2/23/2023 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

This is why I drink Bordeaux.

I know 2011 is an off year. But from the first sniff of this in the decanter, and as it unfurled over a couple of hours, I was captivated. And in the tasting, it lived up to the nose. Just lovely; leather, and funk, and armpit (in a good way) and gravel. Just a joy to drink. I'm so impressed. A delight.

6/19/2022 - ChinaBounder Does not like this wine:

Disappointing. I found it blocky, monolithic, characterless. Even after a long airing it did not improve.

3/7/2022 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

I pondered opening this one for a while. 2017 Brunellos, say the critics, are a young-drinking vintage but at just 5 years old and so soon after release it may have been too soon. But while this will surely get better with some years in bottle, it’s a delight now.

Nose like a hot day in parched countryside, the scent of undergrowth, rosemary, thyme, juniper bushes – garrigue – but austere, restrained, subtle. Appealing and alluring. Some delicate leather too.

The taste lives up to the nose; it’s subtle, delicate, thoughtful. I find light, gentle tar and smoke, but also the slight sweet fragrance of flowers. Just a little muted red fruit sharpness too. It is very much a wine for sipping to let its subtleties come out. It’s long, too, filling the mouth and lingering on the palate.

Very pleased with this. It is excellent. I have another six on order and I’ll put them away for just a couple of years. But this is drinking nicely now with good upside ahead.

12/7/2021 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

Lovely. Drinking very well now but can clearly stand another decade or more of aging. Benefits from several hours' decant. A really nice, complete expression of tempranillo. Among the many good wines of the Ribera del Duero, this is one of my favorites. Highly recommended. Excellent QPR at around 16 to 18 euros.

9/5/2021 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

Good - perhaps a little short, but agreeable.

8/31/2021 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

I dunno about the sniffy note below. Maybe that guy's right. But I enjoyed this a lot. Delicate, short, leathery bottle notes, some herbs, a bit of grass meadow nose. Reminds me afresh why sangiovese is one of my favorite grapes.

Yeah, sure, that 'American tourists' burn and the ‘missing terroir’ does make me somewhat to feel I ought dismiss this wine too. FFS, I got six Haut Brion 2016 in my cellar, and Mouton also, so for sure I’ve bought into the whole splashy big-bucks wait til you’re dead to drink it hype. And I’ve drunk 1982 Pichon Lalande too. And fine it was, very fine.

But then I drink this 13 euro bottle and I can’t help but think, well, wines like this each night, I could drink and be largely content. Maybe my palate just ain't all that. But this much pleased me.

2/23/2021 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

Good. Rounded, plummy, warm spice, full. Lovely. Other TNs here mention too much oak and I certainly do not like much oak in my rioja. But I do not find much oak in the wine now; if it was there, perhaps it has receded/integrated. Good QPR here; this was under 20 euros.

2/11/2021 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

Rose petals, tar, leather, spice on the end. And sweetness. Good. Supple and sinewey. Ready but will last.

The wine seller I brought this from told me that this wine was made by Tomas Postigo, one of the leading lights of Spanish wine making; and the wine lives up to the expectations I’d formed based on Postigo’s other wines.

2/7/2021 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

Good stuff this, still young, but showing nice. Meaty, fresh cherry, leather, a bit tart. QPR a bit so-so - I’ve tasted better Riojas cheaper. But still, a well made wine.

1/24/2021 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

Showing better than when I last tried two years ago. Gave it a long decant. Great aromas curled out of the decanter and licked around the room. Classy, confident Bordeaux. Not stellar and not likely to be, but good, well made, enjoyable.

8/31/2020 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

Really fine and proper BDX nose on opening, sweet blue fruit, some spice, blackcurrant/cassis. The nose curled out of the decanter and licked its tongue into the corners of the evening.

I left it to breathe a couple of hours, much looking forward to it. But the taste did not live up to the nose - mushy, unfocused, nothing there. Ah.

But... I am in a warm climate and the wine had become too warm. So back with a half bottle into my wine fridge for the next day.

And then it was just lovely - elegant, limpid, a taste I’d describe as somehow gravelly, but also slatey - and all the notes of a good classic Bdx, subtle, layered, good fruit but in no way a fruit bomb. I was very impressed.

As the wine warmed up, it lost this focus and became once again nothing special.

In short: this is a lovely wine, just lovely, but you have to keep it between 12 and 14 degrees - ah, in that range it just sings -

I don't quite agree with scoring wines, but this one is currently at 88.8, and that seems unmerited based on the bottle I just drank. So a 93, and one that it earns with ease.

8/3/2020 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

Mmm, lovely, this is in a good place at present, it's singing. Fine brown sugar nose, red fruits and foresty notes in palate, silky too - packs a punch but it's not burly. Long.

I'd say this will age well for years to come, but it's just lovely now. Dive in, pour on.

6/29/2020 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

You can't go too far wrong with Postigo. He's a skilled winemaker.

This bottle was good, but needs time. It was a little dumb even after a two hour decant. The next day it had more to say, fine cocoa topnotes and all the classic flavors of tempranillo.

Give this another five years; and it'll easily last 20 more.

6/15/2020 - ChinaBounder wrote:

This first evening, this was utterly unremarkable. No character. The second evening, it had developed some personality. There was some delicacy, some nuance. But, overall, I was disappointed. It did not live up to its price, 33 euros.

5/3/2020 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

This is my last bottle; my penultimate one was five years ago - TN below.

Three hour decant. Lovely, big perfumed nose, jams, a hot sweltering road, smoke. Full round taste, textured, layered. Blackcurrants, spice, anise (faint) - nicely put together, complete, long, supple - indeed very long, delicate aftertaste. Classic, elegant. Fully mature, at peak but not past it, still a lot of fruit. This is very impressive, a very good showing.

Bravo, Wynns.

3/2/2020 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

Oh, goodness - this is glorious. Just wonderful, wow -

My first ever Brunello. I recall the big critical buzz for the 2010 vintage and as I wanted to expand my drinking beyond Bordeaux, I got some of this - Berry Bros sold it to me and of course their sales email was effusive - it’s a wine merchant’s job to be effusive - but dear me this is great and I want to give them a big sloppy hug for selling me some.

What a drinking experience! I will tell you, I went into it somewhat moody, a ghost from the past rising to meet me, a path not taken, the gal I sought but did not seek me (we dated an’ all but she just wasn’t so into me, ah); and I had eaten some cheese that was perhaps not quite right, too. So my mind was not focused and my guts were not focused; I was not in a mode to listen to the wine. And the first mouthful of this - there was disappointment, it was vapoury and unyielding.

Then it opened up and it cut through my tumultuous heart and gurgly guts and then the wine was the focus of it all; just perfect, just delicious - easily alongside my finest drinking experiences (which are lucky enough to include Pichon Lalande 1982, so - ).

This is rosemary and lavender, it’s a heath on a sunny day, with butterflies and bees, and (sure, I am making a geographical solecism here) it’s garrigue - .

Fabulous. I could not ask for more. Oof. I’ll not insult the wine by giving it a score; I don't quite like scores - and how can you score sublime? Aye sublime, aye sublime, aye sublime.

12/10/2019 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

A lovely drop of wine. I very much enjoyed drinking this. And I can add no more to Jeff Leve's note below - 'Mature, bright, fresh, earthy, tobacco-stained and with crisp red fruits' - which is a spot-on review.

6/26/2019 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

I was hugely impressed with this. It really does express the best of petit verdot (a grape I very much like when it’s treated well) - that burly note it has, jammy but not at all confected, with hints of herbs and black fruit, a creamy, woody tone too.

And only 7.95 euro a bottle (here in Spain) - really very good QPR - I went back to the store and brought all they had. This wine easily, effortlessly outclasses much more expensive petit verdots - I’ve had 45-50e bottles of PV that aren’t as good. And just for measure, I’ll say I’ve had bottles of Paganos La Nieta and Cirsion - big-ticket wines in Spain - not to toot my own horn but to suggest this sweet little bottle can in its own way give just as much pleasure as such big-booted company.

Indeed I was impressed enough with this wine to drop a note to the wine maker, Lauren Rosillo. He has his own winery near Malaga, at Sedella; Parker said his red was the best in Andalusia. Rosillo made this wine for Finca Antigua, which is in La Mancha. I was pleased to get a note back from him, too - gives a chap a feeling of connection to the wine. I rarely score wines as I feel that's somewhat antithetical to the way I feel about the stuff. But, hey, this one I'll give a 95. It deserves it.

Anyhow, this really is a very good wine, as was the 2016 (I only found one bottle of that, the rest was 2015) and if you should see any, I very much recommend it.

2/6/2019 - ChinaBounder wrote:

Loved the 2014 of this. The 2015, alas, was simply meh. Maybe it needs more bottle time. But at present if you have the option go for the 14.

2/3/2019 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

Consistent with my former tasting, this is very good Rioja. It really is outperforming its price. Excellent QPR. A strong recommend.

12/2/2018 - ChinaBounder wrote:

I was underwhelmed. Really quite sour nose on opening. I gave one bottle a couple of hours' decant and it improved somewhat. Another bottle I gave four hours and it was better. Recognisably Bordeaux and I think has the potential to be good with a few more years' bottle time. But at present I am just a little disappointed.

11/21/2018 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

Glorious. Just lovely. All the complexity of great Sauternes with a fine future ahead of it. Wonderful.

Also, great QPR. The release price was GBP198 per 12 halves and it has not risen much since then. Currently it's available at GBP210 IB per 12 halves - which is of course a drop in price one cellaring fees are considered. I'll be picking up a couple more cases.

11/21/2018 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

Very good. Proper grown-up claret, weighty, serious. Delicious.

11/15/2018 - ChinaBounder wrote:

Agreeable, well made, but I gotta say not hugely memorable.

11/15/2018 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

Lovely. Really nice. Quite light, but some pepper and red fruit. I enjoyed this a lot at at 11.50e a bottle I went back to the store to get all that they had. Which was only two more bottles, alas. A memorable wine. Recommended.

11/1/2018 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

Good. This is the mencia grape which, in the right hands, can be very fine. The wine was really quite characterful and expressive, but strikes me as a little young at present. I'd be inclined to give it a few more years for some of the subtleties of the grape to come out. A good future for this wine, I'd say.

10/2/2018 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

My second bottle of this. Tasting notes consistent with my other review of this wine.

9/16/2018 - ChinaBounder wrote:

This is a wine only made in the best years, and a different cuvee to the regular Postigo Ribera del Duero.

I have enjoyed several Postigo wines, all of which have been excellent. However I was disappointed by this; I was expecting a lot more. I think the problem is likely the wine is in a dumb phase since Postigo is clearly a hugely skilled winemaker. I think this needs at least another five years.

From Postigo’s website:

Tinto Fino (87%), Cabernet Sauvignon (4%) and Merlot (9%).

SOILS: Calcareous, sandy-loam soils with stones and medium-sized pebbles predominate.

HARVEST: From a selection of farms in the Ribera del Duero between 750 and 1,000 meters above sea level. Harvested carefully in boxes of 10 kilograms. The grapes arrive intact and intact to the winery.

ELABORATION: Manual selection table. Movement of grapes by gravity. Fermentation with autochthonous yeasts.

AGING: 12 months in French oak barrels of 225 liters. 38 wines of different characteristics are obtained, according to the origin of the grape and the barrel, which make up the final wine assembly. Part of them with malolactic fermentation in barrel. Bottled in May 2013.

9/9/2018 - ChinaBounder wrote:

An enjoyable and well made wine. Refined. But... somehow I felt its petit-verdot-ness was muted. It lacked the distinct notes of PV that I have enjoyed in bottles from other winemakers. The bottle cost 37 euro which is not an unfair price for the quality of the wine; but nonetheless the QPR here is not great. Still, the bottle certainly has plenty of years of life left in it and so there is scope for improvement.

9/3/2018 - ChinaBounder wrote:

Agreeable but not really remarkable or terribly memorable. It doesn't feel old, though. Maybe it needs some more time.

8/26/2018 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

This wine seems to be double-listed on CT. So first this is my initial note for the wine from the other listing:

*****
Lovely. This is fine, confident, expressive Rioja.

Decanter rated it highly in their March 2017 round-up of the region, saying:

"The brooding nose precedes an exquisite assertion of plums and damsons on the palate - an idiosyncratic expression of classic Rioja. Not built for the very long haul, but deserving of attention."

Pedro Ballesteros Torres: 91
Sarah Jane Evans: 91
Pierre Mansour: 90

I found this note to be accurate.

I paid 14.75 euro for this in May 2017. That's good QPR. It is a very nice wine. Right now, the 2010 Vivanco Reserva is, in my opinion, slightly more ready for drinking. But it's close. The 2011 is lovely at present and will surely improve in the next 5 to 8 years.
*****

I have drunk maybe a dozen bottles since then. Each has been good and some very good (that may be bottle variation or palate variation).

I think this really is an excellent wine offering outstanding QPR (especially since my current supplier has it at 11.75.) It does benefit from a couple of hours’ air and it is still on the young side. It certainly has a decade at least of good evolution before it. Very good modern Rioja making shown here. If I had the cellar space I’d be laying it down by the case.

8/7/2018 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

Good, and better after air; initially I felt it was just a little over-oaked but that aspect passed with breathing. The wine is integrated well, correct, agreeable.

7/1/2018 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

I've had several bottles of this over the last year. All have been good. But I feel the wine is now entering a particularly pleasing phase; it really is harmonious, complete and lovely. I feel it expresses itself particularly well served on the cool side - certainly a little cooler than Bordeaux - between 15 and 16 degrees C it is at its best.

Most impressive and very good QPR indeed.

6/19/2018 - ChinaBounder wrote:

Workmanlike. Unremarkable. Not bad; but no real sense of place, character or style.

6/17/2018 - ChinaBounder Does not like this wine:

Surprised to see this gains 90 points from Decanter. I found it uninteresting, verging on unpleasant. Somewhat astringent, no harmony. I certainly would not want to drink it again.

6/16/2018 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

My second bottle of this. Consistent with previous TN. A good wine.

6/14/2018 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

This is my second bottle of this wine. It's very good. However I also thought this bottle was just moving past peak drinking. Some bricking and brownishness and the beginning of fading. It’s agreeable though, some ripe blue fruit and mushroom. Some leather perhaps. Nose on opening was quite powerful, and somewhat suggested early senescence; but the next day there is little nose to speak of. All in all a nice bottle but clearly ready to be drunk.

6/1/2018 - ChinaBounder Does not like this wine:

Mediocre, verging towards unpleasant. Don't think I'll finish the bottle. One for the sink.

5/26/2018 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

This impressed me. It's 90% tempranillo and 10% garnacha tinta (ie red grenache). The grenache really brings a lot to the tempranillo, giving it a different expression and taste profile. I found the wine to be harmonious, long, clean and subtle, with spice and berries. Long, too. Very good QPR at 12e.

5/7/2018 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

Mm, this is nice. Very good on the red fruit, light yet with sinew, drinking very well, integrated flavors yet withal very distinct. Impressive.

5/1/2018 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

Mmm, I’m getting a lot out of this wine, drinking as I’m writing. I’ll agree with David Meddings (CT review nearby) that ‘Have to say based on the reviews (I received this from a dear friend) I was not expecting as much as this wine offered’ and likewise with PJaines, that it is ‘Not a wow wine, but a well made, elegant wine where everything is in place.’

I find the wine earthy yet limpid, good fruits (blue mostly), pleasing tannin, some nice cedar and a little cigar. It’s got a decade at least left in it, is drinking well now and may improve some. Good.

4/16/2018 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

Decanter Magazine was very positive about this wine, giving it 95 points.

Selections of their tasters’ comments:

Pedro Balleteros Torres: “A joyful fruit expression and serious depth. In the mouth it is amazingly complex, and unique. A benchmark Rioja blend.”

Sarah Jane Evans “A rich, sweet and savory reserve style with a load of red cherries and a strong Garnacha influence’

Pierre Mansour ‘A superb savory nose of leather.. a perfect combination of mellowness versus vigour’

I gave the wine a two-hour decant and it was pleasing but not terribly remarkable. Coming back to it the next day, however, it had notably evolved and I began to see what had excited the Decanter guys so much. It is a good wine. I think that given another few years this impressiveness will be much more obvious. For right now, it’s clearly not a good restaurant wine (how would you have time to let it breathe?) and it is a good home wine with a long decant. But on the whole it is one to cellar for a while longer; and indeed Decanter suggests drinking it 2017-2024 so it is just at the start of its drinking window (though I think it will easily last to 2035 or so).

My bottle cost 18 euros in March 2018; that’s very good QPR.

4/16/2018 - ChinaBounder wrote:

Not tasted yet; but I just picked up a bottle of this and in fact it is 100% merlot, not cabernet franc. The wine shop told me this and it is confirmed on the Torres website.

https://www.torres.es/en/wines/bellaterra

4/14/2018 - ChinaBounder Does not like this wine:

I found this to be unremarkable, verging towards forgettable. Quite flat, harsh.

3/30/2018 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

Good. A fine expression of garnacha - spice, pepper, light but long. Enjoyable.

2/26/2018 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

No, no, no. Too young, far too young. This is in embryo still and it needs at least five years. I only drank it because it was listed without vintage on a restaurant wine list and when it came to table I was not resolute to send it back.

It's all potential at present. It's burly, meaty, winey, rindy, powerful - not as integrated, not as knitted as it will be. And it's gonna be fabulous. I had a bottle of the 2011 a year back and that was splendid, and still full of future.

So this here is one to buy and to cellar, but not to drink, not yet - give it time and it will achieve greatness.

Tomas Postigo. O yes. The man knows wine.

2/20/2018 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

Very good. A muscly, sinewy wine with the sweetness of the moscatel nicely toned down to dry. Long, complex. Impressed.

2/16/2018 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

This is very good. Smoky, leathery, a good blend that works well. Plum and bruised strawberry. Long robust flavor, lots of body, powerful but not brutal. Even better after time in the decanter.

2/16/2018 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

Very nice. Lovely raspberry ripple, dark olive and anchovy paste. Brisk, lively.

2/16/2018 - ChinaBounder Likes this wine:

Nice, good classic tempranillo toffee nose. A fine example of quality Ribera.