Sunday, November 25, 2012

Finca El Retiro 2004 Tempranillo - Reserva Especial (Argentina)

Now my grasp of the Spanish language is not very strong ... but my limited knowledge can figure out that "Reserva Especial" is Special Reserve and that intrigues me.  What intrigued me even more is that this wine is from Argentina and is made from Tempranillo, not something you see from Argentina very often - not in Ontario anyway.  I had this wine in one of my 'lie-it-down' boxes and it seems the time for lying this one had come to an end, sooner or later you do have to try them and assess them as to whether or not it should continue to nap or be woken up post haste.  Good news is this wine falls into both categories ... I was sure glad I woke up a bottle, but I think it could still sit a little longer with little to no ill-effect.  The nose was cinnamon and vanilla oriented with blackberry, raspberry and sweet licorice notes (very appealing).  On the palate it took a few sips to come around.  The first taste to hit the palate was that of spiced raspberries, the last thing was a lovely cocoa finish - it was the middle that caused a lot of controversy as the flavours were not as easily identifiable.  In the end I picked up hints of blueberry and spice coursing through the mid-palate.  This ia a delightful and relatively unique wine (from my perspective anyway), because it remains the only bottle(s) of Tempranillo I have form Argentina - seems I have a couple more to enjoy over the next few years; right now it's drinking very well.


No comments: