2003 La Legua

La Legua is a Spanish wine made of 96% Temparnillo and 4% Garnacha. Temparnillo is a common Spanish varietal that I don't think I've ever seen in a wine made outside of Spain. I rarely enjoy wines with so much of that varietal, put 60% Cabernet Sauvignon with 40% Temparnillo and we're talking. It was $9 and I felt like something different so I grabbed a bottle.

I get very little on the nose. There seems to be some fruit there, perhaps plums, but it's in the background. Fran gets earth and must, which I'm going to agree on--it just smells like earth.

Taste wise, I get some spice, pepper almost, as well as your standard fruit. It's a rather interesting wine, amazingly complex for the price (actually, there are a lot of very cheap and fantastic Spanish wines floating around). Something like this from California would easily be double the price.

It's a smooth wine with a fair amount going on, but I just can't put my finger on most of it. I'm very used to the "big" reds--Pinot Noir, Cab, Zin, Merlot...so something like this is a challenge. There's cherries but there's also spice...almost like a mild Syrah. Fran gets currants.

This is an outstanding wine---we're two people who generally don't like Temparnillo, and we like this, quite a bit in fact. I'd buy it again without hesitation.