2012 Mauro, VS Vendimia Seleccionada, Castilla y Leon

Deep ruby. Highly perfumed aromas of black fruit preserves, cherry pastry, mocha and incense, along with cola and toasty oak notes that expand with aeration. Sappy, concentrated and lively on the palate, offering deeply concentrated blueberry, cherry-vanilla, spicecake and violet pastille flavors given spine and lift by a core of juicy acidity. Delivers a suave blend of richness and finesse and finishes extremely long and appealingly sweet, with rounded tannins building slowly.

The 2012 VS is a special selection of Tempranillo from two plots of older vineyards, one in Transpinedo and another one Tudela de Duero (La Oliva), aged for 36 months in oak barrels (including malolactic) with a classical blend of 80% French oak and the rest American. 2012 is a warm and dry year, and the VS can be considered classical in this vintage. The wine is ripe and has taken the oak quite generously. But it does have lots of fruit and feels quite forward, with more blackberry aromas from a very accessible and lush vintage. This is creamier and very nice now, but I preferred the 2013 that I tasted side by side with it. 31,000 bottles produced.