Valenciso Reserva Mixed Vertical

This is a beautiful wooden box with shimmery blue lettering that holds 3 different vintages - 2 each of 2008, 2011 and 2018. 

Valenciso (founded in 1998) may be young in years, but founders Luis Valentin and Carmen Enciso (who gave their surnames to the bodega) were already long in experience when they began. They had worked together for 28 years by the time they left Bodegas Palacio to start their own business. Valenciso seeks to make classically structured, subtle and elegantly fine wines using 100% Tempranillo grapes from low yielding old vines in the Rioja Alta. Winemaker Alicia Eyaralar uses exclusively French barriques, a third being new each year, to produce this terrific wine in very small quantities. In this box, there are two bottles each of 2008, 2011 and 2018, all scoring very high. Cherry deep colour, spicy nose, intense. There are some notes of leather, licorice and fountain pen ink, over a core of ripe berry fruit, with some spicy notes from the oak and a faint animal character. The palate is medium-bodied with some dusty, slightly rustic tannins and a dry finish.