2014 Bodegas Hermanos Pecina Señorio de P. Pecina Crianza Rioja DOCa 750 ml

Most define truly traditional Rioja by its aging, or by its varieties, or by the style’s current scarcity. We define it as Bodegas Hermanos Peciña. 

Wine Advocate called the family-run estate “a new classic,” and this 2014 Señorio de P. Peciña Crianza combines careful winemaking, superb pedigree, and intricate nuance—one that embodies everything we love about classically made Rioja. 

This back-vintage treasure, born of estate vines up to 50 years of age, brandishes stunning complexity from a barrel-aging regimen twice as long as most Crianzas. That depth meshes perfectly with the energy derived from the wine’s cool mountain-foothill sources, making for a gorgeous cellared Rioja that’s drinking beautifully right now. Vinous awarded it a 91-point score when they tasted it just this year, praising the estate’s “elegant and expressive wines, which have proven to be built for the long run.”

Founder Pedro Peciña spent 18 years as vineyard manager for La Rioja Alta—perhaps the Rioja Alta subregion’s most famed estate—where he developed a keen eye for pristine vineyard sites. For his own venture, he selected several small plots at elevations up to 1,886 feet, which sit below the Sierra Cantabria Mountains, near San Vicente. 

This is some of Rioja Alta’s most enviable terroir, sought for its elevation, limestone-streaked soils, and the confluence of Atlantic and Mediterranean climates. Most of Peciña’s vineyards face north, which means they experience cooler temperatures, resulting in grapes that balance ripeness and acidity. The Crianza is drawn from three of Peciña’s best sites, including the one that goes into their Gran Reserva bottling. 

In the cellar, Peciña is decidedly old school, spurning the vinification techniques that many estates have turned to for faster, larger-scale productions. Even though Crianza wines require just one year of barrel aging, Peciña gave his two years in neutral American oak—longer than some Reservas—during which he employed a painstaking racking technique. Instead of racking his wine from barrel to tank and back (like most wineries), Peciña manually racks from barrel to barrel twice per year, aided only by gravity. It’s a labor- and time-intensive practice that allows the wine to breathe and develop complex flavors, resulting in gorgeous clarity. 

Pop the bottle and you’ll want to thank Peciña for going to such lengths. You’re immediately met with aromas of black plum, red currant, vanilla, and cedar. Powdery tannins grace the palate, framing black fruit and spice. After seven years in the cellar, it’s a textbook Rioja with a depth you could contemplate all night, matched by an energy that will keep the glass to your lips. 

This isn’t a typical Rioja Crianza. It’s a meticulously hand-crafted wine from excellent terroir—a back-vintage bottle you shouldn’t let slip away.