Rioja Tinto Contino Reserva Especial 2008

John Gilman über: Rioja Tinto Contino Reserva Especial

-- John Gilman: -- Gilman: The 2008 Contino Reserva is from a cooler vintage in Rioja, as there was some rain during the harvest, and Jésus de Madrazo only produced his Reserva wine in ’08, with no single varietal bottlings and no Gran Reserva. The wine is really outstanding, as the growing season’s characteristics has resulted in a wine at 13.7 percent (which is pretty low these days for Rioja Alavesa) and there was absolutely no new oak used during the elevage this year. The outstanding and very elegant wine delivers a lovely bouquet of red and black cherries, pepper, a touch of youthful meatiness, lavender and a really superb base of soil tones. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, pure and already very velvety on the attack, with a lovely core, fine focus and grip and a very long, complex and suavely tannic finish. I know my penchant for cooler wines is showing, but this is one of the finest recent vintages of Contino Reserva I have had the pleasure to taste, and do not let the less than stellar reputation of the 2008 vintage dissuade you from buying this great young bottle of Rioja! 93+/100