Doing my best to keep this thread alive, I have been sipping on the 2019 Pago de Carraovejas [Ribera del Duero] over a couple of lazy afternoons while on holiday. As Otto observes in another in depth note from a few years ago, the typical RDD has ‘tons of oak, alcohol, and extraction’, which I would concur that this 2019 also offers, but I like it nevertheless. There is a suprising brightness that draws the taster back in for a second sip (or glass) that the 15% abv would not impute. My observations are that it’s still young, ruby robed, with cloves and cocoa on the nose. I find the the palate to have black cherries, with somewhat resolved tannin, a bit of zip and lots of flesh. According to the back label it’s mostly tempranillo, hand harvested, with native yeasts from a family of restauranteurs that launched the project in 1987. I like it and would slot it into the A- zone; this bodedga has managed the tension between ripeness and verve well, which seems hard in our warm climate era.
I don’t see this often so not sure if it will really replace my regular RDD’s…but I’m not buying much in this DO anyways, as I feel like Rioja is more my preference.