ON THE NOSE:
Crappy sour-cherry nose with tons of fake sweetness followed by a chemical aspect that is not at all enjoyable.
ON THE PALATE:
This stuff is awful.
Perhaps the bottle was bad?
Perhaps the wine is bad!
No further words are needed, except: Don't waste your money!
(Click here for an explanation of our ratings ...)
Our Rating: 69
Would we drink it again? 
No way!
Would we buy it again?
No way!
Other reviews
90 points Jay Miller: Wine Advocate
"The 2005 Menguante Tempranillo was aged 3 months in new French oak. A saturated purple in color, it offers up fragrant aromas of violets, vanilla, blueberry and blackberry liqueur. Medium to full-bodied, this juicy effort has abundant forward fruit and excellent length. Nicely balanced, it can be enjoyed now and over the next 4 years. It is an outstanding value. Kudos to the Pablo family!" (02/07)
[What was he drinking? What was he thinking?]
80 points Gary Vaynerchuk
PAZZZ; COLOR-dark; NOSE-has a very fake Cherry Coke nose w/ burnt rubber finish; TASTE-off balance, tastes very Hi-C mixed w/ alcohol, very artificial, chemical aspect, disjointed, fake sour taste.
[I am more in line with GV, but he was being too kind with 80 points, IMHO]
About the Cariñena Region
Cariñena is both a grape variety and a wine region, where, ironically, the grape variety does not dominate; instead it is the Garnacha. The DO is next to, and east of Calatayud, and was famous for two things: the natural very high-strength wines that were widely used for blending both in and outside Spain; and the village of Puentetodos,
the birthplace of Goya.
Cariñena has been the most high profile of all of Aragons DO zones, perhaps because it has been around the longest. The zone was first demarcated in 1932 and received its official denominacion de origen documentation in 1960.
Cariñena today produces excellent, full-bodied tinto’s for which the region is justly renowned.
The Romans, as ever in this part of Spain, were the first to organize winemaking on a commercial level, but Cariñena had its own
regulations in place as early as 1696. It was also one of the first wine-producing regions in Spain to have its borders delimited.
The vineyards spread upwards from the flood-plain of the river Ebro into the mountains of the Sistema Iberica at
altitudes between 400 and 800 metres. Soils are good for vines, being comprised of limestone, a little chalk with some slate and alluvial deposits at the lower levels. The climate produces long hot summers and even longer autumns. Rainfall is relatively low at 300-350 millimetres, so yields are not likely to be high.
Garnacha accounts for 55% of the tinto grape varieties grown, with Tempranillo at 15% and Cariñena at 6%. For blanco’s the main variety is Macabeo, which accounts for 20% of the vineyard.
Cariñena produces some of the best wines in Aragon, and are usually given pride of place in many of the region’s restaurants. They are served alongside Migas, which is a dish of fried breadcrumbs and leftovers (bits of ham and cheese, but also fish, vegetables etc.). Roast lamb, kid and suckling-pig, which is the standard cuisine of northern Spain, are prominent menu items, and beef is often served raw alongside a plate of baked rock-salt to allow diners to cook it the way they want.
