Wine Week: Sabor Real Toro 2006

Spanish wines continue to be an amazing value. If you are looking for a red wine, pick what you like but don't buy before checking out the aisle of Spanish wines in your local store.

If you are like us you don't know as much about Spanish grapes and wineries as you do about France or California, or even Chile, Australia and Argentina. But we find wines from Spain to be consistently reliable in the $8-$15 range. That's difficult to say about any wine region.

And when a Spanish red gets a 90 from The Wine Advocate and costs only $9, well, you've got a winner for weekday dinners at the very least.

We stumbled upon such a bargain recently. Sabor Real Toro 2006 came highly recommended in an eLetter we received from an online wine dealer. We looked up reviews and found the very high 90 rating noted above and the reviewer who said, this is the wine to buy by the case. So, we did.

Dark-colored, full-bodied, with "gobs of spice," and lots of fruit (blackberry) , you'd think this wine would be good only with a big steak. But we don't eat much steak. In fact, very very little red meat. And yet, this wine is well matched with anything spicy or not delicate.

At the $9 price, this Spanish red is at least worth a try if you see it in your store. You won't be sorry.