2019 Seleccion Personal Rioja 
Abel Mendoza
San Vicente, Rioja

$59.99

• 100% Tempranillo
• Fruit is sorted, destemmed (but not crushed) and fermented in stainless steel tanks.
• Aged in concrete tanks for malolactic fermentation and then into French oak barriques for 12 - 13 months, depending on tasting
• 70 year-old vines from a terraced vineyard

95 pts Luis Guttierrez Robert Park Wine Advocate (2018 vintage)
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.