93 Point Spanish Red

Stunning Spanish Value Perfect for Grilling Season!

Grenache is one of the most widely planted grapes in the world. It is used as a workhorse grape to make outstanding values in Spain, like today's wine, and Southern France; but now we are seeing it cultivated more and more around the globe. Not only are there great values in Grenache, but also many truly special wines are made from this grape in Spain and France. Evodia is a wine we have carried for years, and it seems every vintage is a stellar value. We had a great response when we emailed this wine out last November but it is improving more and more in the bottle. Wine writer Jeb Dunnuck recently came out with his 93 point score and based on its beautiful lush fruit, fairly widespread availability and costing under $10 bucks, it could become one of your favorite mid-week wines.

The birthplace of Grenache was in Northern Spain and a region called Aragon. Here in Spain, it is called Garnacha. Within Aragon is the D.O. of Calatayud, which is where Evodia comes from. Calatayud is a very wild and rural area of Spain. The climate is hot and dry, perfect for growing Garnacha and you will see vineyards everywhere of this bush-like vine alongside olive and cherry orchards. Importer, Eric Solomon, brought in many incredible values made from Garnacha from Calatayud.

Over fifteen years ago, Solomon was visiting vineyards in Calatayud and met Jean-Marc Lafage and Yolanda Diaz. Diaz grew up in Aragon and knows the region of Calatayud extremely well. Lafage is a top winemaker and consultant from just over the border in French Catalonia in the Roussillon region. You probably have seen some of the Domaine Lafage wines in our stores. Together, they have found the high-altitude plateau in Calatayud with the same schist in the soil you find in Priorat, Spain and Maury, France where Lafage was born. This special place is where Evodia began.

This week’s featured wine is Evodia Tinto 2019. Evodia means Perfume or Fragrant and this is exactly what you notice right away. This is made from old vine Garnacha (40-100 year old vines) and is loaded with intense flavors. If you tend to prefer delicate more subtle flavors in wine this may not be your first choice. Evodia is around 15% alcohol by volume and has a deep purple to black color, lots of blueberry and black currant fruit flavors with a hint of stone in the finish from the schist in the soil. It is really an impressive wine for such a low price. Evodia is great with anything off the grill but also perfect by itself because of all the complex fruits and mild tannins.

This is always a wine to consider a case of!

Evodia Garnacha 750mL