Fan-Favorite, Best-Value Rioja Señor de Lesmos Back in Stock
Señor de Lesmos is back! These staff- and fan-favorite wines from Spain have not been gone for long, but it sure feels that way. It is like waiting for your favorite fruit to come back in season. There is no such thing as Rioja season, but it always feels like an occasion when these gorgeous Spanish wines hit the shelf again.
We have had the pleasure of selling these wines for over 14 years—it is amazing how fast time flies. I say it too often, but Rioja could be the best value in the world of wine, and the wines of Bodegas Casa Juan more than prove that statement. Bodegas Casa Juan is a small family-run estate located in Laguardia. The Escudero family (Carmen, Santiago, Julian, and Ángel—together they form the anagram of CASA JUAN). Ángel and his wife, Araceli, are the driving force of the winery; he, in fact, is the Señor Lesmos—or he was. Señor Lesmos was what his father called him when he got into trouble when he was a child. I don’t know about you, but I like these wines just a little bit more knowing that.
The family owns vineyards throughout the entire Rioja region. This is a classic way of developing the complexity which Rioja is known for. The bulk of their vineyards are located on both sides of the Ebro River, in the subregions of Rioja Alta and Rioja Alavesa. In these sites Tempranillo is the most widely planted varietal, and most of the vines are over 40 years old. It is the fruit from their vineyards in the Rioja Oriental subregion that define the house's style. Here they have Manzuelo, also known as Carignan, planted. The varietal provides extra intensity and structure, the key to making these wines pop!
The winemaking is simple: native yeast fermentation occurs in large concrete tanks. Malolactic fermentation is completed in those same tanks and then the wine is racked into the old oak barrels for aging. The oak is mostly American with a little French and Bosnian. This blend of oak gives extra dimension to the fruit—a mix of sweet and savory spices, while amplifying the sweet tobacco and savory herbal notes. All our most recent favorites are back, here is what is now in stock.
2018 Bodegas Casa Juan Señor de Lesmos Crianza Rioja $12.99
This is the little wine that can. I have had older vintages of this Crianza, and I can attest that it ages really well. This is their youngest release, but even this has five years of age on it. And this vintage is showing better than ever. The blend is the same as it always: 85% Tempranillo with the remainder Manzuelo. It was aged for 14 months in oak, then blended and bottled. This has that great mix of dark and red fruits, spices, and a subtle but distinctive earthiness. There is enough tannin and acid to give it poise but not enough to require time or rich food (not that either would be a bad call).
2015 Bodegas Casa Juan Señor de Lesmos Reserva Rioja $19.99
I love how good this wine is. This wine over performs in the biggest way. I hate to describe any wine this way, but it is how I feel about it: it is stupid how good this wine is, and how affordable it is—this is a K&L favorite for a reason. This wine has everything that I want from a Rioja, and wine in general. It has lots of complexity, a mix of dark fruits and bright berries. It has lots of spice, hints of leather, earth, and an almost iron-like minerality to it. It is persistent; the flavors go and go. It has plenty of structure, which does not intrude, but it more than subtly drives the wine. This is a wine that you can share with anyone for any occasion, or with no one at all because the wine is awesome the next day!
2010 Bodegas Casa Juan Señor de Lesmos Gran Reserva Rioja $29.99
This is the last batch of the 2010 Gran Reserva. We have had an incredible roll with this classic vintage, and to be frank I was surprised that there was any more available—so we snatched up every bottle we could. I like to think of this as a special occasion wine that needs no special occasion! Gran Reserva is a special style of wine; they are not made every year because not every year’s harvest is up to the quality needed in order to be able spend that much time in oak to qualify for the category while coming out the other side as not too oaky. This wine that, at 12 years old, has weathered its time in oak and additional time in bottle with absolute grace! What do I mean? There is a crazy amount of still fresh, dark berry fruit to this wine. It takes a second to find it, as you have to look past the ridiculous complexity of the spice, mixed fresh and dried herbs, leather, and exotic woods to find it but it is there. And once you find it just grows and grows and grows. What a nose! There are only a handful of wines from around the world that can offer such an aromatically complex nose—and not at this price point! It is on the palate that you get a sense of the age of the wine. It is in the softer tannins, the round mellow settled-in thing that happens with older Rioja. It has an ease to it; you can tell that it does not want to try and impress you. You get it or you don't, that is fine with it. There is still a freshness to the dark berry fruit too. It is medium weight, mellow and complex. This is a wine for hanging out and nibbling on cheese or a great cut of meat.