Bodegas Campillo
Raro Reserva Finca Cuesta Clara Rioja Tempranillo
La Rioja, Spain
I’ve been reading Nick Jackson’s Beyond Flavour leading up to my first blind tasting of the year. So armed with new knowledge about tasting through structure, I came out getting none of the blinds right. Haha! In my defense, it’s been a while since I’ve done this and some of the wines were perhaps showing less than ideal. Regardless, it was a productive exercise to focus in on structure instead of flavour.
This particular wine threw me a curve ball. On the nose, it’s smelled very ripe and sweet, with aromas of black fruits, new oak, liquorice, and spicy nuances. On the palate, the tannins immediately stood out as being different from the rest of the pack - moderate, chalky, focused on the front to mid-palate, where as the rest focused on the gums and cheeks. The acidity was very soft and the fruit was expectedly ripe. With sagely advice from Nick’s book, I was thrown in the direction of Shiraz, yet it wasn’t quite rich and fruity enough for the new world. Plus, shades of lifting volatile acidity keeps me hovering in the old world, but it’s definitely missing all the hallmarks of Syrah. Consider me stumped.
As with all blinds, the signs were obvious upon reveal - a Rioja Tempranillo from a warm year (I’ll let you join the dots). Notably, the tannin structure here was an outlier (Tempranillo tannins usually appear in the cheeks). Perhaps it has to do with the fact that the wine’s made out of Tempranillo Peludo? No matter, I honestly would have never identified it, just as I failed to identify the other Rioja’s in the blind - I’m just not familiar enough with the region or variety. Why you may ask? Well, a glass of the Raro, and I could take no more. Rioja’s just typically too rich for my blood.
I’ve been reading Nick Jackson’s Beyond Flavour leading up to my first blind tasting of the year. So armed with new knowledge about tasting through structure, I came out getting none of the blinds right. Haha! In my defense, it’s been a while since I’ve done this and some of the wines were perhaps showing less than ideal. Regardless, it was a productive exercise to focus in on structure instead of flavour.
This particular wine threw me a curve ball. On the nose, it’s smelled very ripe and sweet, with aromas of black fruits, new oak, liquorice, and spicy nuances. On the palate, the tannins immediately stood out as being different from the rest of the pack - moderate, chalky, focused on the front to mid-palate, where as the rest focused on the gums and cheeks. The acidity was very soft and the fruit was expectedly ripe. With sagely advice from Nick’s book, I was thrown in the direction of Shiraz, yet it wasn’t quite rich and fruity enough for the new world. Plus, shades of lifting volatile acidity keeps me hovering in the old world, but it’s definitely missing all the hallmarks of Syrah. Consider me stumped.
As with all blinds, the signs were obvious upon reveal - a Rioja Tempranillo from a warm year (I’ll let you join the dots). Notably, the tannin structure here was an outlier (Tempranillo tannins usually appear in the cheeks). Perhaps it has to do with the fact that the wine’s made out of Tempranillo Peludo? No matter, I honestly would have never identified it, just as I failed to identify the other Rioja’s in the blind - I’m just not familiar enough with the region or variety. Why you may ask? Well, a glass of the Raro, and I could take no more. Rioja’s just typically too rich for my blood.
