2014 Rioja Crianza

2014 was a challenging year, with rain during the harvest, and the Eguren family discarded up to 30% of their grapes. The 2014 Crianza is pure Tempranillo aged in used French and American oak barrels for 14 months, with rackings every three months. It has strong aromas of black olives, which surprised me, with ripe plums and spices; it's quite classical with rich fruit nicely intermixed with notes from the barriques. With time in the glass, it develops a lot more fruit-driven aromas, even red fruit and a spicy twist that Marcos Eguren told me is a characteristic from 2014. The palate is soft and polished with good tension (another characteristic of the 2014 vintage), with focused flavors and a good finish. 150,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in March 2017.