Bitch Grenache (South Australia, 2008)

[2 stars, out of 5]

I picked this bottle up for a tasting weekend as a gag, because the name was funny and the bottle was cute. I guess you really do get what you pay for. Price: $9.99.

Out of our panel of 5 tasters, only 1 even reached for a glass of this. The color was a gorgeous ruby, very fruity like strawberry jam. It's obviously a young wine, no development to speak of. It had very light body with low tannins and weak flavors of earth and blackberry. The finish was long (5-7 seconds). We all agreed that the wine was flabby and blah, and we wouldn't buy it again.

Tapeña Garancha (Spain, 2007)

3 stars (out of 5)

We picked this one up at the local wine store because we recently tried Tapena’s 2007 Temparnillo and enjoyed it. Although perhaps a good value wine, this garancha was not as much to our liking as the previously-reviewed Tempranillo. The wine was deep ruby purple in color, and promptly stained my plastic cup from top to bottom. The musty cherry aroma was somewhat unsettling, but the wine opened up a bit in our mouths with flavors of dark cherry and fig. The finish was spicy like a Christmas cookie, cinnamon and clove.