About this WINE
Tempranillo/Tinto Fino
A high quality red wine grape that is grown all over Spain except in the hot South - it is known as Tinto Fino in Ribera del Duero, Cencibel in La Mancha and Valdepenas and Ull de Llebre in Catalonia. Its spiritual home is in Rioja and Navarra where it constitutes around 70% of most red blends.
Tempranillo-based wines tend to have a spicy, herbal, tobacco-like character accompanied by ripe strawberry and red cherry fruits. It produces fresh, vibrantly fruit driven "jovenes" meant for drinking young. However Tempranillo really comes into its own when oak aged, as with the top Riojas where its flavours seem to harmonise perfectly with both French and American oak, producing rich, powerful and concentrated wines which can be extraordinarily long-lived.
In Ribera del Duero it generally sees less oak - the exception being Vega Sicilia where it is blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and then aged for an astonishing 7 years in oak and is unquestionably one of the world`s greatest wines.
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Description
The Imperial Reserva is an excellent exemplar of all the virtues of La Rioja Alta. Mainly Tempranillo and aged in both French and American oak for a year and then allowed another year’s bottle age, the wine has a plummy colour and lifted aromatics of cloves, bay and roasted meats. The palate offers a block of dark fruit, upon which time will chisel a softening, silky balm. A post-Imperialist convivial glow is guaranteed.
Tempranillo 80%; balance shared between Graciano and Mazuelo
Simon Field MW - Wine Buyer
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