Enate Crianza

Wine: Enate Crianza.

Grapes: tempranillo (75 percent), cabernet sauvignon (25 percent)

Region: Somontano, northeastern Spain

Vintage: 2005

Price: $5.99

In the glass: Enate Crianza is a dense, deep garnet-red color with a completely opaque core going out into a fine, light garnet rim definition with quite a bit of tinge on it and medium-high viscosity.

On the nose: It is initially full of rustic phenolic and slightly musty black plum skins and fruit, then mashed brambleberries, loganberries, sloe fruit and touches of herbes de Provence underlying, maybe a pinch of dried tobacco leaf and cherry liqueur.

On the palate: It is a rich, medium-bodied wine with tremendous acidity upfront delivering the basket of red and black plums, cherries and bramble to the center-point of the tongue and then expanding with mature red fruits, dominated by ripe Catherine plums and green figs. The midpalate is actually very pleasant, and the acidity carries through and marries well with the tannins that are rather soft and unobtrusive in this wine, going into a fine red currant finish that lingers for 20 seconds.

Odds and ends: There’s something to be said for a fully mature crianza wine like this one from Enate that is from a super vintage and at a great price. Crianza wines can be a little rustic when young because they are tempranillo-based blends, so it is nice to find one that is perfectly delicious to drink. This Enate wine comes from a very small and not very well-known red wine appellation in Spain called Somontano, which is just south of the French Pyrenees Mountains. The producer is a small bodega called Vinedos y Crianzas that is part of a larger cooperative of Somontano. Crianza is the commonly referred to name for Spanish wine in general, although it tends to be applied to wines that are made from tempranillo and blended with a French variety, such as the cabernet sauvignon in this wine. It is ready to drink and should be enjoyed with a nice steak hache, perhaps made from bison, such as the dish I had last week, right off the grill with green beans. Drink it now through 2013.

Gil Lempert-Schwarz’s wine column appears Wednesdays. Write him at P.O. Box 50749, Henderson, NV 89106-0749, or email him at gil@winevegas.com.