Forest Floor. No Must

Rioja comes to mind when most folks think of mature, barrel-aged red wine. I think the winemaking folks in Ribera del Duero might beg to differ.

 One danger of well-aged, wooded Tempranillo is musty forest scents.  However, aged Tempranillo with enough preserving acidity and tannin rewards the drinker with pleasant forest floor scents.

The Ribera red I sipped last night was full of forest floor scents along with berries and wood. Yet it still had a little something I would call, “vague, compelling freshness.”

The Skinny
Condado de Haza Reserva, ’00 ($35)

• 100% Tempranillo from D.O. Ribera del Duero (in Castilla y Leon)
• Aged 22 months in American oak and 14 months in the bottle
• Deep, leathery red in color with a distinct garnet rim
• Scents of red & black berries, cedar wood, earth, and chocolate
• In the mouth, it’s big and round with mellow tannins.  Condado tickles the tongue with restrained flavors and subtly trails off with a long, balanced finish

**** (4 stars out of 5)

Like most mature, old world wine, this wine needs food to shine.  Roasted anything (meat or veggie) is a good bet.