Winemaker Notes
A wine of an intense, saturated hue. It has a complex nose, with a striking blend of forest fruits, plums, blackberries and juniper berries. There are also hints of black olive and a certain spiciness of cloves, along with black and white pepper. It is elegant and smooth on the palate, yet intense at the same time. An expressive and balanced wine, with silky and fruity tannins that coat the palate. It has a long finish and has great potential, sure to be enjoyed.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Grilled pineapple, dried lemon, lemon grass, flint and toast on the nose. It’s full-bodied with bright acidity and a creamy texture. Layered and concentrated with well-integrated oak spice. Serious white. Long. Sauvignon blanc. Drink now or hold.
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Vinous
The 2019 Syrah Pago Garduña is from DO Abadía Retuerta in Sardón del Duero and was aged 18 months in 44% new French oak barrels. A dark garnet-red. The exotic nose offers chutney and jerky aromas over a balsamic layer of blackberry and plum. The palate is rich, intense and creamy, with a velvety, bold mouthfeel resulting in an impressively prolix red. This is a New World-style Syrah.
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Wine Spectator
A refined, creamy red, with baked black plum, black currant and green olive flavors framed by fine-grained, muscular tannins. Hints of loamy earth, leafy herbs, espresso, pepper and toasted paprika add savory depth, pushing through on the long, focused finish. Best from 2025 through 2034.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The single vineyard 2019 Pago la Garduña is pure Syrah from a plot planted in 1994 on a north-facing slope on clay rich soils. It fermented with the yeasts they isolated form their own vineyards and matured in French oak barrels (50% new), including malolactic, for 18 months. It's ripe at 15% alcohol and has good freshness, and it's also more Mediterranean, a tad riper and less varietal, with more notes of aromatic herbs and black olives. It's full-bodied, concentrated and reflects the sun of the year.
The rebirth of a historic vineyard and of a whole winemaking tradition, the excellence of which remains intact, laid the foundations for today’s Abadía Retuerta winery. It now has over 30 years of history, as expert hands manage the vineyard by carefully looking after it and creating unique wines with their own Protected Designation of Origin.
Abadía Retuerta is a unique place where time stands still and feelings run high. Here, the past lives on in the present, and centuries of tradition and culture remain intact. It sits within an enclave bathed by the river Duero, which defines the traits of the surrounding terroir. Experts with great patience, know-how and anticipation really get the best out of the terrain: they respect the natural cycles and help the vines adapt to the austere climate of the region, in order to produce one of the estate’s most prized assets: its first-rate wine.
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.