2004 Finca El Retiro Tempranillo Reserva Especial

Community Tasting Notes (9) Avg Score: 89.8 points

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  9/1/2017 - owr Likes this wine: 84 Points

  This double edged sword of a wine started out very alcoholic and harsh with earthy and cedary spices, it was hard to get passed the first few sips ... but it's 12 years old so I let it sit open, I even made the attempt to decant it a little, and wouldn't ya know it came back to life: plum, cassis, and black cherry began to dominate with the earthy-dreary note taking a backseat and it developed a nice spicy kick on the finish ... fresh and lively? No. Better than originally thought? You bet.

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  11/26/2012 - owr Likes this wine: 88 Points

  Now my grasp of the Spanish language is not very strong ... but my limited knowledge can figure out that "Reserva Especial" is Special Reserve and that intrigues me. What intrigued me even more is that this wine is from Argentina and is made from Tempranillo, not something you see from Argentina very often - not in Ontario anyway. I had this wine in one of my 'lie-it-down' boxes and it seems the time for lying this one had come to an end, sooner or later you do have to try them and assess them as to whether or not it should continue to nap or be woken up post haste. Good news is this wine falls into both categories ... I was sure glad I woke up a bottle, but I think it could still sit a little longer with little to no ill-effect. The nose was cinnamon and vanilla oriented with blackberry, raspberry and sweet licorice notes (very appealing). On the palate it took a few sips to come around. The first taste to hit the palate was that of spiced raspberries, the last thing was a lovely cocoa finish - it was the middle that caused a lot of controversy as the flavours were not as easily identifiable. In the end I picked up hints of blueberry and spice coursing through the mid-palate. This ia a delightful and relatively unique wine (from my perspective anyway), because it remains the only bottle(s) of Tempranillo I have form Argentina - seems I have a couple more to enjoy over the next few years; right now it's drinking very well.

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  11/15/2009 - Delund wrote: 92 Points

  90 minute decant. Last bottle of a case. I've been holding on to this wine for a few years, but finally broke down last night. Lovely dark fruits on a big velvety frame, medium-length finish. Great QPR wine.

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  8/22/2009 - h2o wrote: 92 Points

  with grilled rib eye and corn. didn't decant, better after an hour.

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  6/21/2009 - formula1 wrote: 90 Points

  Great value fruit bomb of a wine. Long finish of dark fruits. No need to drink up in fact still might be good to decant for an hour ahead of time. Enjoy. Happy I still have four left.

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