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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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The library release of the 2016 Pago Negralada also achieved 15% alcohol. This was a very fine vintage produced with healthy and ripe grapes. The wine matured for 17 months in French oak barrels, 66% of them new. I think the Tempranillo is aging more gracefully than their Cabernet. This has an aromatic profile of sweet Tempranillo fruit, with notes of cherries in liqueur and Mediterranean herbs, sleek and polished, holding it but fully mature for now. It will probably stay on a plateau for a while.
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.