SPANISH REDS OFFER RANGE TO PLEASE ALL PALATES

If you are feeling tight with a buck these days and you like red wine, you need to spend some time exploring Spain. They have a zillion different varietals planted, including most of the French varietals consumers love, and enough different climates and local grapes to make pretty much any style of wine that interests you.

Any number of consumers believe that the small producer is doing something unique. They love to hear how Juan climbed the hill every day with his favourite burro Clint to water his vines. How nice. I’ve been in the business long enough to want quality control, and a price I can afford. This leads inevitably to a rather more industrial approach to the wine. Rather like the difference between an acreage and producing farm when you think about it.

Family Torres is just such a producer. I have come to depend on their name the same way I depend on other brand names, as a mark of integrity. Their wines here vary from the entry level to the mildly expensive. Vineyards are primarily in the Catalan and adjacent areas of the northeast corner of Spain. Tempranillo is planted there as is just about every other grape known to producers, although it lacks the imprimatur of Rioja. If you like a solid slightly tannic red, this is a region from which to buy.

Infinite is a wine I’ve written about before, an inexpensive Tempranillo with a touch of Cabernet Sauvignon added. This is a wine for beef and lamb. The colour is, as the label declares almost infinitely red. The bouquet is fruity with some spice — cloves, vanilla — and herbs behind it. The palate is initially quite fruity, but the mid-palate and finish are decidedly dry. This isn’t a great cocktail wine: it is too lean, and likely too dry. But if you’re a beef eater, this wine will get you through a steak quite nicely.

The cocktail crowd will be happier with the 5G from Campo de Borja. This is a region tucked up on the edge of Navarre, an arid, high part of the country. (History buff fact: The Borgias of Italy were from Borja originally.) It’s made from a selection of Garnacha (aka Grenache) presumably from different vineyards. If you like Grenache, buy this wine. It’s about half the price of similar quality wines from Australia. It has that unmistakable aroma of strawberry and smoke. It’s not quite as viscous as some New World versions but this is a tremendously versatile wine that will take you from cocktails to dinner without a break.

Finally, if you love Cabernet Sauvignon as many people do, try a bottle of Gran Coronas. A modern Cabernet, the nose is fruity. There are no obvious bell pepper aromas. I’d call the wine plummy. The palate tends to dark fruits with maybe a hint of stewed plums. The finish is quite long and tannins soft, or at least soft for Cabernet Sauvignon.

The wine has the benefit of a fair amount of time in both the barrel and bottle but it will happily take another 10 years, I’d guess. This wine is in many ways a representation of why I like Spanish wine. It has been treated both traditionally — released two years after bottling — and vinified in a mildly modern fashion. There’s no denying the structure of Cabernet Sauvignon but it has been reined in enough to drink now, as almost all of us will.

Wine of the Week:

Gran Coronas 2011 $25

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Other choices:

Infinite Rojo 2014 $17

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5G Garnacha 2015 $17 ■