Siglo Vino de Autor, Rioja 2001

A surprisingly fresh, delicate and fruity Rioja given its age, the secret behind Siglo is that following three years in old oak it has been carefully stored in an old concrete tank underground until bottling recently. This concrete storage means the wine has retained vigour, red fruit flavour and brightness with virtually no oaky flavour. Creamy, supple and soft, this offers a unique take on modern Rioja and an opportunity to try something that is 20 years old at a brilliant price. This wine note was edited on 30th November with the following feedback from Pierre Mansour, Director of Wine and Buyer for Spain: 'Thank you to everyone who took the effort to review this wine and I’m sorry if it wasn’t to your taste. We monitor feedback from members - positive and negative - and our team alerted these negative ones to me promptly this morning and so I immediately arranged to taste six bottles from the current batch. I’m pleased to report that there is no quality issue. However, I can understand why some members may be disappointed given the way it is described in the tasting note I originally wrote for it. The wine is showing more fruit (a good thing) and less of the oaky character than many would expect from a Rioja. Bodegas Manzanos took an unusual step in making this wine by storing it in concrete (after barrel ageing) until 2021 when it was bottled. This retains vibrancy and freshness, rather than the savoury flavours associated with more classic Rioja. As a result we have adjusted the web note above to better describe the style. Again- thank you for your feedback as without it we would not have been able to take this action.'