Winemaker Notes
Very intense, fresh nose, aromas of wild black fruit with subtle creamy notes. Vibrant attack invades then the palate with delicacy, leading to an ample wine, solid, meaty and oily with unusual refined tannins for a Tempranillo. Very long finish well marked with the character of the varietal. Probably our best ever Pago Negralada.
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
A concentrated tempranillo with a ton of fine-grained tannins. This is still a little shy on the smoky and cocoa-powder nose, but is beginning to develop very nicely on the well structured palate. A touch less oak might have given this more.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The textbook Tempranillo 2015 Pago Negralada, tasted 10 years after the harvest is still quite tannic. This was harvested on September 24, quite early in a warm and dry year that delivered powerful wines with abundant tannins. It has good ripeness, with 14.5% alcohol. This is slightly more powerful, concentrated and oaky than the 2016 I tasted next to it. It was a ripe and powerful year, and the wine has notes of black olives and a full-bodied palate with more tannins. It will keep for longer, but I'm not sure the tannins are not going to outlast the fruit.
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Wine Spectator
This red is rich yet focused. The texture is dense, the tannins firm, yet the wine remains expressive, with black cherry, loamy earth, black olive and herb flavors. Juicy acidity keeps this lively.
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.