'05 Flaviam Crianza Beirzo

Let's start with an interesting and different red wine from a small producer in Spain and by small I mean basically it's just a guy with a vineyard. The story I got from the distributor Rep. was that he flew into NY without any appointments looking for an distribution deal--as you can imagine this not the way it is done. So anyway he goes in and they are in the process of kicking him out of the office when he mentions that Robert Parker rated his wine 90 out of 100 points (apparently he was unaware that this was kinda a big deal). They bought his entire production on the spot. OK, you can never trust stories a rep. tells you--still it's a fantastically interesting wine at a bizarrely cheap price ($9.99). First of all it's a varietal you have never had before--Mencia, which has been traditional Spanish grape that has been used to make light table wines but apparently some Spaniards have figured out how to make something much richer. Red wines are designed to have the fruit flavors balance out the tannins (that astringent feeling on your tongue that sucks the moisture out of your mouth), now, Flaviam does have fruit flavors but what's balancing out the out the (light) tannins is wildflower flavors. A flavor profile that I personally have never found anywhere else, one reviewer called it "haunting" it's so different in fact that I warn people not to make up their minds on the first glass--it takes some getting used to, but it is worth it.

By the way, for those of you who were wondering: Flaviam, is the name of the wine--Crianza, means it was aged in oak barrels for a year--and, Beirzo is the place in Spain where it's from.