A beacon of excellence from La Rioja Alta

2012 Torre de Oa, Martelo Reserva, Rioja Alavesa, La Rioja Alta SA, Spain (£35, Armit.co.uk).

So far so good. The recipe makes sense and it also explains a lot about the lush, broad, sweeping black-fruit flavours and ultra-succulent back palate. But I think there is more here. While tasting the traditional La Rioja Alta alongside this wine, I noticed a more ancient and venerable edge to the LRA range, with ancient, oaky notes, brick-red colours and leathery, strawberry flavours, while the Torre de Oa wines looked modern, fit, brightly fruited and much more alive in terms of their vivid, blood red colours.

MoneyWeek

Subscribe to MoneyWeek today and get your first six magazine issues absolutely FREE

Get 6 issues free

https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/mw70aro6gl1676370748.jpg

Sign up to Money Morning

Don't miss the latest investment and personal finances news, market analysis, plus money-saving tips with our free twice-daily newsletter

Ensuring that the two brands have two distinct characters is a good idea. But, and this might be a little heretical, the monumental La Rioja Alta company might be going the wrong way retreating into the past, while its new sibling charges over the new horizon. Martelo is a beacon of excellence one sip will show you why.

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

Matthew Jukes has been the MoneyWeek wine correspondent since 2006.

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

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.