First of all, congratulations on your blog. As it's written in english, I'll try to do the same for this comment.I'm afraid I don´t share your point of view on a few statements you make.Maybe the two wines you mention are not the best example of what good Rioja is. Marques de Cáceres is probably one of the best marketed Rioja wines in foreign countries, and this since a long time ago. But this doesn't mean it's the best option around. Not at all. I don't think we can consider Berberana as a good example of what Rioja can offer either. If you want to have a good opinion on what Rioja is, please consider one of the following: La Rioja Alta (Alberdi, Arana, Ardanza, 904, 890, ...), Marqués de Riscal, Marqués de Murrieta, López de Heredia (I specialy like their white gran reservas), Muga, CVNE, ...I disagree in that "long oak aging in older barrels kills all the fruit". I tend to think that it's new oak that crashes all the fruit in the wine if it's not correctly used. Please note that "Old" oak is not the same as "dirty" oak. "old" oak can ve as clean as new one when correctly maintained. Oak was never intended to add any fragrance to wine, although this can seem odd to new consumers nowadays. Don't expect to find ripe and exotic red and black fruit in good Riojas, anyway. I always find that good tempranillo grown in Rioja has mainly a distinctive and subtle nose of cherry, that I like a lot. Otherwise, if what you like is fruity wine, you have some of the best examples of unoaked "maceración carbónica" spanish wines in Rioja. Try one from Luberri (Biga), Sierra Cantabria (Murmurón), Ramírez de Ganuza (R), and so on.Again, congratulations for your blogging and good luck in Madrid.Best regards,<a HREF="todovino.blogspot.com" REL="nofollow" rel="nofollow">Sobre Vino</a>