Conde de San Cristóbal

A red wine from the Ribera del Duero Region named after one of the brothers who owns the winery. The gentleman from the Bodega who presented the wines, at vinopremier.com, went on about the Ribera del Duero denominación having part in Southern Burgos and part around Valladolid. Apparently the latter is better and of course that is where this wine is from. Now I have no idea how true this is, perhaps some of my wino friends from the region can confirm. I found it amusing that he totally ignored the Soria area to the East. I will have to look up the differences some time.

This red wine is made from 85% Tinto Fino (Tempranillo to you and me), 10% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. The main grapes come from vine of 15 to 30 years old grown in a mixture of soil types. It is matured for 10 to 12 months in French (Haute Futâie), Russian (Caucasus) and American oak barrels.

In colour it is a clear ruby red, and has a really nice fruity scent of red and black berries with some earth. A dry wine with medium tannins and a light clean finish. When I tasted it I git more earth and vegetable flavours rather than the promised berries. However once it had been open for a bit the fruit flavours got stronger. This is often the case at wine tastings, they never open the red wine to let it air enough.

The group I was with really liked this wine. It was paired with some really sharp cheese and that certainly went well.