Goooooood morning afternoon evening and night. Today is a Wednesday so as usual, its wine night. I bought this particular bottle as part of my ongoing quest to open my families horizons on the wine world. We have been drinking a lot of Australian stuff as of late so I picked this wine which is a more “fruity” wine as a way to transition the usual fruit forward wines of the new world into a more subtle wines of the old world. I also used the aid of the great equalizer….

 

 Tonight’s wine…

Behold! Your wine! What is it? Well, you should know, it’s in the title, but one of the best ways to try a wine is to remove your preconceptions with the humble paper bag (or as I call it, the great equalizer).

As usual, aerated into a decanter and let it sit for around 30 mins but I think it should have been longer. As of now, its been in the decanter for around 2 hours and it had changed since my first taste.

Nose is quite savoury, vegetal with green capsicums, some glacé cherries  and a slight French oak influence in the background. Attack to the mid palate is fairly mild, nicely balanced with a well structured tannin casing with rustic old leather and olive oil flavours. There is a general mellow taste to the wine, slightly dusty sour cherry flavour with a twist of orange zest. Finishes quite quickly but the tannins do stick about on the roof of your mouth. Very different from the initial taste which was quite sweet and not as balanced as what I have in my hands now.

So what is the El Coto Rioja 2008?

 El Coto Rioja Crianza 2008, 13%

This is a Spanish wine from Rioja DOC made from 100% Tempranillo grapes. It’s a Crianza which is a “third tier” wine aged for at least two years; with at least one year in oak. A distinct characteristic of Rioja is oak influence which is something I didn’t find from this wine but it does have the basic Rojia/Tempranillo characteristics.

At $20 bucks, not a bad drink. If you can get this for under $2o, it’s a buy for sure. A great easy drinking wine easily paired with tapas.

Kenny

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