Abadia Retuerta Pago Garduna Syrah Vino de la Tierra de Castilla y Leon 2015
Winemaker Notes
This single vineyard wine was produced exclusively with Syrah grapes. The vines are planted in bright, white limestone soil in the middle of pine trees that protect the vineyard from strong winds. The grapes produced here reach perfect ripeness levels. It displays a deep, dark color with black cherry tones, and the nose reveals a spicy, floral bouquet and an explosion of red berry fruit aromas. Balsamic, toasty notes also come through, brought by 18 months’ ageing in new French oak barrels. Smooth and elegant on the palate, this wine is amazingly expressive as well as powerful and very well balanced, followed by a lingering finish.
Critical Acclaim
All VintagesYouthful purple. Powerful aromas of dark berry and cherry preserves, exotic spices, vanilla and incense develop a smoky nuance as the wine stretches out. Fleshy, broad and appealingly sweet but surprisingly lithe as well, offering intense blackberry, boysenberry, licorice and spicecake flavors and a hint of candied flowers. Finishes seamless and impressively long, with an echo of florality, a hint of salty olive and youthfully firm tannins that add shape and solid grip. Aged for 17 months in new French oak barrels.
The Abadía Retuerta Estate occupies over 700 hectares of terrain, and its name comes from the combination of two words that define and describe the territory: Rívula (river bank) and Torta (twisting, winding). Over 204 hectares of vineyards are spread out on hillsides ranging in altitude from a maximum 850 metres down to the southern bank of the Duero River. Most of the world's best varieties of soil are represented.
Designed by famous French enologist, Pascal Delbeck, in 1996, Abadía Retuerta winery is a surprising combination of tradition and modernity, recognized as one of the most advanced wineries in Europe. Currently, Angel Anocíbar Beloqui (PhD in Enology and Ampelography from the University of Bordeaux and International Wine Challenge 2005 Winemaker of the Year) coordinates the entire process, from the vine to the bottle.
Abadía Retuerta estate wines offer some very unique characteristics. They are full-colored wines, intense and aromatically clean, clearly structured, smooth to the palate and delicate in the development of their strength.
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.