Miguel Merino 2018 Rioja Reserva 750ml

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!

Score: 94 points -- Luis Gutierrez, The Wine Advocate, 2024

Located in the village of Briones in Rioja Alta, Bodegas Miguel Merino offer exemplary modern Rioja wine sourced from their own Tempranillo vines planted between 1931 and 1963 at an altitude of 550 meters above sea level. The Tempranillo vines are augmented by small plots of Mazuelo and Graciano that are occasionally bottled separately. The wine is then matured in a combination of new American, French and Hungarian oak.