Score: 92/100
This Tempranillo red wine by Finca la Estacada comes from the D.O. Uclés in the provinces of Cuenca, Central Spain, that has a continental Mediterranean climate.
After fermentation, it was aged for 12 months in American oak wine barrels and 5 months in bottle minimum before release.
Tasting Notes
This red Spanish wine from Central Spain comes in a rather dark red color, black to the core but bright and young-looking red to the rim.
The nose is intense and deep, dominated by roasted coffee and cocoa notes, as well as an obvious wealth of vanilla. A lot of oaky characters stand out at first smell.
The fruit is not far away, and is revealed as soon as you start swirling you glass: dark cherry, on the edge of cherry liqueur, dark fresh plum, and blackberry jam are all in here and a delight to smell at if you’re into this kind of fruit. It’s like a rich and buttery blackberry pie, with the dough scented in vanilla essence. Who doesn’t like this sort of smell?
Warming and reassuring…
A wealth of spices though, give the aromatic profile depth and a sense of seriousness: clove and black pepper provide both an intriguing deep feel, and a lifted spicy one.
Nice to smell, though a little too oaky at this young-wine stage. But very tempting and somewhat pleasing!
The palate provides the answer. Such a smooth yet dense tannic sensation. It’s concentrated velvety tannins at this stage, but you can feel it will become silky with some aging time.
The fruit, oakiness, bursting spices, jam and vanilla all come exploding in combined and intense flavors as soon as you put the wine in your mouth.
It’s powerful, dense, ripe and complex. Again, a little too young to be fully appreciated now unless you love big oaky tones and bursts of very ripe fruit.
But I can see how with the built-in tannic concentration, and a good acidity as well, this will turn into a complex jammy and spicy super-interesting piece of winemaking in 3 to 10 years.
Bonus tip: Oh… and remember: serve a little cooler than you might naturally do for a red. 14 to 16 degrees Celsius will be better than anything over 18-20C. It’s better to start a little too cold and let the wine open and warm up, than starting too warm and overwhelming, considering the density here.
Enjoy ?
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