Winemaker Notes
Teso la Monja Almirez offers complex aromas of rich fruit, brandy, biscuit coffee, plum and aniseed. On the palate is creamy, rich and very expressive with a finish that leaves a pleasant memory of lightly toasted notes.
Professional Ratings
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Wine Enthusiast
Bright garnet-colored in the glass, this wine has aromas of anise, cassis and black raspberry with a touch of smoked charcuterie. In the mouth there are rich ripe fruit flavors and subtle floral tastes of dried lavender and crushed violet. It has a nicely round tannic structure and some pleasant grip in the midpalate. The satisfying finish offers soft notes of cherry and spice.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2020 Almirez comes from 41.7 hectares of vines ranging between 15 and 65 years of age. It fermented for 20 days, followed by malolactic in barrel and 14 months in French oak barrels, 30% of them new. The wine is quite approachable and has finesse; it's fine-boned, more fluid and refined than other years. The rains in August resulted in larger grapes with more juice, and the wine is quite approachable even at this young age. It's expressive, clean and powerful (the place is like that) and with 14.81% alcohol that goes unnoticed. It has abundant, fine-grained tannins and some creaminess and spiciness from the time in barrel, developing some mintiness with time in the glass; later, there's more licorice and even aniseed and fennel aromas.
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Wilfred Wong of Wine.com
COMMENTARY: The 2020 Teso la Monja Almirez is tightly-built and well-balanced. TASTING NOTES: This wine offers excellent aromas and flavors of red and black cherries. It is full-bodied and well-textured. Pair it with an old-fashioned beef stew. (Tasted: August 27, 2022, San Francisco, CA)
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.