Art and wine - the best combination imaginable. 

In Alko* the sub $12 French wines of previous years have been iced in show-case jobs. A brainstorm to be applauded. If one is looking for a wine to echo the reputation of this huge company in an annual event, it's good to forget French wines in that price category because that's the way the producers of France have price-tagged their products. 

So, the art wine of the year comes this time from Spain, and Alko's employee magazine explains that 'the pqr of Spanish wines is excellent'. Too many art years passed before the traditional wine&art concept was broadened. 

Somontano Crianza 1994 gives your nose some sunny shine, and a bit of vanilla. The taste opens up with friendly, not overpowering, muscularity. Some spices, and other pleasantries appear. Tempranillo & cabernet sauvignon do not let you down this time, either. - We had the wine with a mighty cheese we got as a present from England. The mellow yellow, the room-filling scent, and the spots of noble mould on the cheese would have tamed a lamer wine. 

Somontano is a pleasant, but not over-whelming Spanish aquaintance. A good year and a good production that carries only a couple of FIM's extra for the design of the wine artist of the year, Mari Rantanen. 

I just wish that there will come a time when this land of design produces an art wine with the bottle itself, the artwork on the label, and the setting of the art into the label working together to give us a total experience, along with a wine at least as pleasant as this time. Now the cardboard gift-wrapping seems more elegant than the product itself.  
*Alko = the name of the Finnish retailing monopoly.