O. Rivière Ganko

I tasted a tank sample of the 2017 Ganko, though it was the final blend that was scheduled to be bottled around May 2019. This is always a spectacular red with an expressive nose with flowers. Perhaps it doesn't reach the heights of the great vintages, but it's much better than the idea many might have about the vintage. In a way, it could be the modern version of 2012. Given the frost from 2017 and the fact that not all wines were bottled, it has some Tempranillo from the Losares and Las Viñas de Eusebio. But the rest is more or less the same blend of equal parts of Garnacha and Mazuelo, grapes that provide fine tannins and very good freshness even in a year like 2017. This aged in a combination of oak vat and 600-liter barrels, but the oak doesn't seem to have lent the wine aromas or flavors. There will be a little less than 4,000 bottles of this.