2001 Parreno

The otherworldly 2001 Bodega Matador Parreno is a very special wine from López de Heredia in Rioja. There are just ten barrels of this wine from the outstanding 2001 vintage in the region, mostly Tempranillo from their Viña Tondonia, but like all their reds, it also has small percentages of other red grapes and perhaps a touch of white too. Their Gran Reserva reds spend ten years in oak and a further ten years in bottle before they are released. For some reason, some ten barrels were left behind, and the wine aged in used oak barrels for much longer, which means the wine spent some five years in large oak vats and almost 11 more years in well-seasoned American oak barriques. By the time it was bottled, the power of the vintage had been tamed, and the wine had acquired incredible nuance and finesse as well as great complexity, while it still feels young and with potential to improve for a long time in bottle. It would be impossible to guess the age if tasted blind, as the wine feels much younger than what it is. The texture is velvety, with resolved tannins, great concentration, finesse and elegance, with incredible balance and an aftertaste full of exotic spices, orange peel, tobacco and ripe berry fruit. The flavors linger in your mouth forever after you swallow. 3,000 bottles were filled on December 14th, 2017 (I know the exact date because I happened to be in the winery on precisely that day!). Take this as a unique, one-off, super Gran Reserva from Viña Tondonia. While this is very drinkable now (I have consumed a good dozen bottles already), it has all that it takes for a long life in bottle: this should outlive most of us. Furthermore, this is considerably cheaper than the Gran Reserva, which will not be released until 2021 (and let's see what the price is then). It will make for a great comparison to have the two wines together in about three years from now. In the meantime, if I were you, I'd run to get as many bottles of it as you possibly can. To be fair, in fact, I already did!