Winemaker Notes
Made from vines between 30 and 50 years old, and aged in barrels for 16 months. It is a wine with an attractive collection of balsamic notes, of chocolate and black fruits, very warm on the palate and an extremely pleasant finish.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Spectator
Round and juicy, this lively red shows ripe flavors of kirsch and mulled plum, with chocolate and licorice accents. Heady but not heavy, with bright acidity and spicy and floral notes on the finish. Drink now through 2022.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
From vines planted in the 1970s and 1980s, the entry-level 2015 Veratón is pure Garnacha fermented in stainless steel tanks with neutral yeasts and aged in mostly new (and 20% used) French and American oak barrels for 16 months. It's a good representation of the house style, with a heady and ripe nose, generous spice and smoke and a warm finish. It's full-bodied, concentrated and very balsamic but is also the more balanced and approachable of the offerings here. The fruit is black, and there are plenty of sweet spices and smoke. The palate is full-bodied, dense and concentrated, with pungent and generously oaked flavors. As Parker said, it is not for consumers looking for shy, restrained and delicate wines; it's clearly for fans of the style.
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Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of olive and earthy berry fruits battle for air against heavy oak that smells chocolaty. A thick, blocky palate is tannic and intense, while flavors of brawny black plum and wild berries are backed by oaky chocolate and peppercorn notes. A blackened finish has a grape skins feel and is seared by spice. Drink through 2030.
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.