2008 Vinedos de Paganos El Puntido Gran Reserva

2008 Vinedos de Paganos El Puntido Gran Reserva

2008 Vinedos de Paganos El Puntido Gran Reserva I was greatly impressed by the 2008 El Puntido Gran Reserva. At age 14, the wine is glorious, still young and with a mixture of primary and more developed notes. It goes more in the direction of the old wines, with balsamic notes of incense and cedarwood, mushrooms and some berries and herbs. It’s complex and elegant, with fully resolved tannins. This was bottled back in May 2011, so it’s been in bottle for over a decade, and the texture shows it. It has 14% alcohol and a pH of 3.55. This matured in brand-new French oak barrels for 28 months, and the wine has absorbed the oak completely.

This great wine is part of the Eguren family of wineries, famous for their $500 Rioja bottlings from Sierra Cantabria . With this pedigree and a huge 97pts score by Parker’s WA, this is an extraordinary good buy at $69.99. This is the flagship bottling for Páganos, a single-vineyard project from the Eguren family. The Vinedos de Paganos El Puntido Gran Reserva is only made in the most profound vintages, in tiny quantities and is very hard to get. El Pundito is both the name of the wine and the vineyard that it comes from, planted in 1975. Located in the heart of Rioja Alavesa and planted to 100% Tempranillo. With time in the bottle, the wine developed complex explosive aromatics of black cherry fruit, exotic spices, and hints of vanilla. Now over a decade in the bottle, because of the great vintage, we found the wine to be spectacular, in full stride with powerful, rich fruit that’s unwound through bottle-age into a velvety masterpiece. Aged for 28 months in new French oak has added more complexity, class and elegance to the wine and it is truly amazing that this wine can be had for a crazy low price of $69.99. What were you doing fifteen years ago. Liquid art at a great buy-in.