A classic still going strong. While the name has evolved over the years the wine itself is still a Trader Joe’s top pick! We review the latest vintage of the La Sonriente Garnacha from the Calatayud.
Garnacha from Calatayud, Spain.
The La Sonriente Garnacha is available exclusively at Trader Joe’s and sells for just $6.99. It is imported by Evaki Inc.
From the bottle:
The best vineyards of Calatayud are situated high on the hillsides, where, despite the poor gravelly soil, the vines produce the finest grapes possible in this arid and desolate region. Only the ripest clusters are chosen, thus producing a wine of considerable depth and finesse including intense aromas of sweet cherries and dark plums.
14% Alcohol
In the 13 years since we’ve started this site, we’ve dumped a lot of wine from TJ’s down the drain. (Seriously, our pipes must be spotless.) In that time; however, there have been a number of bottles that have consistently stood out as amazing values. Today we have one of them.
Originally named La Paca (2014 vintage and earlier), the name morphed to La Paca Sonriente for the 2015 and 2016 vintages. For the 2017 vintage forward, they’ve dropped the “Paca” completely and simply labeled it as La Sonriente Garnacha on the bottle. No matter the name, this is consistently good stuff!
One reason for that is where this wine comes from. In our experience it’s hard to go wrong with Garnacha from the Calatayud. Rocky soils plus abundant old vines plus a lack of name recognition and a grape variety that is not as popular as it should be all combine to produce extreme value.
The 2022 La Sonriente Garnacha begins with a deep aroma of red cherry, black cherry and cranberry along with a little leather, wintergreen and a touches of baking spice and earth.
The medium-bodied wine starts with ripe red fruit in the mouth with a bit of earthiness coming out on the mid-palate. There are also touches of tobacco and cola and just a hint of minerality. It gets even better with air too.
The whole thing is quite well balanced and has a subtle complexity to it which is one of the things we love so much about Garnacha from this region. Where else can you find all this for only $7?
It ends long, dry and a bit grippy with more earthiness and sweet fruit notes on the long-lasting finish. It holds up just fine on day 2 as well.
As always you can find an updated list of our recommended wines from Trader Joe’s as well as more info on their pricing model and some tips and tricks for shopping the store in our giant guide.
You can also find more of our favorite Garnacha here.
And here’s our review of the similar 2021 vintage:
The 2021 La Sonriente Garnacha begins with a deep aroma of red cherry, black cherry and cranberry along with a little leather, wintergreen and a touches of baking spice and earth.
The medium-bodied wine starts with ripe red fruit in the mouth with a bit of earthiness coming out on the mid-palate. There are also touches of tobacco and cola and just a hint of minerality. This vintage is pretty good right out of the bottle, but it stills improves a bit with air too.
It ends long, dry and a bit grippy with more earthiness, sweet fruit notes and even a long-lasting hint of root beer. It doesn’t hold up quite as well on day 2, so you might want to plan on finishing it off the day you open it.
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