Grapes of Spain

Score	Publication	Review	Copy
91+	View from the Cellar	The 2021 Rioja “Viñedo Singular” from Casa La Rad is composed entirely from garnacha, with the vines thirty-five years of age and the wine’s cellar handling similar to the 2021 Solarce bottling: malo in puncheons and eight months’ worth of élevage, but for this cuvée, the aging is entirely in new Bordeaux casks. The wine comes in at an even fourteen percent octane and delivers a lovely nose of dark berries, smoked meats, dark soil tones, Rioja spices, cigar smoke, just a hint of garrigue and a framing of cedary new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, ripe and full, with excellent depth at the core, firm, chewy tannins, a nice spine of acidity and good focus and balance on the long and youthfully complex finish. The wood tannins on the backend here stick out just a touch more than in the Solarce, so the wine will need a couple of years longer in the cellar before it softens up, but there still seems to be plenty of stuffing to absorb them in time. It is a very well- made wine, but my impression is the wine could be even a hair better with the use of one wine barrels to mitigate just a touch of the influence of the oak tannins. Good juice. 2034-2075. John Gilman; Issue 109, January – February 2024

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