2006 Arrocal, Maximo, Ribera del Duero, Spain
Tasted with WSET Systematic Approach to Tasting Wine.
Appearance: clear, deep garnet with narrow legs
Nose: Clean, pronounced with developed notes of mostly secundary aromas of leather, figs, coffebeans, and then plums, blueberry and aggressiv oak flavours; vanilla and toast.
Palate: Dry with high acidity and medium tannins that dryes out and seem very oaky. High intensity and high alkohol, both in an agressiv matter. Notes of wet wool, oak vanilla, leather and then som black cherries and plums. The oak gets almost caramel-like.
Unbalanced wine with to much oak and to little fruit. Medium length where the oak dominates within seconds.
Conclusion: good, drink now or the rest of the fruit will dissappear. Premium priced.
Afterthoughts: this is a now classic example of how some Spanish wineries want to do it all, but doesn’t have the fruit and knowledge to get the wine balanced. The backlabel said 26 months on 200% new oak. I guess this wine would have been outstanding if it had been bottled after 12 months instead.
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