Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2021 Terreus Cima de Cueva Baja is among the finest vintages for this exceptional red from the top terrace of a vineyard at 800 meters above sea level with a specific microclimate that makes for a profound, complex, powerful and nuanced wine that is among the best in the Duero region and has a track record for longevity like very few others. The bunches are cooled down before being put through a sorting table, destemmed and transported by gravity (in an "ovi" type vat) to the stainless steel fermentation tanks, where it fermented with indigenous yeasts and went through malolactic. It matured in French oak barrels for 20 months. The good thing about these wines is that they are produced in good quantities, as there are 10,000 bottles of this. It was bottled in August 2023. It has a long life ahead of it. Bravo.
Rating: 98+ -
Wine Spectator
This vibrant red's dark underpinning of tarry smoke, fig cake and black licorice notes is counterpointed by a pure beam of pureed boysenberry, plus accents of spiced orange peel, thyme and violet. Though tightly meshed and muscular today, this shows an overall sense of equilibrium that suggests good aging potential and more to come. Best from 2027 through 2034.
Spanish red wine is known for being bold, heady, rustic and age-worthy, Spain is truly a one-of-a-kind wine-producing nation. A great majority of the country is hot, arid and drought-ridden, and since irrigation has only been recently introduced and (controversially) accepted, viticulture has sustained—and flourished—only through a great understanding of Spain’s particular conditions. Large spacing between vines allows each enough resources to survive and as a result, the country has the most acreage under vine compared to any other country, but is usually third in production.
Of the Spanish red wines, the most planted and respected grape variety is Tempranillo, the star of Spain’s Rioja and Ribera del Duero regions. Priorat specializes in bold red blends, Jumilla has gained global recognition for its single varietal Monastrell and Utiel-Requena has garnered recent attention for its reds made of Bobal.