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The Esteban Martin Garnacha Syrah 2021 is a $4.99 wine at Costco, it sells for as high as $13.99 elsewhere with the average on the web being closer to $8 or $9. Esteban Martin was founded in 2003 with a partnership of Miguel Esteban and Asuncion Martin in a winery located near the town of Zaragoza in the Cariñena district of northeast Spain.
The blend of the Esteban Martin Garnacha Syrah 2021 is 60% Garnacha and 40% Syrah. This wine is called a Joven wine on their website meaning this is a young wine with no oak barrel aging and made to be consumed in the first few years after release.
The vines in the estate vineyard were 20 to 60 years in age and the vineyard had gravel soil. The 2019 vintage received 92 points from James Suckling the leading wine reviewer. While the 2021 vintage is a few vintages removed from that high score it does demonstrate that Esteban Martin can produce fine wine.
The Esteban Martin Garnacha Syrah 2021 is vegan-friendly and has an alcohol content of 13.5%. A wine is vegan-friendly when they use minerals rather than egg whites during the fining process. Fining is where they remove solids from the finished wine before bottling.
The Esteban Martin Garnacha Syrah 2021 Tasting Notes
The color is a deep dark nearly opaque black cherry red. The nose is ripe blackberry, jammy raspberry, light candy spice, and cherry cough syrup, which does not sound all that great but it works. The Esteban Martin Garnacha Syrah 2021 is a fruit-forward wine with a hint of sweetness and a slightly rough-edged finish.
This Garnacha Syrah tastes like extracted blackberry, licorice, plum, and a shot of spice. The mid-palate offers cranberry, pomegranate, and sharp spice. The tannins stay out of the way and the acidity does what it needs to do.
The Summary
- The Esteban Martin Garnacha Syrah 2021 is a decent well-priced Tuesday night wine.
- The 2021 vintage is not the 92-point the 2019 wine was, but then again 2019 didn’t sell for $9.99.
- It occurred to me that as a “young” wine it may be approaching the end of its ideal shelf life and that is why it has the 5-buck price tag. So if you buy don’t wait around, drink it.
