Bodegas Hermanos Pecina 2018 Crianza Rioja 750ml

The wine offers a deep and utterly classical bouquet of red and black raspberries, clove-like Rioja spice tones, cigar wrapper, a beautiful foundation of soil, smoked meats and a lovely framing of American oak. On the palate the wine is deep, pure, full-bodied and ripe, with a superb core of fruit, excellent soil undertow, ripe, buried tannins and great focus and impeccable balance on the long, complex and potentially velvety finish. This is a top flight Crianza that is certainly already tasty, but will be even better with three to five years’ worth of cellaring and will evolve positively in bottle for decades. Think of this as La Rioja Alta-styled wine without pushing the envelope on oak. Fine juice.

Score: 92 points -- John Gilman, 2025