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
Octogenarian Alejandro Fernandez may be considered as the Peter Pan of the wine world. He played a very large part in putting Ribera del Duero on the vinous map three decades ago and now, despite the scale of his empire, still makes wines of exceptional quality.
The 2012 Crianza is a case in point; all Tempranillo, the wine has been aged for 18 months in American oak and has a typically lively purple colour and come-hither aromas of cherry, vanilla, wood smoke and cured leather. The palate brings damson and plum into play and, with a swirl or two, zesty blackcurrant and minerals. A little time in glass allows the tannins to settle down and the signature sweetness on the finish to come into its own.
Simon Field MW, Wine Buyer
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