1997 Castillo de Sajazarra Rioja Reserva

By far the best Rioja I’d never heard of. One of the things I love about wine is that it seems like even when you’re doing your best to pay attention there will always be a new wine-maker to discover.

Plum and red cherry with hints of tobacco, roasted chestnut, mushrooms and vanilla. So smooth and light but still concentrated. Fruit focused, very soft and most importantly the finish is long and mimics the flavors of the wine so well. I might prefer a wine with more structure because this is pretty low on acid and tannin but it is one of those rare wines that is both friendly and complex. I would normally hesitate to serve a 13 year old Rioja Reserva to the uninitiated but I’m pretty sure this would knock the socks off anyone so maybe I should reconsider that notion.