Sierra Cantabria Gran Reserva 2009
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James
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Jeb
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Wilfred
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Robert
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James Suckling
A dense and very beautiful red with dark berries, hints of chocolate and some mahogany. Full body. Layered. Shows focus and balance. Lovely, linear and energetic nature. Drink or hold.
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2009 Gran Reserva (98% Tempranillo and 2% Graciano) is also beautiful, with a dense purple/plum color and mature notes of spiced plums, cedarwood, graphite, tobacco, and incense. These carry to a medium to full-bodied Rioja with a rounded, expansive texture, solid tannins, and just a beautifully balanced, elegant, resolved style. This cuvée spent a little over two years in barrel. While drinking nicely today, it unquestionably has another 10-15 years of longevity.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2009 Sierra Cantabria Gran Reserva exhibits plenty of fruit and substance for its age. TASTING NOTES: This wine starts with extracted berries in its aromas and flavors. Enjoy its roundness on the palate with roast turkey topped with pancetta. (Tasted: July 21, 2020, San Francisco, CA)
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Gran Reserva ages for longer before it's released, and the current vintage is the 2009 Gran Reserva, which contains 2% Graciano but is mostly Tempranillo. It matured in American oak barrels for 26 months. The 2009 is a warm and ripe vintage and has more black fruit than red and is very spicy, with notes of licorice. It feels a little reductive but benefits from time in the glass, where it develops more and more notes of aromatic herbs and its balsamic side of cigar ash and incense. It's medium to full-bodied with tannins that are mostly resolved, polished and soft, with moderate acidity. A clean, classical Gran Reserva at a very good price.
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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.