Here’s the preamble- I fell in love with this wine when I bought a 1990’s vintage and it blew my socks off.  When I saw this newest vintage on sale (it’s not made every year), I snagged 4 bottles for my buddy and I.  The next month it garnered top spot in Wine Spectator’s Annual award and its price shot up 80% overnight.  This particular bottle travelled to the English countryside after a trip across the Atlantic and was popped that night, buyer beware.

Medium garnet with some wall staining and high viscosity (14% ABV).  The nose has intense aromas of sweet oak, ripe blackberry, coconut, dried dill, fig, walnut, brown sugar, steeped plum, vanilla cream and tobacco. Medium acidity, medium (+) tannins that are fine grained and well integrated plus a full body.  Silky smooth with melded flavors of oak nuance, ripe black fruit, nuts and some tertiary development – yet it lacked the telltale dusty notes I usually get from Rioja. A long finish upped the scores on this wine as I felt it was slightly underwhelming from my expectations-  still a spectacular wine that gets 94 points from me and at the current price of $230 it only grabs 3 stars on my scale.  A blend of Tempranillo that was aged in American oak with 15% Mazuelo (Cariñena) that has French oak aging.  Drink till 2035 but careful with pairing it too aggressively, it’s delicious all by itself.  I’m going to revisit in a few years and not subject the bottle to a bumpy airplane ride.  Salut…