Viña Sastre, Ribera del Duero (Castilla y León, Spain) 2015

 This wine is still very reserved and tight for a 2015, which was a warm year that generally produced quite generous wines, but there’s no reason to worry that this won’t open up if you have a cellar and sufficient patience.  I tasted the 1999 vintage immediately before this (one retailer still has it in the USA, priced at $124 by the case), and that wine was still on the upswing, which is pretty damned impressive.  Although both wines obviously spent a lot of time in wood and were presumably made from the best fruit available on this sizeable estate, there’s nothing remotely overdone about either of them, and they really seem more “stylish” than “impressive.”  That’s a virtue in my estimation, and there’s a lot of pressure to “impress” once one gets into this price category.  This is a long-distance runner, and a very well-proportioned one, so only buy this if you have the right facilities and temperament.  If you do, you’ll surely find that my score is at least appropriately generous when you crack this open a decade from now.