Deep garnet with bricking, staining edges. An initial miserably fat, dirty-baby-diaper had me giving this a completely unpassable score but then it kinda turned on me. It’s still unbearably fat, but there is a richness to the petrichor and fruit with a background of stemminess which compels… a little bit. But it’s still a fat, oxidized muss.
You just can’t expect too much from these cheap Crianzas. Acrid and thin in the mouth, showing all of the maderized flaws suspected. Dull and lifeless with battery-acid tannin. I could throw back gallons of this in a chilly outdoor bistro and probably think nothing of it, but here, in California, surrounded by thousands of balanced, unflawed wines, it just doesn’t show well. It probably should have been consumed within 2 or 3 years of release and I guarantee it will be a trainwreck at 24 hours.
2009 MARQUES DE CARO Rioja Crianza Tempranillo 13.5
Stephen McConnell 