Oh, Prima- you’re-so-fine-you-blow-my-mind.  And no, do not insert a “Hey,” because I am rocking out to some old school SWV, not Tony Basil.  Yup, that’s how I roll on Tuesday mornings!  My 90’s R&B playlist simply cannot be beat.

I’ve been looking forward to this one!  One of my all time favorite by the glass pours at Cellar on Greene since we opened.  I feel like I say that a lot… well, you have to trust me- and yes, it’s okay that I have a lot of favorites.  They’re like my children.

Here it is on my desk at home- I actually drank it over the weekend while I watched the finale of The Pacific on HBO.  It’s full name is Bodegas y Vinedos Maurodos Prima, 2007.  But it goes by Prima in layman’s terms, or at least in my terms.  Are you ready to be extremely wow’d??  You better be!  Because EVERY recent vintage of this wine has scored 90-points or above from Robert Parker! 03, 04, 05, 06, 07 and 08 (which I haven’t had yet, but would love to get my hands on).  The 07 got a 90.  Are you ready for the best part?  It costs $19!  Yup, you can snag this little guy for under 20 bucks at Cellar on Greene.   Here’s a better look at the label so you can remember what you’re looking for:

This is a plump, sexy wine.  It shows off a little- it knows it’s the shit.  It is ripe, and full of chocolate, dark cherry, blackberry, raspberry, smoke, pencil lead, tobacco and general awesomeness.  It has great acidity and enough tannin to allow it to age several years- if you can wait that long.  I think it’s perfect right now, but then again, I like ’em young.  Toro is a relatively young recognized wine region (DO, in wine-nerdy terms), only founded in 1987 with just four wineries.  Tempranillo (also called tinta de Toro) make up almost 80% of it’s plantings, with small amounts of Garnacha, Cab Sauv, Malvasia (which, to me, sounds more like an illness than a grape) and Verdejo.

Toro produces the kind of wine that can easily rival any top wine region in the world- yes, even the snobby French ones- and the Prima is an absolutely sublime example of what Toro is capable of at a truly ridiculous price!  What I truly prefer about Spanish wines- at least in the American market- is that people actually DRINK them.  I sell Spanish wine hand over fist above French wine at Cellar.  Something about French wine is off-putting to a lot of people.  Anyone out there want to voice an opinion as to why?  I have a few theories, but I don’t want to offend any Francophiles out there.

So I’ll skip the wine nerdiness to finish off the post- SWV is the bomb, people.  90’s female R&B is where it’s at.  Just take a look at these ladies:

Rockin the leather and leopard with a vaguely 80’s graphic floating above them like a halo.  “I’m so into youuu, I don’t know what I’m gonna doooo.”  That’s me singing to Prima.  Except, of course, that I DO know what I’m gonna do!  Sell it, and drink it!  It’ll be by the glass at Cellar for $9 for the foreseeable future, so I hope you’ll come in and try a glass!  Cheers!