Tasting Altos de Luzon at The Tasting Room in St. Augustine

Earlier this season Gabriele and I spent some time in St. Augustine, Florida. We were there last year as well, and had an excellent meal at a restaurant called Collage that introduced us to Foley Pinot Noir.

We could of course have returned there, but part of the fun of vacationing is trying new places. So we did a little digging on Yelp, TripAdvisor and Urbanspoon and found a place that has some really strong reviews, The Tasting Room.

We had an excellent meal, and discovered a new Spanish wine we really liked. It was the Altos de Luzon 2006. It’s a blend of Monastrell, Cabernet Sauvignon and Tempranillo grapes from the Jumilla region in Spain. We had a flight of three reds to start and this one was the clear winner.

The wine is purple black, with a big aroma of fruit, alcohol and a little oak. It’s medium bodied on the palate, with a nice balance of blackberry fruit and tannins. I also tasted some violet and a bit of leather. If you like analogies with your wine descriptions, this wine is a bit like a combination southern Rhone (Monastrell being Spanish for Mourvedre) and a Super Tuscan.

It had a smooth, lingering finish. It’s a big, delicious wine that stops short of being heavy or overwhelming.The Tasting Room offered it at a fair markup and the wine looks to be available for around $15 retail, which is a great bargain.The restaurant’s wine list is very extensive, for both Spanish and other regions.

We really liked the atmosphere at the Tasting Room, and the service was very good. The tapas we had to start were all good, except for the croquetas de jamon which were disappointingly doughy and bland. The scallops with black olive vinaigrette were fantastic. I had the rice with seafood dish Arroz Jugoso, which had good seafood but was poorly described on the menu as risotto-like in texture. It’s not at all, in fact the rice was rather dry.

With those two caveats, I’d recommend The Tasting Room highly. They make it easy for you to make your own Spanish discovery. Or, just take my word on the Luzon.