Valenciso Rioja Reserva 10 Anos Despues 2012

Description

“If you asked me to name just one producer from Rioja that you should buy, it would be Valenciso … A small treasure in the great sea of Rioja.” Jesús Barquin one of the most influential wine critics in Spain who co authored the Spanish wine bible The Finest Wines of Rioja and Northwest Spain.

From humble beginnings, Valenciso have become a leading light amongst Rioja’s small, yet growing, band of micro, terroir-focused producers.  Leaving behind excellent careers at Bodegas Palacio, Luis Valentin (Valen) and Carmen Enciso (…ciso) started Compania Bodeguera de Valenciso in 1998. The vineyards and cellar are located in Rioja Alta in Ollauri, Spain, a small village 4-km away from Haro. Only the best Tempranillo grapes are used, from mature, low yielding vineyards in the Rioja Alta. Valenciso is all about aromatic volume rather than physical weight – in the manner of French Burgundy and the greatest Riojas of the past. Ageing for the reserve takes place in French oak barriques, one-third replaced each year, while the white wine is raised in low toast Caucasian oak so as not to mark the wine.
The pair’s wines are much sought after by the top restaurants in Spain – Valenciso count the likes of Arzak and Racó de Can Fabes as key clients. Today, the wines can be found on some of the best wine lists Australia has to offer. Valenciso’s wines are complex, savoury, terroir-driven (as opposed to brand driven) Rioja, revealing Luis and Carmen’s preference for subtle, elegant and super refined wines.

The 2008 is just the third release of this leftfield Rioja and arguably the finest to date. This time around, the Valenciso team (Luis Valentín, Carmen Enciso and Ana Ruiz) selected three small parcels of fruit from 75-year-old vineyards in the north of Haro, which were aged in a single 50-hectolitre concrete tank for five years. The wine was then rested for 40 months in low-toast Caucasian oak; the same barrels Valencisco use for their Rioja Blanco. It was bottled in 2018, hence the name ’10 Years After’. Interestingly, the extended ageing in concrete results in no loss of colour and only seems to intensify the wine’s fruit purity and aromatic expression. Meanwhile the striking palate is both silky and savoury with a wonderful harmony of all components. It remains incredibly fresh and youthful with blackcurrant and pine-scented fruit and a deep core of iodine-like complexity and fine tannins to close. This fine Rioja is something else !

94+ points. Luis Gutiérrez, The Wine Advocate #243 “The purity of the 2008 10 Años Después transports me to the Rioja wines from yesteryear, even if the élevage was quite different from those wines. This matured in concrete for four and a half years and the spend five and a half years in oak barrels from the Caucasus. It seems to have more stuffing than the 2007, and the oak is also better integrated. It feels young–you wouldn’t guess it’s already ten years old–and it has the textbook aromas from Rioja. This should have a long and positive development in bottle.” 

94 points, Tim Atkin, 2019 Rioja Special Report “As its name indicates, this small cuvée of 4,000 bottles is released ten years after the harvest. Made from just three top parcels, it’s more structured and robust than the Valenciso Reserva, with slightly marked oak but the same freshness and vivacity. This will live for some time yet. 2019-28.” 

RRP $113  Our Special Price $92.99 when you buy 6 or more of this wine