Añares Reserva 2019

Añares Reserva is a red Rioja from Bodegas Olarra, a blend of about ninety percent Tempranillo with Garnacha and small amounts of Mazuelo and Graciano. The wine is made with an extended maceration to draw out colour, tannin and aroma from the skins, then racked several times through American oak before its long ageing. Rioja's clay and limestone soils and its continental climate, sheltered by the surrounding mountains and moderated by the Ebro, give ripe but balanced Tempranillo well suited to the long oak ageing of the Reserva style. The wine rests eighteen months in American oak barrels, and the slow oxygen exchange through the wood softens the tannins, builds savoury complexity and adds the sweet vanilla, coconut and dill spice typical of American oak, while the bottle age that follows develops tertiary leather and tobacco notes. The colour is a mature ruby with a garnet rim. The nose shows red berries and cherry over vanilla, coffee, leather and tobacco. The palate is medium bodied, smooth and savoury, with mellow tannins, gentle oak spice and a long finish. Serve at 16 to 18 degrees. It suits roast lamb, beef and hard cheese.