Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2013 El Marciano (the Martian) is produced with Garnacha from the Gredos mountain range from different plots in the village of Navarredondilla (Ávila) at an average altitude of 1,152 meters on granite slopes with vines averaging 70 years of age. The grapes were destemmed, but not crushed, and fermented in a 2,000-liter stainless steel vat. The wine was bottled unoaked. The nose shows a combination of very ripe cherries, plums and hints of violets and dried roses. The palate is medium-bodied with abundant, grainy tannins, quite unusual, as there were no stems or oak. I find it hard to believe, but this wine needs time in bottle. 5,000 bottles were filled with the 2013 harvest. If you like the style it's very good value.
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.