Bodegas Perica is a family winery dating to 1912. It has over 140 acres of vineyards in La Rioja Alta, the best part of Rioja. The Tempranillo (90%), Garnacha (5%), and Mazuelo (5%) grapes are manually harvested and transported to the winery in 10-kilo boxes (a less expensive way to do it is just pile all the grapes into a vat, but this risks bruising the grapes on the bottom). The skins and juice are fermented in large French oak vats, and the wine is aged for 28 months in mostly new French and Hungarian barrique. The finished wine is then aged at least three years in the bottle before release, but in this case the winery kept the bottles for 8 years before releasing them. If you think of the cost of not bringing a product to market for over 10 years, the economics of a wine like this are ridiculous and the value extreme! The 2005 has just about reached its peak of drinkability. It does not quite compete with the complexity of the very best Gran Reservas, but offers smooth and refined drinking at roughly half their price!