I was given this wine by a friend who had kept it for years. It is not a prestigious wine so I was not expecting it to have aged well. I was completely wrong. The wine had lost its fresh fruit flavours but had matured to give strong and concentrated aromas of prunes and preserved cherries and other dried fruits. There was still the flavour of oak. The tannin had softened . The wine was savoury and had long length. My wife was pleasantly surprised too.
Even a modest wine can age quite well in the dark and under cool conditions. Why don't you try it? Drinking an aged wine is a world of difference than drinking a wine which is too young. La Mancha Reserva wines are usually matured in oak for at least 12 months before being sold. On the back label it recommended consuming the wine within 1 year of purchase, perhaps they were being a little conservative.
http://www.cellartracker.com/wine.asp?iWine=482266 -Maybe the reviewers should have held on a little bit longer!
We drank the wine with Cawl, which is usually welsh lamb stew. You can also make it from bacon or beef ; but most of the time it is made from lamb. I find that Tempranillo based wines go well with lamb.
Cawl must really have root vegetables in the recipe such as parsnip, swede or turnip and carrots. Potatoes and cabbage go well too.Normally you do not add tomatoes but I added a tin to give it a bit more of a savoury flavour - well, my wife is French. Cawl is delicious with red wine and you can add some mature cheddar to make it more luxurious.
http://britishfood.about.com/od/maincourse1/r/welshcawl.htm
