Bodega Abel Mendoza Monge Seleccion Personal, Rioja DOCa, Spain

阿貝爾門多薩酒莊個(gè)人精選紅葡萄酒

點(diǎn)擊次數(shù)：1792

The first impression of the 2018 Selección Personal was of great nuance and subtleness. The wine comes from a different vineyard each year, but in the last few years, it has come from a place called Marrate in Labastida, one of Mendoza's favorite places for high-end wines, a place with great potential. This is beautifully textured with lots of dry extract, with grip and depth; Mendoza has a lot of vines there, and some of them are quite old. The wine is perfumed, unusually floral and aromatic for a Tempranillo, which always contain a small percentage of other grapes (perhaps 3% or 4% Graciano...). There are some 500-liter oak barrels that were previously used for the fermentation of the whites. 5,344 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2020.

The 2017 Selección Personal is the selection of the best plot of Tempranillo that year, but in the last few years it tends to be from a 50-year-old vineyard called Marrarte-El Bardallo in the village of Labastida, with clay and limestone soils rich in silt. The wine is varietal with creamy notes and a mixture of wild berries and herbs with black rather than red fruit, denoting ripeness. The palate reveals abundant chalkiness and a medium to full body and some austerity with just a tad of oak. It matured in barrel for 13 months. 5,348 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2019.

I also tasted the 2016 Selección Personal next to the 2015. 2016 was a higher-yielding year, and the wine might be a bit lighter and fresher even if the analytical data doesn't show significant differences. The wine matured in French barrique for 13 months. It has the 2016 profile, perhaps a little more reticent and shy. It's easy to drink, the alcohol is very integrated, and the wine comes through as elegant and balanced, with great freshness. This has to be one of the finest Selección Personal bottlings to date. 6,136 bottles were filled in May 2018.

The red 2015 Selección Personal is always a blend of the plots that have behaved the best in a given year. The 2015 includes the Marrate and El Bardallo plots, which fermented separately in stainless steel. The wine matured in French oak barrels for 12 months before bottling. It's a very elegant and fresh expression of Tempranillo in 2015, with very good integration of the fruit and the oak. The palate is medium-bodied, and the sensation of freshness makes you salivate. There are fine tannins and an earthy touch. There is a touch of rusticity compared with the 2016 or with the incredible Grano a Grano from 2015. 5,874 bottles produced. It was bottled in April 2017.

The 2013 Selección Personal is sourced from a different plot depending on the vintage, and in 2013 it comes from a plot between San Vicente and Labastida, a vineyard called Marrate in a zone known as El Bardallo. This plot is planted on different small terraces with old vines (about 70 years old) with mixed grapes, from which the Tempranillo is selected for this red. It has a subtle nose with moderate ripeness, without any excess or too much oak. The destemmed grapes fermented in stainless steel and the wine matured in new French oak barrels for 13 months. I found this wine quite oaky in previous years, but here the wood feels much better integrated, which is very welcomed, perhaps helped by the acidity and freshness of the year. This zone is quite stony and tends to produce mineral wines, of which this is a great example, with very fine, chalky tannins and a tasty, mineral finish. A great showing for Selección Personal. 4,520 bottles produced.