Mar de Frades Finca Valinas Albarino 2010 (Rias Baixas)
Lovely ripe tropical fruit, apple, floral, some minerality. Textured sharpness, ripe and slightly viscous. Nice balance and approachable fruit. Good character, pleasant drinking and good with food. Need to understand the variety and region better.
Monte Blanco Verdejo 2011 (Rueda)
Riper more candied notes, slightly sweaty in a sauvignon blanc way. Ripe tropical New Zealand sauvignon blanc style of wine, looks almost volatile in its sweaty characters. Good aromatic white wine with ripe approachable fruit, good as an aperitif but lacking in finesse, crispness and minerality. Ditto above.
Ramon Bilbao Crianza 2009 (12 months in barrel, 9 months in bottle)
Fairly bright red fruits and some dusty earth notes, cherry and slightly green strawberries. Tight compact and fruit-driven, fresh and relatively elegant, sweetness of tannin from the American oak, slightly vanilla and caramel. A tad hot in the mouth.
Ramon Bilbao Reserva 2006
More intense focused fruit nose, more oak influence, dark floral notes and some sweet balsamic elements. Light and tight, juicy dark fruit still on the fresh side, good structure and balance, focused tannins, oak not interfering too much, has some more potential.
Ramon Bilbao Gran Reserva 2004
Fruit completely shut down on the nose, oak dominating and not inviting at all. Sweet fruit, almost candied on the palate. Quite juicy and plummy, fairly broad and lacks the focus of the Reserva. Quite simple for a wine of this quality.
Ramon Bilbao Vina Turzaballa Gran Reserva 2001 Rioja
Shy nose, in a trough, starting to show some bottle mature notes, some leather and dusty elements. Better concentration of fruit and more expressive structure, good combination of red and black fruits, plenty of life in the wine yet.
Ramon Bilbao Selecion Limitada 2009 Rioja
Ruby and dark fruit nose, very bold fruit, dense and juicy, very ripe and sweet, extended maceration and newer oak. Bold, very young, international-style Spanish wine, not really Rioja.
Lives up to its name, as it smells like myrtle, hazel, vegetative elements. Very intense concentrated fruit, really low yielding very ripe berries, a lot of time in new oak, designed to be left for many years. Stay away, it’s difficult to see where the wine might go in the future.
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| Ramon Bilbao fermenter |
The Intrepid Wino 