Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Robert Parker doesn't write the Spanish reviews these days for Wine Advocate as he has given that job to Jay Miller. However, Mr. Parker does still drink Spanish wines and reviews them "informally" in his Hedonist’s Gazette. In July Parker wrote about a great Spanish feast where he enjoyed a short list of excellent Spanish wines including Volver 2009. The review was glowing as Parker gave the wine 92 points noting, "A great value that I would unquestionably drink as a house wine, the 2009 Volver from La Mancha. Made from 50-year old Tempranillo vines...”
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.