This wine is a blend of fruit from old vines in the Rioja Alta region - 80% Tempranillo, 10% Garnacha, and 10% Mazuelo, from Bodegas LAN, one of the largest producers in Rioja. This wine was aged for one year in mixed French and American oak, and subsequently aged for two years in bottle.
This wine has a deep purple core surrounded by garnet. The nose offers aromas of black cherries and plums, with anise and faint woodsmoke. There is a sense of bright acidity and minerality that is hard to pin down as a scent, but it is there. On the palate, the wine is smooth, balanced, and vibrant, not ponderous as some New World wines are wont to be. The wine has floral hints of roses and violets married with savory notes of saddle leather and smoke. These ineresting accents are integrated against a lively fruit background of plums, black cherry, raisin, and just a hint of white pepper. Ripe, gentle tannins that speak of bottle age lead to a good finish of plum and cherry fruit, licorice, and tasteful new oak.
This wine is a class act for $16. No, it's not a cellar-worthy, classic Rioja that gives you the full taste of the quartz-inflected llicorella soil that give the appellation its reknown. But it is a top-quality Spanish red at the price point. Poised, balanced, and elegant, its vivacious acidity and modest weight offer lots to enjoy, especially at the table. A knockout tapas wine, enjoy with paella, jamon serrano with crostini, Manchego and marinated olives, etc.
1 comments:
while I agree that it may not be the one you pull out for the mother in law, it is certainly a good buy for a steak dinner with the wife on movie night. Also, for 16 bucks, its a lock!
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