Lan Reserva 2018

Lan Reserva comes from Bodega LAN in Fuenmayor, in La Rioja Alta, the name formed from the initials of Logroño, Alava and Navarra. The wine is built on Tempranillo with smaller portions of Mazuelo and Garnacha, the fruit drawn from sixty year old vines on the Viña Lanciano estate, a parcel framed by a meander of the Ebro river. Old vines crop little and ripen evenly, giving fruit of real depth, while the cooler Rioja Alta climate and the river setting keep the acidity fresh. The wine spends twelve months in French oak, the slow ingress of oxygen through the staves rounding the tannins and adding cedar and sweet spice, then rests in bottle before release as a Reserva. The colour is deep cherry red with garnet at the rim. The nose layers blackberry, blueberry and currant over leather, tobacco and dried herbs, the secondary character that marks a classic Rioja. The palate is medium to full bodied, the tannins fine and resolved, with a long savoury finish. Serve at 17 degrees and decant briefly. It is a natural match for roast lamb.