El Puntido Gran Reserva 2007

Description

Putting my nose in the glass of the 2007 El Puntido Gran Reserva transported me to the classical Riojas from yesteryear. The wine has a fully developed nose with all the textbook descriptors of a good aged Rioja - forest floor, cigar ash, cold bonfire, truffle, cherries in liqueur, blonde tobacco, spices and iodine. But this is a classical Gran Reserva that has something that was not that traditional, and it comes from a single vineyard and matured in brand new French oak barrels for 28 months. But time in bottle has polished it (it was bottled in June 2010, almost nine years ago); the tannins are mostly resolved and it's nicely textured. It has what I love about the best red wine - it's salty rather than sweet, there is no room for sweetness here, and it's sapid and tasty and has great balance and freshness. This is developing at a very slow pace and should continue doing so for a very long time. A great Gran Reserva in the making. Only 5,000 bottles were produced from 2007, a very cold vintage, when the grapes were harvested the last three days of October, and it snowed the first of November! Drink date: 2019-2032. Score - 96. (Luis Gutiérrez, robertparker.com, June 28, 2019)

Tags

Full-bodied & Smooth, Red Wine, Tempranillo, Wine, XD - Extra Dry