Winemaker Notes
Almirez represents the fruit forward expression of Tinta de Toro combined with elegant structure, delicate tannin, and excellent length.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The 2019 Almirez has more depth, with ripe red and black fruits as well as spice, chocolate, and graphite aromas and flavors. Medium to full-bodied, concentrated, and textured, it's a smoking red that will dish out tons of pleasure. Best After 2022
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Almirez was produced with grapes from their 41.7 hectares of vines that are 15 to 65 years old. The destemmed grapes were foot trodden and fermented with yeasts selected from their own vineyards for 18 days. Malolactic was in barrel, and the wine matured for 14 months in French oak barrels, 30% of them new and the rest second use. Despite the new oak, the wine is very fruit-driven and does not come through as oaky. It's floral, spicy and juicy, ripe without excess and with a velvety mouthfeel. This is approachable from early on, and even now, it has the silky tannins from 2019. It's less tannic than other vintages and has very good balance. There is more depth here, provided by the older vines, and there's more nuance too.
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Wine Spectator
Delivers dense tannins that form a firm frame, which is wrapped in a plush range of sappy blackberry and boysenberry fruit, Mediterranean scrub, mocha and orange peel flavors. Well-spiced and fresh, though tightly meshed now. Decant or give this some short-term cellaring.
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.