Winemaker Notes
Powerful nose of red currants and black morello cherries with touches of crimson rose. Luscious and fresh on the palate, with round tannins, balanced acidity and strong varietal character.
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The Gaintus brand has been turned into a whole range, and I really love the 2017 Gaintus Radical, produced with the local red Sumoll grape. It has a tantalizing nose of sour cherries, acid berries and orange peel and a medium-bodied palate with effervescent acidity that provides lots of freshness and makes you salivate. It's sharp and refreshing, clean and truly delicious. It still has some smoky oak but nothing compared with its siblings, though it could be much better if it had even less. I need to focus on the rebirth of Sumoll in Penedès in my next round.
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.