Wine Blogging Wednesday #65: Snow Day Priorat

After several months of non-participation, I was looking forward to tasting a wine for the latest WBW, hosted this month by Michelle at www.wine-girl.net. The theme this time around is Snow Day. Hmmm….Being a Los Angeles native, I don’t even know what a snow day is. I mean, I’ve read about it in books and seen it in the movies…

I guess these last three days would be LA’s version of a snow day. Dark, foreboding clouds, rain; heavy at times, gusty winds. I was forced to put on a light sweater and I found myself reaching for a raincoat. Wait, I think I just heard thunder. Someone just opened the door for a moment and a little gust of wind came in. Brrrr. The photo above should give you an idea of how rough it got yesterday afternoon.

I mean, who am I kidding, us thin-skinned Angelinos are pretty sensitive to even slight variations in temperature, so I’m probably being more sincere than you think when I say that it feels like winter time right now. So when I was compelled to open a bottle of big, comfy Priorat last night, I realized that this was the bottle that would be my snow day wine.

Admittedly, I’m big on Spanish wines right now. I feel like they deliver big for a reasonable price (this wine was under $20). But I digress…

As I said, it’s a big, comfy wine, the kind I’d curl up by the fire with; the flames warming me on the outside and the wine warming me on the inside. The wine I speak of is the 2005 Cellers Capafons Oso “Sirsell” Priorat. Just looking into the glass revealed a dark, heavy wine, and as soon as I brought it to my nose I was hit with aromas of black currant and sweet spices (the kind I smell when the kitchen is warm and my wife is baking something sweet and rich). I took a swig and my mouth was instantly warmed up by blackberries, plums and spices o-plenty. And despite my initial statement of this one being ‘big’, it also had an elegance to it; decent length and a nice finish. No surprise that this one has a lot going on: it’s a blend of 25% Grenache, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon , 25% Merlot, 15% Mazuelo and 10% Syrah… all from the slopes of Priorat.

But most important on this coldest of LA days (it’s in the low 50’s), this wine makes me feel warm inside. This most certainly is a good wine for a snow day.