Score: 92/100
This wine is the second most prestigious wine expression from Bodegas Luis Cañas (just after their iconic and stunningly concentrated Hiru 3 Racimos).
It is the result of a drastic selection of the best blocks and grapes produced by the Rioja producer: 85% Tempranillo and 15% ‘other’ from relatively low-yielding old vines aged over 45 years old.
After fermentation, it was aged for 20 months in new wine casks: 50% French and 50% American.
Tasting Notes
This Rioja Reserva wine comes, expectedly, in a rather dark red color. Some purple hues still suggest it is still quite young despite its 6 years of age! And they do intensify its dark appearance.
The nose is in line with this first impression. Intense, and dark in the sense that it smells like ripe dark berries, and dark roasted foods.
Those are really the two sides in the aromatic profile:
- Dark red fruits: cherry, strawberry jam, blackberry
- And dark roasted cocoa, almost coffee, toffee, vanilla. A wealth of oaky tones but they’re well integrated already.
Just add a touch of firewood ashes and forest floor providing depth and a savory fell, and you’ll have a good understanding of what it smells like!
The palate really stroke and surprised me by its absolute balance and approachability.
It is quite a big and dense wine. Dense fine tannins populate the mouthfeel in a rich silky texture. Solid body and oily texture, some generous alcohol too.
But there is also a solid acidity providing freshness and liveliness.
So the whole taste very balanced and approachable. It’s layered and complex, big fruit and toasted characters again, but drinks with easy and no difficulty to understand it.
Overall
A wine with all the characteristics of a great concentrated red wine, ripe, dense and oaky, but one that actually speaks fluently the same language as your taste buds like to hear (if you like a ripe modern-style Rioja wine that is obviously, this ain’t no Italian Pinot Grigio!).
When to drink?
It is enjoyable to drink now, with the harmonious balance described above.
But yes, it is still very young of a Rioja Reserva wine that doesn’t seem to have evolved much in 6 years. It is still so fruity-fresh tasting, with hardly any signs of evolution at this stage (just a better oak integration than a few years ago I would imagine) that it will probably go a very long way and develop a lot of complexity and further smoothness within 5 to 20 years.
Enjoy 🙂
Please let me know your thoughts