INSIDER'S PICK: 2020 BENITO SANTOS MENCIA MONTERREI $21.99

Even though we will not be doing the public tasting portion of the Insider's Pick until further notice, we will still be offering the wine for purchase with the usual 10% discount on Thursday and Friday. The wines will still be ones we highly recommend, and the tasting notes will still be our own. We will be returning to doing just the one wine on Thursdays and Fridays until further notice. We hope you are able to come by and get some wines to enjoy.

Progressing into the Winter season, with more consistently cold days and early arriving nights, we tend to make heartier meals to help keep us warm. Bigger wines are where our tendencies go to pair with these meals, and most people go for things like Bordeaux, Cab Sauv and the like, all of which are wonderful choices. But those wines often take some time to really be at their best, either decanting or a number of years in the cellar, and can be lacking in adaptability or spontaneity. When you want a more 'pop and go' type red, wines like this Mencia are a great one to have at hand. This red grape is prevalent in the Spanish regions along the Old Castile/Galician border, and performs very well as either a robust, extracted and oak aged wine or in a leaner, more approachable one without losing any complexity or intrigue. This pours in the glass with no lack of color or aromatics, with lots of briary dark fruits, dried sage, anise notes and bitter cocoa. The palate isn't thick in texture, but it doesn't taste like there's anything missing from the wine, and the dark fruit flavors are fully ripe and penetrating with no hard edges. The fine persistent tannins definitely bring home the savory herbs and dusty fruit to the finish, easily helping it stand up to most meat dishes without being a bruiser on its own. Great with leaner dishes as well that may not have a lot of fat to cut through.

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