Winemaker Notes
The varieties are vinified separately and undergo malolactic in a mixture of oak and stainless steel. The final blend spends 10 months in French oak.
Blend: 74% Bobal, 16% Garnacha, 10% Syrah
Professional Ratings
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The red 2018 Mestizaje was produced with a blend of 70% Bobal, 19% Garnacha and 11% full-cluster Syrah from head-pruned and dry-farmed vines from their El Terrerazo estate planted mostly in the early 1990s on limestone soils. Each plot and grape variety was fermented separately with indigenous yeasts in stainless steel and oak vats. It matured in a mixture of oak vats and French barrique for 11 months (there has been a change toward more and more vats and almost no barrels). This has a creamy touch, attractive, approachable and easy to understand, with some spiciness and a round palate. The tannins are fine and the wine comes through as neatly balanced with good freshness. 94,500 bottles produced. It was bottled in December 2019.
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.