Cillar de Silos Ribera del Duero El Quintanal

This introductory Ribera del Duero of Cillar de Silos is one of my nominations for the highest quality among value Tempranillo wines. This winery makes multiple tiers of wines that are not only more expensive but even better. At 10 years old, this wine has dramatically leaped in quality by superbly aging, becoming lushly softer, more delicious, and integrated, yet still well structured by background acidity and tannin. Overall, getting close to rivaling the great Crianza Cillar de Silos made …

Cillar de Silos makes multiple levels of Tempranillo that get greater in quality and more expensive as you move up the ladder. But their introductory wine, here bought at $15 a bottle, is no slouch and even improves for at least a decade The 2001 Crianza was utterly charming, rich, delicious, and enjoyable even on release. This decently concentrated 2007 started more tart and firmly structured , and took a decade to get really good. Excellent red cherry fruit with …

Poured right out of the bottle, the wine initially suffered from a sour acidity and a lean streak of astringent tannin. But the second day open the wine was reborn, with a darker color, deeper black cherry fruit, much calmer acidity, and rounder mouth feel, while retaining a firmly drying finish. Excellent with a wide range of foods. Thoughly enjoyable on day 5 of being opened. At $15 a bottle, a fine benchmark for Ribera del Duero wines to have …

Medium deep crimson. Ripe nose with savory character, some vanilla and mineral. Medium concentration - honest, from a difficult vintage. Best as it was opened and carried through the meal, but dried out after 2 hours. Fair and enjoyable, but nothing to write home about - the angularity at the end of the bottle marred the whole.