There are some bottles I pick up because I know roughly what I am getting, and then there are bottles like this.

At £7.99 in Lidl, a 2019 Gran Reserva from Cariñena made with Tempranillo, Garnacha and Cabernet Sauvignon was interesting enough that I couldn’t really leave it there.

Tonight it was going alongside a huge cowboy steak cooked on the BBQ. On paper, I thought I had absolutely nailed the pairing.

As it turned out, the wine was better than expected. The pairing wasn’t.

In the Glass

I gave this a good few hours in the decanter before drinking it, and the first thing that came through on the nose was sweet dark fruit compote.

That sweetness is worth explaining because, having scanned the QR code afterwards, the wine contains less than 0.4g of sugar per 100ml. So what I was picking up wasn’t really sugar at all. It was that impression of very ripe, concentrated fruit.

In the glass, that concentration continued.

For me, Cabernet Sauvignon seemed to be doing a lot of the talking. I don’t know the actual percentages of the blend, so I can’t say they’ve literally led with Cabernet, but it certainly tasted that way to me. This was dark fruit all the way.

What surprised me was how little obvious oak I found. With an inexpensive Spanish Gran Reserva I half expected vanilla, coconut and that obvious American oak character. I wasn’t getting it. Instead, the fruit stayed very much at the front.

It’s smooth too. Nothing aggressive, nothing green, and certainly none of that green bell pepper character that can completely ruin a Cabernet based wine for me.

Then something quite unexpected appeared.

Granny Smith apple.

I kept going back to it because apple in a dark Spanish red sounds slightly ridiculous written down, but it was there. A crisp, tart Granny Smith character cutting through all that concentrated black fruit.

And actually, apple and blackcurrant isn’t a strange combination at all. It’s a flavour combination we’ve probably all had countless times in drinks and sweets. Here it gave the wine a freshness that I really wasn’t expecting.

The finish is medium rather than particularly long, but at £7.99 I’m really not complaining.

With the Cowboy Steak

This was where my expectations were slightly turned on their head.

I thought a mature Spanish Gran Reserva and a big BBQ cowboy steak would be a banker of a pairing. It wasn’t.

The steak was rich, meaty and charred, while the wine remained very much about that ripe dark fruit compote. Rather than the two coming together, I felt like the fruitiness of the wine was actually working against the savoury flavour of the meat.

It wasn’t horrible by any stretch. I still enjoyed drinking the wine and I certainly still enjoyed eating the steak. They just weren’t making each other any better.

In hindsight, I think something like a Saint Joseph would have been much more at home here. That peppery, smoky, savoury Syrah character would have worked with the char and meatiness of the steak rather than bringing another competing flavour to the table.

That’s probably my biggest lesson from this bottle. Gran Reserva and steak might sound right on paper, but the individual character of the wine matters far more than the words on the label.

The Verdict

For £7.99, they’ve done a really good job here.

It’s concentrated, smooth, properly dry and packed with ripe dark fruit. There’s no unpleasant greenness and the unexpected Granny Smith note gives it a freshness that stops all that fruit becoming too heavy.

I also really like the blend. Tempranillo, Garnacha and Cabernet Sauvignon was one of the main reasons I picked the bottle up in the first place, alongside the 2019 vintage and Gran Reserva ageing. It was simply something a bit different.

Would I pair it with a cowboy steak again? Probably not.

Would I buy the wine again for £7.99? Absolutely.

And I don’t think those two things contradict each other at all.

Sometimes the wine can be good and the food can be good, while the pairing simply isn’t. This was one of those nights.

There are some bottles I pick up because I know roughly what I am getting, and then there are bottles like this. At £7.99 in Lidl, a 2019 Gran Reserva from Cariñena made with Tempranillo, Garnacha and Cabernet Sauvignon was interesting enough that I couldn’t really leave it there.

Tonight it was going alongside a huge cowboy steak cooked on the BBQ. On paper, I thought I had absolutely nailed the pairing.

As it turned out, the wine was better than expected. The pairing wasn’t.

In the Glass

I gave this a good few hours in the decanter before drinking it, and the first thing that came through on the nose was sweet dark fruit compote.

That sweetness is worth explaining because, having scanned the QR code afterwards, the wine contains less than 0.4g of sugar per 100ml. So what I was picking up wasn’t really sugar at all. It was that impression of very ripe, concentrated fruit.

In the glass, that concentration continued.

For me, Cabernet Sauvignon seemed to be doing a lot of the talking. I don’t know the actual percentages of the blend, so I can’t say they’ve literally led with Cabernet, but it certainly tasted that way to me. This was dark fruit all the way.

What surprised me was how little obvious oak I found. With an inexpensive Spanish Gran Reserva I half expected vanilla, coconut and that obvious American oak character. I wasn’t getting it. Instead, the fruit stayed very much at the front.

It’s smooth too. Nothing aggressive, nothing green, and certainly none of that green bell pepper character that can completely ruin a Cabernet based wine for me.

Then something quite unexpected appeared.

Granny Smith apple.

I kept going back to it because apple in a dark Spanish red sounds slightly ridiculous written down, but it was there. A crisp, tart Granny Smith character cutting through all that concentrated black fruit.

And actually, apple and blackcurrant isn’t a strange combination at all. It’s a flavour combination we’ve probably all had countless times in drinks and sweets. Here it gave the wine a freshness that I really wasn’t expecting.

The finish is medium rather than particularly long, but at £7.99 I’m really not complaining.

With the Cowboy Steak

This was where my expectations were slightly turned on their head.

I thought a mature Spanish Gran Reserva and a big BBQ cowboy steak would be a banker of a pairing. It wasn’t.

The steak was rich, meaty and charred, while the wine remained very much about that ripe dark fruit compote. Rather than the two coming together, I felt like the fruitiness of the wine was actually working against the savoury flavour of the meat.

It wasn’t horrible by any stretch. I still enjoyed drinking the wine and I certainly still enjoyed eating the steak. They just weren’t making each other any better.

In hindsight, I think something like a Saint Joseph would have been much more at home here. That peppery, smoky, savoury Syrah character would have worked with the char and meatiness of the steak rather than bringing another competing flavour to the table.

That’s probably my biggest lesson from this bottle. Gran Reserva and steak might sound right on paper, but the individual character of the wine matters far more than the words on the label.

The Verdict

For £7.99, they’ve done a really good job here.

It’s concentrated, smooth, properly dry and packed with ripe dark fruit. There’s no unpleasant greenness and the unexpected Granny Smith note gives it a freshness that stops all that fruit becoming too heavy.

I also really like the blend. Tempranillo, Garnacha and Cabernet Sauvignon was one of the main reasons I picked the bottle up in the first place, alongside the 2019 vintage and Gran Reserva ageing. It was simply something a bit different.

Would I pair it with a cowboy steak again? Probably not.

Would I buy the wine again for £7.99? Absolutely.

And I don’t think those two things contradict each other at all.

Sometimes the wine can be good and the food can be good, while the pairing simply isn’t. This was one of those nights.