Gómez Cruzado Reserva 2012

The current vintage of the most classical red is the 2012 Reserva, a wine from the new team that started in 2008 (but didn't take over until 2013). It's already a less extracted wine compared with the wines from the early 2000s, looking for more elegance. This is Tempranillo (but future vintages will have some Garnacha and Graciano), and they have used French oak, which provides a more serious profile with hints of peat and forest floor rather than the vanilla-driven notes lent by American oak. It's balsamic and has notes of cigar ash, from a low-yielding year with good ripeness, pretty apt for Reserva-style wines. 30,000 bottles and 1,500 magnums produced. It was bottled in June 2017. - Luis Gutiérrez. 

Dried cedar, sandalwood, brambles, dried strawberries and glazed cherries. Medium body, drying tannins and a medium but quite harmonious finish. Drink now.