The first thing everyone tells me when I talk about this wine is "2002 was a lousy year for Spanish wines.  What's a guy like you buying this crud for, man?".  To those people, I say grow up!  Judge with your palate, not your calendar.  To assume that every wine in a mediocre vintage is lousy is like assuming that every student at a bad school is uneducated.  Sure, there may be a lot of poor students at a bad school, but surely there are a couple top notch kids there too.  Same with wines.  Every bad vintage, a couple of wineries still make great product.

Emilio Moro is becoming one of the better wineries in Spain.  They are located in Ribera del Duero.  The primary grape here is Tinto Fino, which is just a different name for Tempranillo, the primary grape in Rioja.  The grape takes on different characteristics in Ribera versus Rioja, so perhaps a different name for the same grape in the two regions is reasonable.

Moro still managed to produce a top-flight collection of wines in the difficult 2002 vintage.  Their top of the line super luxury Malleolus de Sanchomartin and Malleolus de Valderramiro garnered a lot of critical acclaim, but the standard Moro Ribera and the Moro Ribera Malleolus went largely ignored.  I have not had the regular Ribera, but the Ribera Malleolus was a very solid wine.  Dark color, good extraction, and an interesting bouquet of plums, cherries, and smoke.  On the palate, there was a lot of fruit and oak, and all well integrated.  The finish was of modest length, but smooth.

Interestingly, when this wine was released it carried a retail price of $66 dollars.  The reputation of the 2002 vintage killed the prices, and I bought this at auction for the price of $20, since everyone was scared to bid on a Spanish wine from 2002.  The "vintage snobbery" of other buyers makes for the educated consumer's windfall.  I will gladly buy this wine again, if I see it at a similar price.

Score 3.25-3.5 stars

 

What did you think of this article?

Liked
Disliked
No Opinion