2003 Venta Mazzaron TEMPRANILLO (Zamora, Spain)

A rustic but flavorful wine from the planet Mercury-like vintage of 2003. Saturated black ruby color. Nose was meaty and leathery at first, but with air some nice, ripe raspberry and cherry fruit took over, with sweet cream and a bit of scorched earth. Chewy, full-bodied texture, with small but noticeable amounts of gritty tannin. Flavors were mainly ripe, plummy fruit, with scorched earth and leathery undertones. Finish just a tad hot, with some astringency. Not bad, but not a repeater. 85. Was $13.49 at Spec's on Smith.

The meatiness, leathery, scorched earth flavors, along with the not-so-soft tannin, the heat, and the astringency in the finish are all, to my mind, trademarks of the 2003 vintage in regions that are usually hot to begin with, and thus were REALLY hot in 2003. I'm thinking the southern Rhone, Provence, the Languedoc and other parts of southwest France, many areas in Spain, and pretty much all of Italy. More and more, my instincts are "caveat emptor" concerning wines from these regions in '03. (And best to avoid taking chances on 2002's from these regions as well for just the opposite reason: too much rain and lack of sun leading to unripe, diluted wines.)