Score: 90/100
Amaren Winery aims at producing wines of distinctively-high quality and “achieve excellence and pursue perfection”.
The wines are all released under the Rioja DOCa appellation and include: a barrel-fermented white, a vino de autor called ‘Angeles’, a Reserva, a varietal Graciano, and the Crianza red tasted here.
This Rioja Crianza wine is a blend of 85% Tempranillo with 15% Grenache (Garnacha) from vineyards averaging 35 years of age.
After fermentation, it was aged in wine barrels for 12 months: 50% French and 50% American oak.
Tasting Notes:
The wine a quite dark, red with slight hues of purple still.
The nose is initially a little closed. Plan on opening this wine and decanting it at least half an hour prior to enjoying, probably more like 2 hours before I’d think.
Notes of dark chocolate, cherry liqueur and a little rubber that should fade away with time and aeration.
Spices, strawberry jam, and vanilla make a good aromatic complexity, and give the smell a warm welcoming feel.
In your mouth, this is a powerful and densely tannic wine, yet very smooth with a silky texture.
Some granulous tannins are coated in a solid body. The feel is dry yet with some sweetness from the ripeness of the fruit. Granulous finish with an impression of velvetiness.
Complex, warm, and quite long.
Overall
An inviting, powerful and flavorsome Rioja that contents with its rich body and generous tannic structure.
Plenty of spices are revealed all along the tasting, accompanied by a wealth of ripe berry fruit characters and oaky goodness.
When to drink?
It is good to drink now, for lovers of young fruity expressions. But would certainly benefit from a couple of years aging to help it affirm its savoriness and food-friendliness, and develop further complexity and depth.
This is built to age and will easily take a solid 5 to 10 years that should bring it to totally higher level.
Enjoy 🙂
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