Lienert Vineyards Carlos Serres Wine List

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.

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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.

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A stunning Reserve Rioja from Carlos Serres, one of the few century old Rioja producers. This is a blend of 90% Tempranillo with 10% Graciano sourced from the winery's 'Finca El Estanque' vineyard and aged for 2 years in French and American Oak. There is vivid freshness here, in spite of the wines age, and flavours of blackcurrant blackberries, shaved truffle, chocolate, cola, spice and lavender. Delicious by itself or with a plate or nine of Tapas. Brilliant with crispy pork belly too, or a cone of Jamon Iberico, or... Learn More

An exceptional wine, even more powerfully fruited than the 2019. Made by former Penfolds St Henri growers, the Lienert brothers. Each of the 7 distinct clones were harvested and fermented separately with the harvest date chosen to best allow each grape to express its best characters. For instance, the EVOS12 (Eden Valley clone) was harvested earlier than the others to allow for a beautiful perfume and liveliness in the final wine. Fermentation is done in tiny open top fermenters which are hand plunged up to 4 times a day. Certain clones are fermented cooler to better express delicate aromatics whilst some are plunged and pumped over heavily to achieve a more structural element. The trick is finding the right balance. Anyways, we love this wine and encourage you to give it a rip. Learn More

The Lienert Roussanne is a beautifully textural wine offering a complex mix of stonefruits, nuttiness, green tea, creaminess and a whisp of tannin to finish. The wine has spent time in old oak, being regularly less stirred to build texture. It is a cracking wine. Learn More

The Lienert’s have been farming in the Barossa for 150 years and decided to add some vines to their property about 20 years ago. The first fruit from 2004 and 2005 vintages went straight to the pool room, aka into Penfold’s St Henri. Funnily enough they then planted a lot more vines and introduced many more clonal variations of Shiraz and Grenache. This Grenache is a brilliant amalgam of fragrance and grunt, thanks to the careful clonal selection and extensive blending trials undertaken before settling on the final ‘just right blend’. Whilst called Sieben Klon (Seven Clones) the Grenache actually includes 8 separate clones... as follows. BVRC38 – This is one of the nursery clones and has proved to be a great backbone, a bit of a goldilocks, Just right. Lovely red fruits, balance, mid weight and acidity. Simple and clean, not overly complex but blends well with everything... 30% of this clone was whole bunch fermented. Vine Vale Ancestor 1854 – This one is a bit more beastly, darker fruit spectrum and fuller richer palate, still plenty of subtlety but with some beautiful earthen tones. McLaren Vale High Sands – Without picking favourites this one is a beauty, lifted aromatics, mid weight, fine tannins, complex and saline edge, ocean mist. Ethereal Greenock Moppa Selection – Cuttings were taken from the Moppa foothills behind the town of Greenock. This clone is quite unique in its structure as well as noticeably darker colour than most, while still retaining a vibrant fruit character. Ebenezer Selection –This clone is elegant and complex, with a finely tuned tannin profile and lifted red fruit. Langhorne Creek Selection– This clone retains wonderful acidity and has a piercing fruit and aromatic profile, the odd one out as picked much earlier ~1.5-2 weeks before the others. Krondorf Selection– High end lifted fragrance and bouncy jubey fruit, as well as an underlying savouriness which rounds out the palate nicely. Learn More