Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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James Suckling
Attractive depth with ripe, brambly dark-berry aromas leading to a silky palate that has plenty of supple tannins.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Including the 2015 Los Acilates, I had two vintages to taste of the single-vineyard red that comes from a plot that is different than the rest of the estate. It's a north-facing, steep slope rich in limestone and was planted with well-adapted Portuguese grapes—Touriga Nacional and Trincadeira Preta—in 2003. Not as hot as 2014 but still a warm and dry vintage, 2015 saw an early harvest with very healthy grapes. The grapes fermented in concrete tanks with indigenous yeasts, followed by malolactic in barrique. The wine matured in well-seasoned small 500-liter French oak foudres for 12 months (they have shortened the oak aging of this wine). This is the finest vintage of this bottling I've tried so far; it has very good balance and a mixture of red and black berry fruit and floral undertones. The palate is medium-bodied with fine-grained tannins. Amazing for the zone and for a vintage like 2015. I really believe in these grapes here.
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.