Community Tasting Note

• robmatic wrote: 85 points

  December 2, 2017 - Fantastic wine lurking below the surface, but unfortunately the surface consists of an impenetrable layer of oak that ruins the wine for me. I just question why there must be so much wood. Will this ever integrate and taste like anything except wood? I am not betting my money on it.

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3 Comments

• drwine2001 commented:

  12/4/17, 4:57 PM - Rob-I too am "allergic" to the wood in many young Riojas, so I understand your reaction to this wine. For some houses (La Rioja Alta comes to mind), to my taste, the oak never recedes, and I just avoid them whatever the age. On the other hand, I've had 30/40/60 year old CUNE wines that were sublime and definitely did not show a lot of wood. So, either the wood really does get incorporated or the barrel aging regimen employed a much lighter touch through the '80s. If you live in the U.S. and are so inclined, the Rare Wine Company often offers well aged, well stored vintages of CUNE wines with pricing that is a bargain compared to Bordeaux, Burgundy, Barolo, etc. of similar age.

• robmatic commented:

  12/4/17, 8:07 PM - Right on, I've had lots of older bottlings of CUNE that were marvelous, as well as many Riojas from other producers that have been extremely memorable. I think 2001 was a turning point as many wines began to see a lot more oak than they had in the past. I am now much more careful about which ones I buy.

• chatters commented:

  12/5/17, 2:55 PM - interesting dialogue, thanks gents, much appreciated

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