Wine of the Week: Bodegas Peñafiel Miros de Ribera Reserva Colleccíon Privada 2001

Allow me to start this post with my visit to the Bodegas Peñafiel stand at the Cata Vins Sabadell Wine Fair last weekend. Bodegas Peñafiel is located in the heart of Ribera del Duero, situated in the central north portion of Spain. The attendant for the stand, Emilia Marín Fornielles was a tall blond in her early forties with a wonderful, open smile and kind demeanor. José Manuel from Yvinos was a friend of Emilia and was kind enough to not only guide me through her wines, which all showed very well, but also begin a conversation with Emilia regarding our FREE PDF for wineries on Social Media. For her part, she listened attentively and professional curiosity, but was clear that she was a hands on type of person. Someone who prefers a sensory experience in life, versus a distant digital experience, but was very eager to learn more about this “blogging” and “social networking” concept.

I say this because upon visiting Bodegas Peñafiel’s website this morning, I was astounded to see that they had a “blog” button on their header. Unbelievably excited, and a little astonished that our friend Emilia didn’t bring this up in conversation, I clicked on the header button to find zero posts. Not one. It appears to have been originally created for the winemaker to share their thoughts, but sadly this incredibly cool function has never been played with. It sits idle, unused, lacking any information. Which only makes me think, what happened? Did your web designer sell you this feature that you weren’t really interested in? Did someone forget to teach the winemaker how to use the blog? The worst part of this story, is if you click through the months, there is a indicator of the number of people who clicked on that month as “readers”. Last I clicked on the month October,  4, 814 people had clicked on that exact same month before me!! And as the blog was launched in June, that’s a fair amount of interested readers!

Why wouldn’t you fill that very empty white space with information?

This aside, Bodegas Peñafiel’s vineyards are situated between 750 and 900 meters above sea level consisting of limestone, sand, silt, clay and sedimentary deposits with an average rainfall of 500mm. The climate is continental, meaning bitter cold winters, and steamy hot summers.

If you look on the label of the Miros de Ribera Reserva Coleccion Privada, you will notice a very unique and eye catching label. The Miros project is Bodega’s Peñafiel’s effort to feature local artists in Barcelona on each of their five wines. The intention, as I understood it, was to encourage local artists to submit examples of artwork for which they felt exemplified the essence of each wine. The campaign clearly worked as their Crianza had caught by eye years ago on several wine shelves, but I never got around to actually tasting it. I sincerely hope more wineries consider doing this, because it’s a great way to both support the community and the arts.

Made from 100% Tempranillo, aged for 2 years in French oak and an additional 22 months in bottle, the Miros de Ribera Reserva Coleccion Privada 2001 is fantastic! Dark inky red in color with a big aromatic bouquet showing black cherry, plum and a hint of toasted wood. In the mouth, silky fine tannins coat my mouth, followed by a light, lingering acidity that gently caresses my tongue and then slowly dissipates to leave rich smoke, dark cherry and black pepper flavors on the palate.

Approximately 22,500 were produced and can be found at between 25 and 40 dollars both in Iberia and abroad. Definitely seek out this wine here!

Saludos,

Gabriella Opaz