£19–£23, London End Wines, Concept Fine Wines, The Drink Shop (UK), Noble Green Wines, Ellis Wharton Wines
Even if you're not looking for a £20 bottle of wine at the moment, keep this in mind. It's an outstanding Ribera del Duero Reserva from a very good vintage – a year that produced wines with natural elegance and balance, compared to the hot, dry 2015 vintage that gave more power and concentration.
I tasted the two together, then three days later the 2016 again and it's the 2016 I would prefer to drink now, although I'd happily cellar it for five-plus years, too.
It has a perfume of sandalwood and cedary spice, blackcurrant and damson, balsamic notes, aromatic herbs and pine and a palate that combines fleshy fullness with sappy freshness, polished oak, fine tannins, velvet-soft texture and a long finish.
To give the background: La Horra is the Rioja producer Bodegas Roda's Ribera del Duero project. It's under the same technical team as Roda, led by Agustín Santolaya, but with Pedro and Paolo Balbás as viticulturalists, two brothers whose dry-farmed, old bush vines the Roda team discovered on slopes at above 800 metres in 2008.
Drink Corimbo I with game, roasts, braised lamb shanks and other meaty casseroles, or a vegetarian cassoulet, root vegetable crumble, roast stuffed pumpkin or hard cheeses. 14.5%. Empty bottle weight: 498g.
Bodegas La Horra Corimbo I Reserva 2016, Ribera del Duero, Spain
£19–£23, London End Wines, Concept Fine Wines, The Drink Shop, Noble Green Wines, Ellis Wharton Wines
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