Bodegas Valdemar is a Spanish winery from Oyon which is a town in the Rioja wine-region. Bodegas Valdemar actually consists of  four small wineries which together produces a total of 22 wines. I actually wanted to open this bottle at Tempranillo-day but unfortunately I couldn’t. Therefore I decided to open the wine at a dinner. Since I had not many good Rioja in the past I had low expectations.

Conde de Valdemar Reserva is manufactured with 85% Tempranillo, 7% Mazuelo, 5% Garnacha and 3% Graciano grapes. The wine aged in American and French oak for 17 months and one year in the bottle. Conde de Valdemar Reserva is classified as Rioja DOC. Prior to drinking the wine was decanted for 90 minutes which after taking a sip turned out to be not enough time for the wine to fully develop so we waited another 30 minutes. Now the wine was ready!

Tasting notes Conde de Valdemar Reserva

In the glass Cone de Valdemar Reserva had bright cherry red color. Most Italian red wines tend to have a ruby red or after long aging a garnet red color. This looked interesting and was a good start.

On the palate the wine had a lot of leather, some cocoa, a bit of tobacco and spices. Very complex and lots of aromas but I missed the fruit component. In Italy there is saying that if wine doesn’t have a fruit aroma then it’s not a good wine since wine is made from fruit. Alcohol by volume was label listed at 13.5%.

After taking a sip, I noticed some tannins but they were not aggressive. Cone de Valdemar from Bodegas Valdemar was dry and well-bodied. The finish was very long but I almost only tasted oak. But my expectations were not high – the wine was better than I thought it would be.

If the nose would have had at least one intense fruit aroma then I would have probably enjoyed this wine a little bit more. The decanting definitely helped the wine a lot. The first sip after half an hour was at most half as good as the wine was after two hours decanting. If you drank the wine the let me know if you liked it or not.

To buy or not to buy?

I am not overwhelmed by this wine. Maybe Rioja and I will just not become good friends. I drank the wine together with two others and they enjoyed the wine a bit more than me so it’s definitely not a bad wine and I’m sure others will get overwhelmed by it like my friends did. I personally am not recommending it but if I had to recommend a Rioja that I drank then this one would be it.

I’m not sure for how much Conde de Valdemar Reserva from Bodegas Valdemar retails for since the wine was a present. Robert Parker rated the wine with 90 points.

If you want to recommend me your favorite Rioja then please do so in the comment section. I might buy it if it’s available here in Munich. Talk A Vino, a fellow blogger friend, wrote a great article about Rioja. You should read it if you want to get a second, more positive opinion about Rioja wines. Last but not least you  follow me on Twitter!

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