#92- Monica

I took one sip of this wine and I knew it was love. Kristin took a swig of it and it was love. I'm heading back to 123rd Street Liquor to buy myself a couple of more bottles; because it was love.

The wine is Argiolas Perdera from the island of Sardinia in Italy.

(but can I just say this- if the owners of the Argiolas ever stumble upon this blog, please please please take this advice- lose the cheesy romantic music and terrible 'tingy' noises any times I click on a link. It's enough to make one go bananas- lose the sound effects ASAP). Oh and that site is not user friendly at all. I couldn't find this wine at all on the site. Not a good thing when one is looking for information. I don't care how pretty the site is...

So aside from their terrible taste in audio and poorly laid out site, their wine is absolutely lovely! And by that I do mean love.

The wine is Perdera and is made from the single grape varietal- Monica. The Monica grape is very hard to find here in Canada so I was very happy to stumble upon it. And with my love affair with the grape, I have no idea why more stores don't carry this type of wine. There isn't much written on the grape other than to say it originated in Spain and is meant to be drunk young. This wine is 2009.

For a young wine, I found this wine to be incredibly complex and full of flavour. They danced all over my mouth. You can't taste just about every berry in there- raspberry, blueberry, blackberry and on and on. But it's very earthy as well. When drunk, it reminded me very much of a Cabernet.

I matched it with a pasta dish I had made- a three cheese pasta with broccoli and a nice peppered beef shoulder (roast). The fullness of the red paired very well with the beef and of course the cheesy pasta. I darn near finished the bottle that night but resisted.

I had it the next night (the night Kristin was able to take a swig) and the wine was just as good the next day.

I really can't say much more about this wine other than if you have a chance to purchase this wine (and i remember it being a very reasonable price as well), to go out and treat yourself to a nice bottle. Especially if you are a fan of full reds.

Well, tomorrow I'm off to see Prince in concert but then I start the 12 Days of Wine. I'm 12 wines away from completing a wine a week and I'm determined to finish on time here so on Wednesday, I start the 12 Days. I'm not sure what my liver will think of me on the 26th of December but it's worth finding out!

Purple Rain....We're gonna party like it's 1999!