Recommendation: Aged Rioja Reserva that can only be described as STELLAR!!!
Winery/Producer: Bodegas Casado Morales; Lapuebla de Labarca, Spain.
Grape Variety: Blend: 90% Tempranillo and 10% Graciano.
Geographic Region, Appellation: Consecha; Rioja, Spain
Vintage: 2004
Price: $29.74 with a 15% discount
Purchased From: Total Wine; Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Paired With: Sipping with Murray’s Sartori Bellavitano Kentucky Bourbon Wheel cheese.
Tasting:
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He said: Opened only 15-minutes before drinking, than decanted. Inky, opaque, dark garnet with purple cast and a light purple/brick red rim. Powerful smoky aroma with secondary aromas of leather black cherry and dark fruit. Smooth, yet with lots of finesse to the body and packed with heavy fruit flavors. All this continues through the long finish with round tannins and fleshy fruit. OUTSTANDING Rioja and after years in our cellar it was simply delicious. But wait there’s more, when paired with the smokey flavors in the savory cheese it became even BETTER…a great example where the whole was greater than the sum of the parts!!! Aged Rioja Reserva that can only be described as STELLAR!!!
She said: Very dark purple/red color, opaque, lots of thin evenly spaced legs rapidly moving. First recommendation is to let it breath before drinking. It changes a lot and profits greatly from being opened before drinking. We opened it 15 minutes before sipping it, but an hour is probably more like it. We took our first taste and Ray decanted it and then it began to really soar with a big dark red berry aroma and flavor. The mouth feel was smooth, medium bodied and full of tannins that lasted into the long tasty dry finish. It was delicious with the cheese and I would recommend it and buy it again at $29
Alcohol: 14%
UPC Code: 8 30293 00499 3
Imported by: Saranty Imports; White Plains, New York.
Photo from wikipedia.