Miguel Merino Rioja Reserva 2018

Rioja Alta, Spain

Wine Advocate 94 points! Tim Atkin 94 points!

Miguel Merino Rioja Reserva is a beautiful Spanish red from this most famous of Spanish wine regions. The winery recently passed from father to son with the passing of Miguel Merino in 2021. He paved the way, when after a successful career as a wine exporter he decided to start a small bodega, choosing Briones as their focal point, a small and historic village where old vines abound, and are mostly planted in steep slopes, with varying soil-types of sand, clay, and limestone, and markedly Atlantic influenced climate. Merino Jr. worked on and off with him and in other wineries, and he and his wife Erika joined full-time in 2017, bringing contemporary ideas to the production. Today he owns 7 hectares of vineyards, and farms another 6, distributed among 24 different plots, all located in Briones. The oldest of his vines were planted in 1929, many in the 60’s and 70’s, and the younger ones planted in 2001.

96% Tempranillo and 4% Graciano grown in a 1960s vineyard on limestone soils. Grapes are hand-harvested, fermented in barrel with malolactic completed, and aged for two years in American oak (70% new with French oak "heads"), with racking every six months. Three years in bottle before releasing.

"The more classical 2018 Reserva showed a textbook nose of cigar ash, pencil lead, tobacco and forest floor, tertiary and developed, with a polished palate. It's elegant, has typicity and is balanced and fresh, really impressive and clean. It matured in American and French oak barrels for 22 months and has been in bottle since August 2020, getting closer to the profile of a Gran Reserva. Impressive. 8,620 bottles produced. This is the first vintage of Miguel Merino Junior for this wine. Bravo! Drink 2023-33."—Wine Advocate 94 points!

Enjoy Miguel Merino Rioja Reserva over the next 8-10 years with roast pork, lamb, grilled steak, paella, and aged cheeses.