1973 Bodegas Corral Rioja Gran Reserva

Community Tasting Notes (16) Avg Score: 93.7 points

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View r4Cali's profile
  • Report Issue

  11/8/2023 - r4Cali Likes this wine: 94 Points

  Special occasion opening of this 50 year old Rioja. Love the experience of walking back in time and tasting aged wine. This is crimson with some brown edges, but I expected it to be even more so. Super smooth with all tannins resolved and small amount of fruit remaining. Not overly dusty or leathery. Very much dried red fruits and or roses. Opened for a leisurely dinner and as the night went on started to get some more balsamic, prune, dessert wine effects. Drink now or over the next 5+ years. It's not going down, but hard to see it getting any better from waiting.

  1 person found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View bubbachumps's profile
  • Report Issue

  8/24/2023 - bubbachumps wrote: 94 Points

  Ken's Dueling Northern Rhones (Ken's Castle): The boys surprised me with a birthyear wine since I turned 50 on 8/01. Score is a bit elevated because I was blown away at how well this was drinking. Beautiful nose with subtle notes of cherries and dried strawberries. The tannins were completely resolved but this wine held up very well at pop and pour for about an hour. This bottling appeared to have been re-corked bc the cork came out completely intact and didn't look too old.

  2 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View dariuskoenig's profile
  • Report Issue

  6/11/2023 - dariuskoenig Likes this wine: 93 Points

  Opened this for my wife's retirement celebration with our grown kids & spouses. Cork appeared in good shape, but got a bit cavalier with the corkscrew and it broke off in the neck (doh!), leaving a 1/3 as a plug. When I tried to re-seat the corkscrew it popped the remaining cork right into the wine. At least it sounded like there was a good seal. Poured the wine into a decanter through a fine mesh filter and then promptly into glasses, so everything recovered fine. Vibrant ruby color, little bricking evident. Tannins fully resolved, surprising amount of dried strawberry fruit remained on the nose and palate. After 20-30 minutes some balsamic notes. Ethereal nose, and a depth that I haven't experienced before, very subtle. Peaked at 30 minutes and by 90 minutes it was noticeably diminishing. Happy for the short but delightful ride through history. Still have a bottle of the '75, looking forward to seeing how that journey goes.

  2 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View MrSpaceMan's profile
  • Report Issue

  3/19/2023 - MrSpaceMan Likes this wine: 91 Points

  Opened to celebrate a friends 70th (50 years old is as close as I could get). Strained and decanted for 30 min. Some fine sediment.
  Wonderful, deep nose. leather, some fruit, forest tones. Fully developed. Soft tannins. Fruit has resolved so found the acid slightly over powering. Drank over 90 min. Had lost its full nose by the end. Have one more bottle, will probably drink on its own to fully enjoy.
  
  Food: Served with Cuban pork, well paired, but the accompanying Mojo (acid based)sauce did not pair well. A bit of clash.

  2 people found this helpful, do you? Yes - No / Comment

• Options

  • Post a Comment
  • View DUSTOFF's profile
  • Report Issue

  3/17/2023 - DUSTOFF wrote:

  Badly corked

  Do you find this review helpful? Yes - No / Comment

View all 16 Community Tasting Notes

Professional reviews have copyrights and you can view them here for your personal use only as private content. To view pro reviews you must either subscribe to a pre-integrated publication or manually enter reviews below. Learn more.