GUEST REVIEW!!! Finagra Alandra Red, Italy

We here at Red, White and Rose love wine. But sometimes, you need a vacation. Yes, even from reviewing wine. To supplement our summer posts we will be featuring guest reviews! Our first guest reviewer is S, a fellow PhD student. If there had been a prize for smartest sounding reviewer at our blog launch, S would have won. She knows her wines cork to funny-dimple-at-the-bottom-of-the-bottle. So without any further ado, I hand it over to S!

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Ever wandered the LCBO aisles aimlessly searching for a red wine to accompany dinner?  Specifically a cheap red because the wine rack at home is actually full and you recently blew $250 on books and shoes?

No?  Me neither.

If you were, hypothetically of course, in that situation, the Finagra Alandra red may be the wine for you!  A dear friend introduced me to the Alandra last year and I still remember her somewhat embarrassed whisper, “it’s less than 8 bucks.”  

Going cheap does not mean giving up class. This winery operates out of a 13th century fort, represented on the bottle's cork.  

I’m generally rather suspicious of wines that transcend inexpensive and venture into the realms of cheap.  No one wants to buy a bottle of wine that turns out to be vinegar.  Luckily for me, it seems to be a rule of thumb that inexpensive reds are almost always better – or at least a safer buy – than inexpensive whites.  Alandra, by the Portuguese vineyard Finagra based at the Herdade do Esporão, is firmly in the “better” category and available at LCBOs for a whopping $7.95.  The 2011 bottle consumed for this review was actually on sale for $6.95.  If you’re in Europe it’s less than €2.50.

Alandra is a blended red using moreto, castelão, and trincadeira grapes (to be honest this has no meaning or significance to me) and comes traditionally corked in a dark bottle with a relatively nondescript label featuring 15 red balls organized to look like a cluster of grapes. 

The wine is a lovely dark ruby red colour and has strong dark cherry and cedar notes.  It actually reminds me of my mother’s cedar linen chest.  My husband – the white wine drinker – thinks the scent is too overwhelming.  Alandra is a medium-bodied, simple, and dry wine that I could probably use as an evening sipper.  It’s is a young red that has only a slight tannin-y finish; I think it has just enough tannin to balance out its fruitiness. This is not a wine I’d really recommend decanting – if at all – for very long.  It’s already a simple, noncomplex wine that’s fairly light on the tongue with minimal lingering finish.  Decanting, I feel, just makes it flat and boring. 

For those inexperienced with, or don’t prefer, very dry reds, I’d recommend pairing it with food.  Tonight it paired beautifully with lamb chops in a rosemary-shallot-balsamic reduction accompanied with roasted veggies and a dark, flourless chocolate cake for dessert.  Alandra also goes well with BBQ, pizza, roasted chicken, ribs, stews, spicy curries of the Indian or Thai variety…pretty much any strongly flavoured foods that can stand up to it.  At less than 8 bucks, the Alandra is a win.  It even makes a great boeuf bourguignon (Europe is small; Burgundy is close enough to Portugal) and even red wine vinegar if you add vinegar mother (purchased from your local winemaking place) and wait for a couple months.

So if a cheap red table wine is in your future, head down to your local store, grab a bottle of Alandra, pour a glass, and, as the Portuguese say, Saúde!