February 19, 2022 - This bottle showed significant bret/funk. Herbal and sharp, rough and rustic. A stark contrast to the bottle I had 3 years ago, with nobody identifying this as Duero or even Spain. Not a great bottle.
December 28, 2021 - Mellow, shows it's age in all the good ways. Great drinking but I wouldn't hold any longer.
November 21, 2021 - 10/21 - had it at Halloween with kev/Mike/Tim. Simply an amazing wine. Great depth and balance. Nose of an aged northern cote rotie with smoke/graphite the kind of stuff I love. Beatufifully integrated with high ie fruits tobacco. Not sure it will get better but might.
July 4, 2021 - [Tasted Blind] This pours medium garnet, medium bricking. The nose is expressive and complex showing notable new barrel. Aromas of charcoal, coffee grounds, dark cherry, strawberry, tobacco, and sawdust powerfully waft. The palate enters on bright and sweet fruit but quite unfortunately turns very tannic and astringent on the finish. Quite a lot of wood tannin here. I guessed a modern leaning bordeaux from a cooler vintage, at about 20 years of age. All in all this is showing quite nicely. The nose is aromatic, mature and complex. A 91 point nose, but sadly I found the astringent palate to really hold this back in the mouth. Pleasant with food, challenging without it.
April 3, 2020 - 19 yo...!
ANd still lively, fresh, vigorous and extremely drinkable.
An impressive performance for this entry-level, widely available label. From a top-notch vintage.
March 17, 2019 - Tremendous amount of character stuffed into one bottle. Everyone said "Spain" upon first sip, and this is almost a definitive wine. At its height of maturity now, with so much stuffing, juiciness, spicy, meaty, cedar, earth. Terrific wine that has aged marvelously and greatly exceeded its humble price tag.
November 10, 2018 - Identical to last bottle a few weeks ago. No brett, just mature dark fruit wit churros and rosemary. Great finish. In prime shape now.
October 22, 2018 - PnP. Brown tinged light to medium purple. Smells from grandma's closet; some dark fruit and spice; notes of cocoa, leather. Nose is beautiful. Palate is medium to full. It's a big wine. Medium high acid. Lip smacking. Tannins pretty smooth. Some nice fruit still on this at first, blueberry, black plum, blackberry. That fades very quickly after the first glass. Iron notes too. Nose mix of primary/secondary; palate more secondary/tertiary and I didn't enjoy it after the first half glass. Based on this bottle I'd drink any remaining up.
October 13, 2018 - A bottle last August appeared to be fading, but this one was in prime shape. Earthy black currant fruit with sage and bacon--American oak barely noticeable. Plenty of color and substance--good bottles should cellar well to 2025. My last bottle, wish there were more.
July 16, 2017 - Ruby with orange rim. Tobacco, bacon, flowers, blackberry and black currants, black cherry, cedar, spice box and some hints of forest floor and wet paper. This is still on a beautiful track with further aging potential for more than ten years in a cool cellar developing more tertiary notes with still present round tannins and good acidity providing great poise and freshness. If this is over the hill from your cellar it wasn't well stored anytime in the past. -2030