2010 Bodegas Casa Juan "Señor de Lesmos" Gran Reserva Rioja

Another lovely release from Senor de Lesmos. "Old school" nose with black fruits, tobacco, earth, leather, and sandalwood. Quite a bit different on the palate. It is full and rich, with dark red fruits, baking spices and mellow oak. Soft and supple with fine-grained tannins. Bordeaux fans will love this one. A great little Reserva for under thirty dollars! Kirk needs to talk them into selling us mags of this!

This winery produces year after year excellent well priced wines. The 2010 is no exception. The nose is interesting and complex, a pleasant introduction to what is to come. In the mouth it is full bodied and dry, with notes of earth. A great food wine, it will go well with hearty foods.

Twelve years of supreme age on this bottle, and a thirty dollar price point?... It's not a lie I assure you. The quality on this is insane, personally thus far since we've received it I've gone through two bottles myself. Everything you're wanting in a solid, upfront, and classic rioja is in this bottle -- jammy, spicy, some mild savory complexity with a nice rich and full texture. Also... The structure on this wine is insane, it'll age pretty nicely but there's no need for anyone more sleep on this bottle, it's ready to go now.

Now this is a special occasion wine that needs no special occasion! Gran Reserva is a special style of wine, they are not made every year because not every year does the wine have the ability to spend the time in oak to qualify for the category and come out the other side as not too oaky. This wine, at 12 years old, has come out the other side of the time in oak and additional time in bottle like it was nothing! What do you mean? There is a crazy amount of still fresh dark berry fruit to this wine. It takes a second to find it, you have to look past the ridiculous complexity of the spice, mixed fresh and dried herbs, leather, exotic woods to find it but it is there, and once you find it it just grows and grows and grows. What a nose! There are only a handful of wines from around the world that can offer such an aromatically complex nose, and not at this price point! It is on the palate that you get a sense of the age of the wine. It is in the softer tannins, the round mellow settled in thing that happens with older Rioja. It has an ease to it, you can tell that it does not want to try and impress you. You get it or you don't, that's fine with it. There is still a freshness to the dark berry fruit too. It is medium weight, mellow and complex. This is a wine for hanging out and nibbling on some cheese or a really great simply prepared cut of meat.