2014 Monasterio Reserva

A superb vintage in the region has produced a great 2014 Reserva, a wine where they select grapes from the soils with more limestone within their estate. A blend of 80% Tempranillo with 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, it has good ripeness, power and freshness, coming through as a textbook Reserva. It's still young and lively after an élevage in French barrels (40% of them new) for some 20 months. This was inspired by some wines from Bordeaux, even though it has a somewhat more Mediterranean profile. My guess is maybe they didn't have the precision in the harvest date they seem to have achieved in 2015, as I tasted this next to the regular 2015 Hacienda Monasterio. The palate of this 2014 is better than the nose at the moment. Sisseck compared 2014 to 1995, an almost perfect year in the region. I see this as a slightly riper version of 2010. 35,415 bottles were filled in September 2016.