T Edwards Tasting

I was invited by David Hautzig to a tasting of some of the wines he sells for T Edward Wines. T Edwards is a boutique distributor in New York State, from whom I buy some wines for Local 111, in Phillmont. There were close to 70 wines available for tasting. This is a nice small tasting where there is enough time to try everything and keep an overview. All in all, the wines were very good, some of them stuck out, however, and I would like to mention a couple of these stand outs. The "Planella" by Joan d'Anguera from the D.O. Monstant was really impressive. The color reddish purple and intense. It just about jumped out of the glass with rich black fruit aromas. On the pallete it was just as intense and "sweet" but balanced. I put sweet in quotation marks because the wine seems to have been fermented dry, but the fruit was so strong that it had an almost candy like quality, always balanced by the acidity and tannins. The D.O Monstant is a newish D.O. which all but surrounds Priorat. The winery is not new, but is an old family winery, and their farming methods are sustainable!! The wine is made from 40% Mazuelo (also known as Carinena elsewhere in Spain; and as Carignanin France), 20% Syrah, 20% Grenach, and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon. It is a Rhone like blend with the addition of the Cab. Sauv. You can really taste the Cab. Sauv. in the cassis notes. The wine comes from 15 - 50 year old vines planted in chalky soil. The wine spends 11 months in oak. I would think that with the sweetness of the fruit that the fermentation was carried out at lowish temperatures, on the other hand the extraction was impressive enough to hint toward a warmer max temperature. Check out the winery web site for more info. . I think it is a wine to look for and buy for under $25.
I'll try to write about a couple of the other wines tomorrow.