Community Tasting Note

• pjaines wrote: 92 points

  January 29, 2009 - If you open one of these give it some time to open up. Nose at first is quite plummy, soft. Taste is soft fruit, little tannins, medium bodied. Good complexity at first, but not great. Then over time this wine puts on weight, gains complexity and beefs up. After 2 hours nose of cherries, chocolate, espresso, black olives. In the mouth medium to full bodied - great complexity with wonderful, slightly bitter tannins that balance wonderfully against the wine. This does have a few years ahead of it. Notes of caramel coming through at the end. Paid £80 for this.
  
  The question I was asking myself with this wine is "How does it compare to a 3-5 year old £30 bottle of Ribera-del-Deuro such as Alion".
  
  The answer is that this is just slightly less full bodied and the alcohol and tannins well resolved. Not sure I would spend another £80 on this again, but it makes me appreciate other Ribera del Duero wines in the £30 price range. Overall fantastic but too expensive.

  1 person found this helpful 4,234 views

1 Comment

• ricard commented:

  5/22/11, 10:16 AM - I agree entirely with your comments. I do think there are a number of Riberas that frankly knock the socks off Flor de Pingus within, or even under, the price bracket, not least Alión. But in particular I recommend Malleolus de Valderramiro and Malleolus de Sanchomartín (see what I thought of the 2005, for example: http://www.cellartracker.com/new/wine.asp?iWine=495416) and pretty much anything by Vizcarra, or the more traditional Ribera del Duero wines such as Viña Pedrosa or Hacienda Monasterio (utterly sublime). Anyway, nice to see a Londoner loving Alión.

Add a Comment