Community Tasting Note

forceberry wrote:

Saturday, March 25, 2017 - A blend of Tempranillo (80%), Garnacha (15%), Mazuelo and Graciano, the grapes sourced from the El Bosque vineyard. Fermented spontaneously in oak fermenters, aged for 5 years in barrels and then for a further 3 years in bottles before release.

Somewhat translucent, deep and slightly developed black cherry color with some bricking towards the rim. Quite dry and savory nose - especially compared to the two more fruit-forward vintages 2004 and 2005 that were tasted alongside. There are some notes of ripe dark berries and hints of blackberry marmalade, along with some more savory notes of sour plums, but overall the fruit department feels a bit restrained with notes of soot, tar, some smoke, hints of salty licorice and a touch of mushroomy earth on the fore. The wine is dry, medium-bodied and pretty tightly-knit on the palate with rather savory flavors of licorice, tar, brambly blackberries, some peppery spice, a little bit of wild strawberries, a hint of astringent chokeberries and a touch of cedar. Overall the wine is quite structured with its high acidity and firm, moderately high and quite grippy tannins. The finish is dry, lively and slightly grippy with long flavors of tart dark berries, ripe blackberries, some black pepper and lighter nuances of more exotic spices, hints of dry and cracking leather and a touch of more developed characteristics of mushroomy earth and slightly dried berries.

This is a pretty savory, somewhat restrained and rather dead-serious vintage of Bosconia, showing less fruit intensity and richness, thus coming across as quite dry, stern and a bit austere. Bosconia usually is lighter and more delicate is compared to Tondonia, but comparing this vintage to vintages 2004 and 2005 felt like comparing Bosconia and Tondonia again. The little oak what Bosconia might show while young was perfectly integrated with the fruit at this point - there were no vanilla notes to speak of and only things reminding of oak were very subtle nuances of cedar - and you could start noticing the first nuances of more developed tertiary character in the background. This particular vintage might never turn out as interesting and long-lived compared to the better vintages, but still this is a very lovely, serious and stylistically so very old-school Rioja, offering much more gastronomic and intellectual pleasure than so many of those modern Rioja Reservas and Gran Reservas the market is flooded with these days. Priced according to its quality at 20,20€.

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