Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
Even better, and clearly one of the greatest values in the wine world, is the 2015 Tres Picos. It is a large cuvée of 24,000 cases from 100% Grenache, fermented in both oak and steel and aged in French oak prior to being bottled. The vines come from a relatively high elevation of nearly 2,300 feet from a vineyard planted in 1956. This wine shows loads of classic Grenache characteristics, such as pepper, licorice, underbrush, Provençal herbs and a boatload of black cherries and raspberries. The wine is rich, medium to full-bodied, pure and luscious and hedonistic. Drink it over the next several years.
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.