Winemaker Notes
"The inky purple 2003 El Nido, which comes from 26-year-old Cabernet Sauvignon vines (70%) and 61-year-old Mourvedre (30%), was aged 26 months in new French and American oak barrels. It exhibits leathery, creme de cassis, and pain grille characteristics, additional tannin and body, and a formidable palate. A wine of extraordinary extract and richness, it will be a target for old timers and reactionaries who will feel it is too internationally styled, but it is an eye-opening wine from an area better known for large cooperatives and mediocre quality. It should evolve for 15 or more years.
Well-known Australian winemaker, Chris Ringland, oversees the winemaking at this estate, fashioning intriguing reds with great depth as well as richness. These wines have broken all the parameters previously established by the backwater appellation of Jumilla."
-Wine Advocate
Professional Ratings
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.