Lan - Rioja

Price: $17.00
Region: Spain
Year: 2006

My last post of 2010. I was hoping to get to about 40 done this year, and fell a bit short, but still another fun year of trying and reviewing a lot of new wines. I have a whole lot of reviews written down from over the Christmas holiday, but I decided to go with another gift from my wife from the Wine Spectator Top 100 of 2010. I forget exactly where this was on the list, but I'm fairly certain it was between 40 and 50. From the title, it is easy to determine we are talking about a wine from the La Rioja region of Spain. This wine is made up of about 80% Tempranillo. It falls a little bit about the $15 range, but not much. I really enjoyed the Malbec that also found its way on the Top 100 list, so I was hoping for a repeat experience.

There was nothing special going on when I decided to open this bottle of wine. To me, sometimes that is the best time to open a new bottle. No expectations, just wanted to sit down with a fire in the fireplace, and experience a new wine. There was no surprise when I poured a glass and saw a deep dark red wine in my glass. I have had some really good Spanish wines over the last couple of years, so my expectations were high. I gave a glass a rather long swirl, and took a couple of short sniffs. While the wine had a very nice berry smell, it was a bit faint in my opinion. With such a bold color, and the reputation of this grape, I was hoping for a little more umph. When I took a sip, I had the same impression. It was a very smooth wine, with great texture, and length, but just lacked a little boldness. Maybe expectations were a bit too high, but overall I thought it was a touch thin. That definitely doesn't take away from a very good wine, but just a little off the mark for me.

P.S. I updated my list of default wines since it tends to change over time. I added the Angeline Pinot Noir that I reviewed in May - http://winereviewsyoucanunderstand.blogspot.com/2010/05/angeline-pinot-noir.html - Good Stuff!

Rating: 3.0 corks (Worth a try)