"Lesmos" Rioja Reserva remains a staff and customer favorite and we're pleased to offer this latest release from winegrower Angel Escudero. The 2015, is singing at the moment as its had time to soften and mature. Although it's in a perfect drinking window, it will certainly offer a lot of pleasure over the next few years. Ideal with meats and cheeses.

Lesmos, I know it is Señor de Lesmos, but for more than a decade I have always shortened the name whenever I talk about this wine. The thing is, I have saved soooo many words with that abbreviation, this is one of the all-time best-selling Spanish wines at K&L. I can squander all of those saved words while I am writing up this wine! It is a wine that if you like Spanish wine, and you shop in one of our stores, someone working (any maybe another customer) has recommended this Reserva Rioja to you. This has everything that the Crianza has going for it, old vines, organics, hand harvested, and it has more. More power, more concentration, more presence and more time in oak. This wine has spent 18 months in a mixture of used French and American oak barrels and then has spent all that time resting in bottle! Even if we fudge the math a little, we are looking at almost 5 extra years aging (it needs a certain minimum to qualify for Reserva). What does all that more translate into with this wine? 2015 was a very good vintage (almost as good as the 2019). It was a slightly warmer vintage, and you can feel that in this wine, there is just a little more richness. The dark cherry fruit tones are a little heavier, that black fruit behind that is a little warmer. It is that underlying dark character that I love most about this wine; it is a subtle savory tone that adds extra dimension to the wine. All of that is framed with developing notes of age; there is more leather, spice, that tertiary earthiness, accented with some dried herbal tones. The tannins have started to resolve but they still have presence. This wine over-delivers on every level.

The best Rioja in the store for this price! No doubt. Dry, balanced, traditional style of Rioja, it's full of earthy notes and bright red fruit, medium light tannins, beautiful spicy nuances linger on the finish for a very long time. I love everything about this wine: its elegance, subtle dried herbs, wild berry profile and bright finish. Don't skip this one! It's one of the best examples of classic Rioja.