Winemaker Notes
Almirez represents the fruit forward expression of Tinta de Toro combined with structure, gentle tanicity, and excellent length. This wine is expressive and balanced and will leave profound memories.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2016 Almirez is brilliant! Made from 100% Tinta de Toro that spent 14 months in 30% new French oak, this full-bodied, concentrated 2016 is loaded with notions of blueberries, blackberries, cedar pencil, and cured meats. With terrific depth of fruit, notable purity, and a sexy, seamless style, it’s one of those knockout wines that way over-delivers!
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James Suckling
This offers plenty of ripe dark plums and berries with rich notes of dark chocolate and spicy oak. Toro’s powerful and direct structure is all on show here. Drink this from 2020.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
As with the entry-level Románico, I also had the opportunity to taste the 2016 Almirez right next to the 2015 to see how the growing season was reflected in each of the vintages. This also shows more freshness, following the style of the year, and it has a lifted nose and is high pitched, with very good balance and elegance within the powerful style. There is restraint within the powerful style of the zone and the house profile, with sweet fruit and spices, fine tannins and a dry mouthfeel. Even the oak feels better integrated than in the 2016, despite its youth and recent bottling. It was bottled in April 2018, some three weeks before I tasted it. 95,000 bottles.
Teso La Monja was founded in 2007 by Marcos and Miguel Angel Eguren, the fourth winemaking generation of the Eguren family from San Vicente de la Sonsierra in Rioja Alavesa. As they have been growing Tempranillo in Rioja Alavesa since the late 1800’s, the Eguren family fell in love with D.O. Toro when they first travelled there with Jorge Ordóñez, seduced by the region’s original clone of Tempranillo and ungrafted vines.
Jorge Ordóñez and the Eguren family were the original founders of Bodegas Numanthia, which was responsible, along with their current work, for the resurrection of D.O. Toro as one of Spain’s preeminent wine regions. After the sale of Numanthia in 2007, the Eguren family founded Teso La Monja as a new challenge for the family – finding the elegance in the wines of Toro.
The family selected vineyards in the northernmost part of D.O. Toro that have a much higher proportion of rounded stones than what is typical. This produces extremely silky, elegant wines. The winemaker, Marcos Eguren, is considered by many to be the finest winemaker in Spain. His son, Eduardo Eguren, the fifth generation, also works as the winemaker at Teso La Monja.
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.
Spain's remote, high elevation Spanish wine zone between the regions of Bierzo and Ribera del Duero produces intense, full-bodied reds made from Tempranillo, locally called Tinta de Toro. This local variant has adapted to the region’s climatic extremes and recognizing its potential, top producers from Ribera del Duero and Rioja have invested heavily in its vineyards.