Do you love beautifully aged wines that are ready to drink, but don’t want to fork out the premium? If so, then this is the wine for you! The good folks of Rioja pre-age the wines for you the old-fashioned way: aging wines in oak barrels first and then finishing them off with bottle aging in their cellar for a specific amount of time before releasing them to the public. In this specific case, Bodegas Montecillo’s Reserva is aged in American and French oak barrels for 24 months, with an additional 16 months of bottle aging. This process softens out the tannins making the wine “ready to drink” to the point of optimal tasting without investing in storage space at home. Rioja enthusiasts are advocates of Reservas as they are in the middle ground between fruity Crianza and oaky Gran Reserva. At under $20 a bottle, this is a great “deal” wine! This wine combines aromas of ripe fruit and a touch of earthy flavours. Perfect for new-world drinkers wanting to wet their palates with wines from the old country. Bursting with inviting ripe black cherries, blackberries and a hint of smoke and tar-like notes that are backed by fleshy tannins and lush acidity. A powerful yet elegant wine with nuances of anise and menthol that will buddy up with any meat dish or rich cheeses like Manchego. Drink now or, for those lucky ones who have a wine cellar (and the patience), wait 3 to 5 years.
The French call it Mourvèdre; the Californians call it Mataró; but to the Spanish, the grape is called Monastrell. Barahonda Barrica Monastrell/Syrah 2012 is dense purple in colour with a spicy, cedary nose of plums and dried herbs. Full-bodied and dry, the wine offers richly extracted flavours of black cherries, liquorice and pepper.
Still holding its dense purple colour; spicy, sandalwood, vanilla oak and plum bouquet on the nose; medium-bodied with a flavour of cooked plums carried on lively acidity; mature plum and blackcurrant flavours on the finish with firm tannins.
Tempranillo with under 10% of Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano. Dense purple in colour with a bouquet of cedary, roasted plum backed by spicy oak; medium- to full-bodied on the palate, dry with plum flavour with well-integrated oak; well balanced with a lovely mouthfeel.
Manzanilla is the driest style of sherry produced around the town of Sanlúcar de Barrameda on the southwest Spanish coast. And it makes a wonderful apéritif to stimulate your appetite. The ocean air imparts a salty note to this crisply dry, light-bodied sherry with a nose of camomile flowers and a flavour of green nuts. Chill it and serve it with tapas.
Shows strikingly seductive scent of violets together with spicy, oaky dark fruit notes. Not nearly as forward on the palate showing dark plum and bitter black cherry with dry tannic bite and brisk acidity. Decant for several hours before drinking.
Clear, deep garnet. Nose of strawberry jam over very heavy oak, balsamic and vanilla aromas. Full-bodied; the fruit is fading a bit relative to the tannins, but still yields mature and interesting sour cherry and raisin flavours. Drink yesterday with roast venison flavoured with cranberries and juniper.