Inexpensive and Yummy Wine Alert!

I got a bottle of Santerra Rosso in the mail from WineShopAt Home the other day. Their wine club features inexpensive wines (all under $20, usually around $10) from boutique wineries with small productions. A lot of the wines aren't available at the usual retail outlets, which makes the wine club an attractive proposition to those winos...er...oenophiles seeking out new and unusual bargains.

Sometimes the wines are decent, sometimes they're a disappointment. And now and again, they deliver a real treat, like the Santerra Rosso. For $14.50 a bottle, this wine delivered a lovely complex nose filled with leather, blackberries, vanilla (oak) and cocoa. I spent an inordinate amount of time swirling and sniffing 'cause it just smelled so damn good. The tasting notes that accompanied the bottle said that the flavors were 'vanilla, cherry, juniper and light berry.' I'll agree with the vanilla, but light berry? This stuff was earthy and dark, chocolatey (maybe chocolate covered cherries!), but there was nothing light about it. It was big, with a viscous, silky mouthfeel that made drinking a glass a downright sensual experience. It would have been downright Tom Jonesian had I not been watching OCTOPUS on Sci Fi Channel at the same time. I'd like to say that the wine made the movie better...but I'd be lying. But at least the crappy movie didn't take away from my enjoyment of the rosso.

Sigh...and the bottle is all gone now...

But you can still buy it through 1-800-Wineshop if you're so inclined. They had, as of this morning, 650 bottles left. Trust me...it's worth the $14.50 price tag. I've tasted much more expensive wines that didn't have half the complexity of flavor or overall yumminess as the Santerra rosso.