Sierra Cantabria Gran Reserva 2008
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James
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Jeb
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Robert
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Product Details
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Somm Note
Winemaker Notes
Garnet red cherry. Intense aroma, fragrant, complex with aromatic notes, mature red fruits, balsamic, truffle, vanilla and toast. On the palate it is vigorous, fresh, silky with a good presence of mature taninns and a development of complex aromas. Red fruits perfectly integrated with touches of balsamic, coffee and oak. Long lasting finish with hints of fruit, spice and cocoa.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Some richness and density here, as well as freshness, in spite of the age. Ripe dark plums and berries swathed in spice and some mocha to close. In a good place. Drink or hold.
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Jeb Dunnuck
Aged 26 months in 25% new American oak, the 2008 Gran Reserva (97% Tempranillo and 3% Graciano) is another blockbuster effort from Sierra Cantabria. Smoke, graphite, lead pencil shavings, and loads of black currants, black cherries, and licorice all jump from the glass of this beauty. Medium to full-bodied, concentrated, and textured, with ripe tannin, it's going to evolve nicely for another two decades or more.
Rating: 93+ -
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2008 Gran Reserva has been in bottle since 2011, so it's quite polished and developed. It's mostly Tempranillo with a 2% pinch of Graciano from vines over 30 years old in San Vicente de la Sonsierra, fermented at controlled temperatures and matured in American oak barrels for 26 months. It was a cold and wet vintage, and at this stage in its development, the wine shows very strong smoky aromas, toast and charred oak. At almost age ten, the fruit is fading into the background and there is more aromatic complexity. The palate shows very good freshness, with some acidity still noticeable from the vintage conditions and also from their use of higher-altitude vineyards for this bottling.
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Wine & Spirits
The Eguren family has been farming their vineyards in the Rioja Alta town of San Vicente de la Sonsierra since the 19th century. Those vines produced a gran reserva of quiet sophistication, a wine that emerges from scents of woodsmoke to fleshy black cherry and black mushroom flavors that last. The texture has the luxurious feel of cashmere even as the wine is firmly structured, the integrated tannins and alcohol yielding a warm spice. Decant it for a chicken roasted with root vegetables this winter.
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Wine Enthusiast
Earthy plum and berry aromas open this firm gran reserva from a cold vintage. This wine is chunky on the palate, with scraping tannins. Rooty, meaty berry and cinnamon flavors are slightly stewed, while this is long but hollow on the finish. Drink through 2026.
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Bodegas Sierra Cantabria was founded by Guillermo Eguren, a self-made bodeguero, who was, in the family tradition, a viticulturist. His family, native to San Vicente de La Sonsierra, one of the most sought-after terroirs in Rioja, had grown grapes in Rioja Alta and Alavesa since the 1870’s. For decades the family sold their grapes to local producers, but Guillermo recognized the potential that his family's vineyards had to create great wine and founded Bodegas Sierra Cantabria in 1957. Today, the fourth generation of the Eguren family directs all aspects of the winemaking process, with Marcos Eguren as the winemaker and director of operations and his brother Miguel Angel Eguren as the general manager. The family still prides themselves as viticulturists first, and as a result, all the grapes are estate grown. As viticulturists in Rioja Alavesa, they grow a vast majority of Tempranillo, with only a small percentage of Garnacha and Graciano, as they recognize that Garnacha and Graciano do not ripen reliably in northern Rioja.
Bodegas Sierra Cantabria is the family's original winery and comprises a collection of their most classic style Rioja wines. Due to their viticultural background, the family’s wines are composed of mostly Tempranillo, as they recognize that Garnacha and Graciano do not ripen reliably in Northern Rioja.
Although the family's business has evolved over the years through the foundation of other projects, Bodegas Sierra Cantabria comprises their most traditional, classic styled wines. The wines are made from a blend of selected vineyards, as opposed to Viñedos Sierra Cantabria, which is the family's collection of single vineyard wines.
Hailed as the star red variety in Spain’s most celebrated wine region, Tempranillo from Rioja, or simply labeled, “Rioja,” produces elegant wines with complex notes of red and black fruit, crushed rock, leather, toast and tobacco, whose best examples are fully capable of decades of improvement in the cellar.
Rioja wines are typically a blend of fruit from its three sub-regions: Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Oriental, although specific sub-region (zonas), village (municipios) and vineyard (viñedo singular) wines can now be labeled. Rioja Alta and Alavesa, at the highest elevations, are considered to be the source of the brightest, most elegant fruit, while grapes from the warmer and drier, Rioja Oriental, produce wines with deep color, great body and richness.