Hermanos Lurton Tempranillo 2015

Toro is an ancient town in the north west of Spain, just 40km or so from the Portuguese border. It is a town steeped in history, dating back to pre-Roman Empire days, all the way to the 1st Century BC. Through many centuries Toro has been famous for its wine, with Christopher Columbus taking Toro wine with him on his expedition to discover America in 1492, due to its ability to travel well without spoiling.

The Toro Town Hall -source

The predominant grape varietal is Tinta de Toro, the name given to the Tempranillo grape grown in Toro which was given its Designation of Origin in 1933.

We picked up a bottle of Hermanos Lurton Tempranillo 2015 on the weekend, and decided to give it a try last night. It cost us $12, so we didn't really expect much from it, however it did give us an enjoyable drink. It poured dark out of the bottle, and gave scents of dry cinnamon spice and dark berries, with quite a pleasant earthy tone to it. The first sip was of bold spice an deep flavours of dried plum and blackberries. You could almost taste the land too. It was a bit closed, but as it aired we were introduced to some sweeter fruity notes, and an underlying chocolaty smoothness as it went down.

The second glass was a lot better than the first, so having some time to air definitely helped the wine to open up and be that much more enjoyable. You can't expect greatness from a $10 bottle of wine, and this one was nowhere near that. For $10 though, a pretty decent drop for a midweek quaff. I'll be keeping a look out for more wines from the Toto region to compare this one to. I quite enjoyed the

We scored this a 3 out of 5. Not bad, but I'd probably rather spend a $5 more to get something quite a bit better.

Cheers!!

^{Team Australia, Team South Africa, and The Alliance banners by @bearone
My Awesome Upboks by @ryivhnn}