4/13/2015 - up4wine wrote:

Spanish Rioja has become an enigma to me. Some bottles excite and bring great pleasure in their consumption. Others from the same source and year are flat. This inconsistency, although adding a heightened sense of Russian roulette unknown, is a huge drawback. It is not just this producer, but several who have taken me to the heights with one bottle and dashed my interest with the next. This bottle was flat with a kick of harshness on the finish. There were hints of greatness on the nose, but these, too, were brought down by the noise of competing blandness and confusion.