Winemaker Notes
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2007 Manga del Brujo was made by Norrel Robertson, MW, in partnership with the importer. It is a blend of 65% Garnacha, 15% Syrah, 15% Tempranillo, and 5% Mazuelo aged for five months in French and American oak. The Garnacha component was sourced from vines over 100 years of age. Opaque purple-colored, it offers up a toasty, smoky bouquet with aromas of mineral, black cherry, and blueberry. This is followed by a medium- to full-bodied wine with an elegant personality, a silky texture, intense, savory blue and black fruit flavors, superb balance, and 2-3 years of aging potential. This pleasure-bent wine will offer prime drinking from 2011 to 2020.
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.