Winemaker Notes
Bright cherry color. Intensely perfumed with complex aromas of ripe raspberries and blackberries interlaced with lavender, rosemary and chamomile on a delicate backdrop of spices and smoky oak. In the palate it shows excellent balance and energy with red and dark berry flavors followed by floral and delicately spiced nuances. It is a very seductive and balanced wine with beautifully well integrated and fine grained mature tannins that has a very balanced and lingering finish.
Professional Ratings
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Decanter
Classic Ribera from a producer in one of the region’s wildest and most rugged areas, the valley of Atauta. The bodega works with pre-phylloxera vines, 130-190 years old. These vineyards are located at 940m-1,010m, resulting in fresh acidity and elegance. To balance the wine’s lively backbone, it is fermented in either large wooden vats or concrete, then aged for 14 months in French oak. Beth Willard: A really complete wine with beautiful fruit, precision and great balance. The oak is fine and lightly toasted so doesn’t dominate the fruit. Tannins are supple, the palate velvety. David Williams: Keen and succulent: mulberry and cherry with a little bittersweet hit of blood orange and citrus pith. Complexity, and substance. Diana Rollan: Blackcurrant, liquorice, violets and plum compote. Muscular and concentrated with good balanced acidity and a savoury, herbal character.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The eponymous 2020 Dominio de Atauta feels superb, one of the finest bottlings of this cuvée to date. Produced with a selection of the best terroirs from the valley, it was cropped from a rainier year when there was no stress for the plants, which delivered larger and more bunches. They compare 2020 to 2016, another cooler year with vibrant wines and very good freshness. This feels a little lighter next to the warmer and drier 2019 despite having similar parameters of alcohol and acidity/freshness but with an extra kick here. The palate feels terribly balanced and has very fine tannins, great purity and a long, clean and tasty finish. It matured in barrels, 15% of them new, followed by four months in oak vats. This is the second largest production of this cuvée after 2016, with 56,335 bottles and 900 magnums. It was bottled in July 2022.
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Wine Enthusiast
This deep-ruby colored wine has aromas of blackberry, violet and cocoa powder. Black-cherry, raspberry, coffee-bean, cocoa-nib, licorice and rose-petal flavors are set into fine-grained tannins. A sense of fruit-filled brightness and chocolate covered mint flavors endure on the palate.
Editors' Choice -
James Suckling
Attractive black cherries, red plums, dark chocolate, walnuts, crushed herbs and spices. Full-bodied, broad and chewy with chalky texture to the tannins and juicy acidity. Polished and lengthy. Well crafted. Try from 2025.
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Vinous
The 2020 Dominio de Atauta is a 100% Tempranillo sourced from old vines planted in the Atauta Valley in Soria, Ribera del Duero. Aged for up to 14 months in 15% new French oak barrels, followed by an additional five months in large oak vats, it's purple in color. On the nose, it exhibits a somewhat earthy character with notes of crushed cherry, plum and a hint of violet. Dry and relatively rich, the taut, responsive tannins precede a compact, enduringly flavorful finish.
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Wine Spectator
A medium- to full-bodied red, with notes of ripe red and black currant fruit, star anise, bay leaf and violet underscored by a subtle minerally streak of smoke and earth. Fresh and balanced.
Notoriously food-friendly, long-lasting and Spain’s most widely planted grape, Tempranillo is the star variety of red wines from Rioja and Ribera del Duero. The Rioja terms Joven, Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva indicate both barrel and bottle time before release. Traditionally blended in Rioja with Garnacha, plus a bit of Mazuelo (Carignan) and Graciano, the Tempranillo in Ribera del Duero typically stands alone. Somm Secret—Tempranillo claims many different names depending on location. In Penedès, it is called Ull de Llebre and in Valdepeñas, goes by Cencibel. Known as Tinta Roriz in Portugal, Tempranillo plays an important role in Port wine.
Ribera del Duero, Spanish wine region, is located in northen Spain’s Castilla y León region, just a 2-hour drive from Madrid. While winemaking in this area goes back more than 2000 years, it was in the 1980s that 9 wineries applied for and were granted Denominación de Origen (D.O.) status. Today, more than 300 wineries call Ribera del Duero home, including some of Spain’s most iconic names.
Notable Facts Ribera’s main grape variety, Tempranillo, locally know as Tinto Fino, is perfectly suited to the extreme climate of the region, where it must survive scorching summers and frigid winters. Low yields resulting from conscientious tending to old vines planted in Ribera’s diverse soils types, give Ribera wines a distinctive depth and complexity not found in other Tempranillos. Rich and full-bodied, the spice, dark fruit and smoky flavors in a bold Ribera del Duero will pair well with roasted and grilled meats, Mexican food and tomato-based sauces.