The kitchen renos are almost done, as you can see in the photo the tiling still needs to be finished off. But at least I’m not cooking in the lounge room any more…The guys use a lot of sorting to get these wine in this shape, both on the vine and in the winery. 15 months in a mix of french and american oak, most of it older barrels up to 3 years old. I like this kind of forumla, you get the great fruit and the benifit of oak, but not a huge impact.

Now this is one smart little wine. It’s a more traditional version of rioja crianza, but it also made in a moden style using french oak and plenty of fruit flavour. Its a bit tight and young, which for a crianza at 5 years of age is very admirable, give it a quick shake in the decanter to free up the lovely rioja funky herbs. The nose kicks off with some  shaved wood notes, a little coffee and nutmeg, then into the cherry, blueberry fruit. All of that is followed up by a bit of wild herb and some liquorice with more air time. And that’s fairly much the recipe for this wine, the palate is similar but a bit heavier. Nice tannins lead to a bit of structure and edginess, but there is plenty of round, ripe fruit to make this a pleasure to drink. 90 Pts.

Source: Toro Wines Price: Around $35 Closure: Conventional Cork

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