92 Points John Gilman
The 2018 Rioja “Crianza” from Bodegas Peciña is a ripe wine in the style of the vintage, coming in at 14.5 percent octane. The wine offers a deep and utterly classical bouquet of red and black raspberries, clove-like Rioja spice tones, cigar wrapper, a beautiful foundation of soil, smoked meats and a lovely framing of American oak. On the palate the wine is deep, pure, full-bodied and ripe, with a superb core of fruit, excellent soil undertow, ripe, buried tannins and great focus and impeccable balance on the long, complex and potentially velvety finish. This is a top flight Crianza that is certainly already tasty, but will be even better with three to five years’ worth of cellaring and will evolve positively in bottle for decades. Think of this as La Rioja Alta-styled wine without pushing the envelope on oak. Fine juice.
90 Points Wine Enthusiast
Fresh and focused, with delicate violet and white pepper accents to the ripe raspberry and cherry fruit flavors. A savory push of fresh earth, iron and wild sage comes through on the lightly chewy finish.
90 Points Wine Spectator
Fresh and focused, with delicate violet and white pepper accents to the ripe raspberry and cherry fruit flavors. A savory push of fresh earth, iron and wild sage comes through on the lightly chewy finish. Drink now through 2030. 8,000 cases made, 2,000 cases imported.
Winemaker Note
Depending on the vintage the grapes come from a combination of 3 vineyards; “El Codo”, “El Llano” and “Finca Iscorta” with an average of 40 years old.
The grapes are destemmed and crushed and fermented naturally with wild yeast in stainless steel tanks. Aged in used American oak for 2 years and hand racked 4 times by means of the traditional “barrel to barrel” method, the wine then ages for at least an additional 18 months in bottle before being released on the market.
The wine is bottled unfined and unfiltered.
