Berberana Rioja Reserva 2005

I honestly have no idea where it came from or how much it was. Given that I don’t normally like rioja, there’s a very high likelihood it cost less than £4 or I wouldn’t have bought it.

The picture isn’t very clear as they insist on making the label super-dark. It says:

BERBERANA

RESERVA 2005

D’avalos

ETIQUETA NEGRA

RIOJA

I have no idea what any of his means as my Spanish isn’t up to much. Looking on the Berberana website it describes this wine as being 80% Tempranillo and 20% Gamacha. Aged in oak for 24 months it supposedly gives a Rich concentration of ripe fruit, vanilla and spicy oak. These reason why I’m telling you all this bumph is not just because their entire website is made in Flash ( therefore completely impossible to provide internal links to), but the fact that the smell of this wine is almost exactly like Cuban cigar tobacco!

I was pretty astonished when I smelt it. It had that slightly sour barnyard odour that I have only smelt one place before. If you get a bottle, let me know if you agree.

The actual taste was nothing to complain about either. I didn’t notice any particularly strong notes to comment on. It was pretty soft compared to my previous experiences with rioja. The usual overly tannic astringent quality that makes my cheeks want to peel back over my face was absent too. It did have a touch of powdery/drying mouthfeel that was quite enjoyable.

Overall, this wasn’t a bad bottle of wine. I’m tempted to get another (if I can find where I got it from!) to compare.

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