2009 Pittacum Aurea

I was underwhelmed by the oakiness of the 2009 Pittacum Aurea, a single-vineyard Mencía from old, head-pruned vines that fermented with full clusters and aged for 14 months in brand new French oak barrels without racking. It starts off with a very oaky nose, plenty of vanilla, cinnamon, cloves, cola nut and smoke, with hints of curry over a core of ripe red and black fruit, and some Mediterranean herbs. The palate also shows great influence from the aging in barrel, with plenty of dusty, slightly drying tannins that will need some more time in bottle to get tamed down. But if at age five it still shows this aggressive... perhaps 14 months in new oak is too much. 20,000 bottles produced.