rotllan torra priorat balandra 97 5 euros/bottle?

[pierreverte]

my local mini-mart (in paris) has around 10 cases (of 6 each, each carefully wrapped in paper and then placed in individual flex-carton protection tubes) in original, sealed 6-bottle flat carton cases of this well-regarded priorat.

the guy said 'it's a good wine and not expensive.' as far as i can research, this is quite an understatement. i picked up one bottle, opened it and then went back and bought a case (30 euros for 6). should i just say 'what the hell?' and buy the rest (or at least several cases more)?

i can't find any kind of fault with the wine itself, just the surprising price.

it seems to be drinking quite well, leather, tar, licorice, macerated black fruits, with alcohol and some wood tannins that dry it out just a bit on the finish... but still has that great grenache chewiness. and the thick aromas really float out of the glass...

[Echezeaux]

Someone must have a broken calculator as the wine sells for around 16-Euro dollars in Spain! Must have gotten it confused with some other wine.

[pierreverte]

nope, and mystery solved...seems that during one of the recent holiday wine salons here in paris the reps from the winery in spain (or a spanish distributor, maybe?) decided to try their luck with the french market. bringing much more 'foreign' wine than was wise, and even after these wines had been well-reviewed by the rest of the civilized world, they couldn't sell enough, and didn't want to haul it back to spain. they drove around paris until they found someone to take it off their hands, and for what must have been, almost nothing. for it to have ended up in my neighborhood (lower montmarte, mostly north african immigrants) in an arab mini-mart, these guys must have been desperate.

i bought 3 more cases (four was too many for my wife to accept), with much less guilt, previously thinking it might have gotten there by less than correct means, and look forward to having it has a great 5 euro (my french father-in-law will only buy wines over 5 euros as a rare extravagance, so i won't catch crap from him) winter dinner wine, while giving some nice (but not very expensive) educational presents to my french friends.

the french often frustrate me with their almost complete lack of wine knowledge when it comes to anything that wasn't produced within 10 kilometers of where they or their family lives, and their slowness to accept that there are other places in the world that also make good wine.

this time, i'm happy about it...

i took a 6-month french wine course that included an english overview, and foreign wines (about 2 weeks out of the 6 months). on the day that we were to taste some italian wines, i noticed a bottle of vega sicilia 'valbuena' 1990. the instructor was american, but had lived in france for over ten years and had a boyfriend that was french and both taught wine courses.

- wow! i've always wanted to try this! -i told her- it's one of the best wines in spain!

- spain? i just pulled it out of my boyfriend's cellar because i saw 'sicilia'

and thought it was from italy! do you think he'll be upset i took it?

- yes, and tell him thank you!

it was like a glass of truffles, damn nice...only about half of the all-french class liked it.

one has to be careful here in france because the mind-set can rub off on you...

[Echezeaux]

One of the common "rules" of wineries selling wine is the "farther away from the winery the customer is located, the more the winery wants to sell them their products."

Of course, in France many wineries are thrilled to have customers from other countries come to buy their wines.

Same for Californian wineries. They love to make a small sale of wine to France or Italy, especially.

While the thrill of that sale is a "rush' for vintners, what most don't realize is their wines are put on display where the gather dust until they're discarded. Or, if the bottle is finally sold, it only serves to confirm what people thought: Those wines are no good!

I've seen good shops around Europe with a few bottles of relatively "ancient" wines which only served as window dressing.

What a shame.

Anyway, a nice "score" with your Spanish wine!

[pierreverte]

thanks! made my first gift to a french friend this evening...he told me that it had an 'unexpected' taste...when pressed to elaborate, he said that was a good thing...