JJ Hahn Carlos Serres Best Wine Deals

Carlos Serres is a bit of an OG - one of the few Rioja producers with a century of winemaking behind them. Carlos was actually named Charles, a French Winemaker who left Bordeaux, fed up with dealing with phylloxera riddled vineyards, landing in Spain. He founded the first winery in Rioja with export certification and applied French winemaking techniques to Rioja fruit. Pretty soon, there was a demand for Rioja in the rest of Europe and the US.

Carlos Serres Crianza is 100% Tempranillo and spends 14 months in a combo of French and American oak. Being 'Crianza', the wine has spent a year in barrel, and another on bottle prior to release. Typically aged in older oak, Crianza can have quite assertive tannins and fruit which is intense whilst retaining great freshness. This is a particularly good example, packed with red fruits, cherries, spice, oak and nervy acidity.

The most intense and refined of the Carlos Serres wines- a blend of Tempranillo, Graciano and Mazuelo, entirely sourced from the Finca El Estanque vineyard. Only 2% of Rioja wines are released as Gran Reserva, with the best fruit treated to at least a couple of years in oak, generally older, before being bottled at anywhere between 5 and 10 years of age. Carlos Serres choose to release the wine when it is ready to go... and this, the 14 vintage is excellent, offering ripe black fruits, truffles, raspberry, spice, cedar and vanilla. This is all wrapped around a mineral core. The palate is rich and smooth, the finish long and satisfying. Beautiful now, but will cellar for another 5+ as well.