A Rioja with a sublime demeanour

published 31 March 2017

2011 Cirsion, Bodegas Roda, Rioja, Spain (£360 for a case of three bottles, Berry Bros & Rudd, 0800-280 2440, BBR.com; £160 for a bottle, HTFWines.co.uk; Hedonism, £192 for a bottle, £466 for a magnum, 020-7290 7870).

This is one of the most expressive and captivating Riojas I have ever tasted. It has a modern style, crammed with black-cherry fruit and dripping in decadence, but it is not over-alcoholic, nor is it excessively oaky, and this is the key to its sublime demeanour.

Made from the finest tempranillo vines in the esteemed Roda property, these grapes are considered to be the ripest of all, both from the point of view of the fruit, but also, crucially, from that of the anthocyanin. This means that the tannins and colour agents in the skins are tip-top quality and when fermented they result in the sleekest flavours with the least astringency. This extreme quality of fruit does not need over-oaking in order to balance its exuberant flavours because it has everything it needs already. The black cherry and liquorice notes sing without any assistance at all.

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In fact, Cirsion only sees eight months in new French oak, which in the greater scheme of things in Rioja, is a blink of an eye. I cannot shout loud enough about this wine. Forget old-style, medicinal, brick-red Rioja for a moment and sink your teeth into beauty it is an exquisite glimpse of the future.

Matthew Jukes is a winner of the International Wine & Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year (MatthewJukes.com).

Matthew Jukes has worked in the UK wine business for well over three decades and during this time has written 14 wine books.

Matthew regularly lectures, judges, speaks at wine conferences and runs masterclass tastings for both corporate and private clients all over the world. Matthew is also the creator of his ground-breaking initiative, the One Day Wine School, an indulgent day of tasting and learning first performed in 2006.

He has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006 and has written a weekly column for the Daily Mail’s Weekend Magazine since 1999. His four highly-acclaimed, annual wine reports – the Burgundy En Primeur Report, the Bordeaux En Primeur Report, the Piemonte Report and the 100 Best Australian Wines – are published on his website, www.matthewjukes.com.

Matthew is one of the world’s leading experts on Australian wine and, with Brisbane-based wine writer Tyson Stelzer, runs an annual competition in Australia to find ‘The Great Australian Red’. He was made Honorary Australian of the Year in the UK at the 2012 Australia Day Foundation Gala dinner.

Matthew is a winner of the International Wine and Spirit Competition's Communicator of the Year Trophy. His thoughts, recommendations and tastings notes are followed very closely by the wine world at large.