Bodegas Vinicola Real, Rioja (Spain) 2008

A very serious wine that was emphatically built for the cellar, this was lashed with lots of new oak that will require a full decade after the vintage date to become fully integrated, but will ultimately be beautifully balanced.  It got nothing but better for 48 hours after opening, and the quality of the material here is entirely beyond question.  However, this isn’t a wine to just crack open and drink cocktail style, but rather a keeper that could ultimately become quite complex and quite possibly deserving of a notably higher score.  Today, the dominant notes are dark cherry and blackberry, with accents of spicy oak and dill.