Bodegas Tabula, Tabula, Ribero del Duero, Spain, 2006

The high tablelands of the Ribera del Duero are home to the Tempranillo grape whose combination of power and subtlety express itself on a blank slate, on which the competing forces of nature and nurture flourish. Batting its intense strawberry fruit and smoothly textured sheen of glossy vanilla backwards and forwards in the most dynamic interplay, the Tabula 2006 displays delicately coconut aromas with polished spicy oak sitting unobtrusively in the background.