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The June 2023 Auction: Part 1
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1 / 2Lot 1976
Estimate: $425
2 base neck, very lightly scuffed labels, 1 nicked label.
This auction has ended. Bidding is closed.
Collection name
Reviews
93+JG
"La Rioja Alta has played around a bit with their oak regimen in the last few decades, and it seems pretty clear that in the mid-1990s, they were still relying on American oak casks, but starting to rotate some newer ones into the cellars. The wine is marked a bit by its new US oak (even nearly twenty years out from the vintage!), but offers up lovely and quite classic elements underneath in its aromatic mélange of red plums, cherries, nutmeg, lovely soil tones, coconut and some new oak spice. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, complex and very classy on the attack, with a superb core, good focus and a very long, still fairly tannic finish. All older barrels would have been preferable for this wine, but it has the stuffing to eventually absorb all of its wood tannins and is really a classic vintage of 904 underneath the bit of new wood. It still could use a couple of years, and is probably still a decade away from its peak textural blossoming."
Region
Red
Country
Score
"La Rioja Alta has played around a bit with their oak regimen in the last few decades, and it seems pretty clear that in the mid-1990s, they were still relying on American oak casks, but starting to rotate some newer ones into the cellars. The wine is marked a bit by its new US oak (even nearly twenty years out from the vintage!), but offers up lovely and quite classic elements underneath in its aromatic mélange of red plums, cherries, nutmeg, lovely soil tones, coconut and some new oak spice. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, complex and very classy on the attack, with a superb core, good focus and a very long, still fairly tannic finish. All older barrels would have been preferable for this wine, but it has the stuffing to eventually absorb all of its wood tannins and is really a classic vintage of 904 underneath the bit of new wood. It still could use a couple of years, and is probably still a decade away from its peak textural blossoming."
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Spain has the largest area under vine of any country and a deep tradition of oak-aged reds. Tempranillo-based wines from Rioja and Ribera del Duero, alongside Priorat's Garnacha and Carinena, anchor its fine-wine reputation.
Spain's noble red grape, producing structured, savory wines of red fruit and leather that respond beautifully to oak aging in Rioja and Ribera del Duero.