Region: Rioja, Spain
Everything I like about Spanish wine is in this glass---spicy, leathery, fruit that is ripe to bursting, cayenne, maybe even a mild curry. The first notes, though, were of chocolate and raspberry. The chocolate's mostly from the nose, but it helps mellow the wine, almost giving it a slight film like milk chocolate occasionally has.
The flavors in this Crianza Cosecha, which is a blend of tempranillo and grenache, are a little too bright but definitely intriguing and fun to drink.
3 stars
Other Bloggers' Thoughts
The Beachside Resident on the 2003 vintage
This fabulous wine. . . has been a reliable standby of ours for years . . . it's incredibly versatile (don't let anyone tell you that reds can't be enjoyed with fish or poultry), and in our minds, stands up---and even surpasses---many of its more expensive peers. . . Even the most untrained of noses will detect a bouquet of black cherries and blackberries with soft hints of aromatic Mediterranean herbs---bay leaves, rosemary, marjoram and lavender. The Crianza is fresh and explosively fruity in the mouth where rich fruits (cherries, strawberries, raspberries) and notes of cinnamon mingle to give a pleasant fullness with a solid backbone of silky-smooth tannins. It has a long-lasting presence in the mouth and impressively oily finish.
In Vino Veritas on the 2003 vintage
We've had a fair number of Spanish reds now, and this one rates in the middle. It has a nice raspberry flavor and a decent, lasting, dry finish, but it lacks some complexity. Rating: 6.25/10
Food and Wine Blog on the 2005 vintage
The Marques de Caceres Rioja Crianza 2005 pours a nice red color, not that deep blood red but just a shade lighter. The nose has a nice ripe red fruit component, like a more juicy store-bought raspberry, not a more tart foraged-wild raspberry. There's a hint of something else in here as well that gives it almost a woody component that balances the fruit component. Vanilla might be it. In fact, the longer I sit here and let the wine breathe and the more I swirl, the more this vanilla component really comes out. It's nice, the nose builds a ripe juicy raspberry and the tartness is tempered by the vanilla. The wine has a nice, full-bodied mouthfeel, and shows some sweet and juicy flavors up front with some tannins at the finish. It's a bit tight at first, but give it 30 minutes and this really mellowed out a bit. This is a nice wine, it's not as bold as I wanted, but it's great in its simple elegance, and I thought this was a great price point, at $15 for the 750ml bottle. I drank this wine very slowly, and after a solid hour, possibly longer, the wine lost some of that fruit up front but takes on a more perfume aroma with a much softer flavor. A solid wine, which changes nicely once opened.
Reviewed 9.3.10.
