Bodegas Elias Mora, Elias Mora Crianza, Toro 2019
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93
Wine Enthusiast
Deep violet in the glass, this wine has a bouquet of brambly fruits of the wood, dark chocolate and espresso. Bold cherry and blackberry flavors are joined by notes of mocha, orange zest and ground black pepper. Burly tannins assert their dominance on the palate shortly after the first sip.
The 2019 ‘Crianza’ comes from estate vines planted to Tinta de Toro that are set at 800 meters. The wine shows a beautiful bouquet of dark raspberry and dark chocolate shavings alongside tar and underbrush notes. The palate is soft and refined with silky tannins and a big sense of weight. Finishing long, this is a marvelous effort that is already impossible to resist. Drink 2023-2035- 93
This offering seemed surprisingly tart and acidic when the cork was first pulled, but opened up and broadened out in just a few minutes without any aeration or decanting. Still, rather astringent tannins in the wine’s finish suggest that this needs more time in bottle to achieve a fully coherent profile. One way to test that is to try the wine again a day later, which is exactly what I did with this wine and all the others reviewed below. When re-tasted, the tannins had rounded out somewhat, but there was still clear room for improvement with aging, as the wine’s acidity was quite bright and a bit awkward in relation to the ripe sweetness of the fruit. To be clear, I would be disappointed in a $40 wine that did not show a capacity for improvement from cellaring, so this is not a knock on this wine — just advice for how to treat it. One more thing: $40 would seem like an insane price for Crianza if this were from Rioja, as that’s become a largely woeful category populated mostly by $15 wines that taste more like the inside of a barrel than like “wine.” This is from 50-year-old, own-rooted bush vines, and is an utterly different animal. It deserves cellaring, and it you don’t have the patience or space to do that, lean toward the 2018 “Descarte” from this house.
A graceful red that deftly marries a dense core of fine tannins with a fresh and appealing range of ripe black plum, cassis, licorice string, toast and cigar box notes—a flavor profile that expands on the palate. Tempranillo. Drink now through 2027. 3,750 cases made, 700 cases imported.
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