Viriato Tinta de Toro

Grape: Tinta rojo

Region: Toro, Central Spain

Vintage: 2007

Price: $6.99

In the glass: Viriato wine is a deeply opaque, inky blackish-red color with a dense core and a slightly garnet-tinged rim definition and “long-legged” high viscosity.

On the nose: There is crushed black berry fruit, wild cherries, sloe fruit, crushed peppercorns, spices, wood, jerky meat and gravelly, slightly earthy minerals.

On the palate: This full-bodied and masculine wine is a massive spice and fruit bomb with tons of peppery black fruit, bell peppers, earthy minerals and full-bodied tannin characteristics that, although being very present, are not obtrusive. The midpalate is supple with fat black juicy fruit, and the finish is a lovely study in classic tempranillo from the dry Toro region, except with more fruit, earth and spice lingering for a full 25-plus seconds. If you love wines from the Northern Rhone of France, Viriato is like one of those on steroids and juicier on the fruit end of things, meaning less rustic.

Odds and ends: Another ridiculously inexpensive winner from Spain, this wine is found in a specialty grocery chain that has stores in California and Nevada. Tempranillo is the most famous red grape variety in Spain, but it is often called tinta rojo, or in this case, tinta toro, but it essentially is one and the same. While 2007 was generally a less-than-stellar vintage in much of Europe, it was major in Southern Rhone, France, Italy and Spain, so Viriato is a solid bottle of wine here. It should drink well through 2014. Try it with fresh-out-of-the-oven empanadas filled with meat.

Gil Lempert-Schwarz’s wine column appears Wednesdays. Write him at P.O. Box 50749, Henderson, NV 89016-0749, or e-mail him at gil@winevegas.com.