Very good. Everyone tastes it and loves it. — 8 years ago
Medium garnet colour, nice ripe stewed fruit aromas and lots of developed flavours on the palate, dirt, smoke, cedar, stone. Tannins present but very fine and med acidity. Long finish :) — 10 years ago
Dry and lovely — 7 months ago
Another lovely wine! Better than last night but only marginally, so same score. These Spanish and Portuguese wines have the best textures. Definitely drink a little bit on the warmer side. This wine has more fruit and rust elements. Very refined and paired nicely with the suckling pig. — 5 years ago
San Sebastián — 9 years ago
Endearing fruit nose gives way to funky backend. Fun! — 10 years ago
I’ve been reading Nick Jackson’s Beyond Flavour leading up to my first blind tasting of the year. So armed with new knowledge about tasting through structure, I came out getting none of the blinds right. Haha! In my defense, it’s been a while since I’ve done this and some of the wines were perhaps showing less than ideal. Regardless, it was a productive exercise to focus in on structure instead of flavour.
This particular wine threw me a curve ball. On the nose, it’s smelled very ripe and sweet, with aromas of black fruits, new oak, liquorice, and spicy nuances. On the palate, the tannins immediately stood out as being different from the rest of the pack - moderate, chalky, focused on the front to mid-palate, where as the rest focused on the gums and cheeks. The acidity was very soft and the fruit was expectedly ripe. With sagely advice from Nick’s book, I was thrown in the direction of Shiraz, yet it wasn’t quite rich and fruity enough for the new world. Plus, shades of lifting volatile acidity keeps me hovering in the old world, but it’s definitely missing all the hallmarks of Syrah. Consider me stumped.
As with all blinds, the signs were obvious upon reveal - a Rioja Tempranillo from a warm year (I’ll let you join the dots). Notably, the tannin structure here was an outlier (Tempranillo tannins usually appear in the cheeks). Perhaps it has to do with the fact that the wine’s made out of Tempranillo Peludo? No matter, I honestly would have never identified it, just as I failed to identify the other Rioja’s in the blind - I’m just not familiar enough with the region or variety. Why you may ask? Well, a glass of the Raro, and I could take no more. Rioja’s just typically too rich for my blood. — 3 years ago
Acheté à Girone, juste pour le nom... Très très bonne surprise, s'apparente à un grand vin de Bordeaux en terme d'appellation.
Cool!! — 8 years ago
Marc-O
Vraiment bien. — 18 days ago