Exopto Horizonte de Exopto 2007

The 2006 Horizonte de Exopto is 80% Tempranillo, 10% Garnacha, and 10% Graciano aged for 10 months in new, mostly French oak. Inky purple-colored, the aromatics are a bit muted and the wine is tightly wound but loaded. Notes of cedar, smoke, licorice, and blackberry are followed by a dense, powerful wine with excellent flavors and substantial ripe tannin. Give it another 6ndash;8 years of cellaring and then drink it through 2030. Exopto Cellarsrsquo; top wine is called Exopto. The 2006 was reduced, brooding and difficult to assess. The individual components seem to be present but judgment is temporarily reserved.

Inky ruby. Spicy cherry and blackberry aromas are complicated by smoked meat and baking spices. Lush black and blue fruit flavors are supple, nicely focused and pure, with silky tannins adding support. Finishes with impressive mineral lift and persistence. Strikes a near-ideal balance of depth and finesse.

Ruby-red. Strong vanillin oak on top of lush dark berry aromas. Fresher and brighter in the mouth than the aromas suggest, with exotic Asian spice accents to the cassis and blackberry flavors. This offers a lush texture and finishes with gentle tannins and a lingering flavor of dark berry liqueur. Sexy stuff in a very modern style.

The 2005 Horizonte de Exopto is 80% Tempranillo, 10% Garnacha, and 10% Graciano. The wine was fermented in barrel followed by aging in 50% new French and American oak for 10 months. This modern-styled Rioja is purple-colored with an impressive bouquet of pain grille, smoke, spice box, blueberry, and blackberry liqueur. On the palate the oak is well-integrated with layers of spicy black fruit flavors, ripe tannins, and a long, pure finish. There is sufficient structure for several years of bottle age. This densely packed wine should drink well through 2020

Ruby-red. Strong vanillin oak on top of lush dark berry aromas. Fresher and brighter in the mouth than the aromas suggest, with exotic Asian spice accents to the cassis and blackberry flavors. This offers a lush texture and finishes with gentle tannins and a lingering flavor of dark berry liqueur. Sexy stuff in a very modern style.

Inky ruby. Spicy cherry and blackberry aromas are complicated by smoked meat and baking spices. Lush black and blue fruit flavors are supple, nicely focused and pure, with silky tannins adding support. Finishes with impressive mineral lift and persistence. Strikes a near-ideal balance of depth and finesse.

The 2005 Horizonte de Exopto is 80% Tempranillo, 10% Garnacha, and 10% Graciano. The wine was fermented in barrel followed by aging in 50% new French and American oak for 10 months. This modern-styled Rioja is purple-colored with an impressive bouquet of pain grille, smoke, spice box, blueberry, and blackberry liqueur. On the palate the oak is well-integrated with layers of spicy black fruit flavors, ripe tannins, and a long, pure finish. There is sufficient structure for several years of bottle age. This densely packed wine should drink well through 2020.