is. Anyway, big, bold, structured, dark tannic, it was so real. I had to repeat it twice. And really nice blueberry pie flavors on the back and good firm tannic structure. Finishes great, great finish, will last at 10 to 12 years easy, put it away, relax, might be a little oak for me. Really well made, really well made, beautiful wine. A little too big for my palate, 92 plus, 95 points for Spectator or even the insane love for this wine on Cinderella wine but I get it cold. This what allows me to understand what people like. When it’s big, delicious and not fake, structured, people are going to love it. To me, my bottles are a little more salt while I lean towards wines with subtle new ounces. It’s like of course I understand like a supermodel. But I like the chicken pack mark on the face, freckles, like a little floss scar. I like new ounces. I think subtleties are interesting especially in wine and this is just obvious, supermodel. This is like a procurer taste like when your body is like I’m dating some hot chick, in the eye of the beholder. But this is obvious. This is a very good wine. It’s just a little too big for me, little too thick. Anyway, question of the day. What is the single most controversial wine amongst you and your friends? I like this. I like the deeper questions I can go with. What is the biggest debated wine amongst you and any of your friends? Maybe to your wife, maybe to your buddies, you want the Napa, everybody likes—you hated it, anything interesting like that. What is the single most debated wine that you’ve ever been a part of. You, with a little bit of me, it’s a good show. We are changing the wine world.