February 23, 2024 - Corked
September 29, 2023 - Initial vanilla notes give way to spices and cinnamon. Really transforms with 30-60mins in the glass (and needs it). Tart cranberry opens to raspberry and a lovely richness with hints of flower and spice. Not big, but elegant and long. Great with rare sirloin tonight. Will improve to 2030 and drink to 2045. Seems underrated here, but really needs food to shine. 94-96pts
August 17, 2023 - Very pure sour cranberry. Popular at the table but lacking in complexity. Great pairing with duck but didn’t move me, and I moved on…. 93pts? More notes with next bottles
April 21, 2023 - With FC and AW at Hispania. Open nose, blackcurrant fruit, touch of meat, slight metallic edge now and then, soft and harmonious on the palate, soil notes, touch of tobacco, fresh acids, good length finish. Mature.
October 29, 2022 - Blind. Full and bright mid ruby. Just a hint of garnet at the rim. Stylistically quite different from the previous two reds with quite a pronounced spicy, peppery grippy red fruit to it. Wondered about Bierzo, or even a slightly younger Ribera. Clearly a lot younger than the previous two, but colour puts it around the mid to late 80s. Ok, so when reveal, that all makes sense. This is a relative youngster and could well have seemed a bit international in its youth, but it’s heading towards classical Rioja now. Quite a dense mid palate texture and long finish. Excellent. ****
September 4, 2022 - (Mostly) Spanish dinner (Chicago, IL): Incredibly young for a wine of 33 years. So much fruit and intensity, with moderate American oak notes. Fairly clean for Rioja, and perhaps in its youth it might have even been accused of being polished. But now, there's just a little earthiness from age complementing the fruit.
January 7, 2022 - Leider schon sehr dünn und dafür immer noch viel Säure. Überwiegend eigentlich.
January 6, 2022 - Online Blind Tasting #11: *** Note is based on 2x0,1l bottles filled about 2 days before the tasting from 0,75l bottle ***
Glass: Riedel Vinum Syrah / Zalto Universal
Clear, medium garnet color with a tawny rim. Way better Nose and palate in the Zalto than in the Riedel glass. Clean, medium+ intense, fully developed nose. Tobacco, dried herbs, tiny bit of lovage, tar, menthol. Mature and complex.
Dry, high, almost racy acidity at the edge of being extreme. 13% abv. High, fine, mellow tannin. On the palate some fine red fruit, tobacco, menthol, dried herbs, very mineral, iodine. Elegant, juicy, good balance, fine texture. Lean body. Long, very elegant finish with fine red fruit, herbs and tobacco. In the bigger glass certainly past peak, in the Zalto still very joyful. 92-93
February 14, 2021 - Nariz clásica de Rioja entrado en años. Con fruta roja todavía muy presente. Tanino totalmente pulido, no está en decadencia pero hay que beberlo en los próximos años.
Retrogusto espectacular, largo y sedoso.
March 15, 2020 - Corked. Used ceran wrap to get rid of corkage, worked almost, but still only partially, so a note wouldn't be fair. It is drinkable and I would give it an 89 now, but probably lower 90s when in good condition.