Winemaker Notes
Blend: 90% Bobal, 10% Pardilla, Malvasía, Moravia Agría, Moravia Dulce, & Rojal
Professional Ratings
-
Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The 2019 Mikaela comes from three 80+-year-old vineyards on shallow stony limestone soils in the zone known as El Poleo in the village of Casas de Benítez. In the old vineyards, there's always some 20% other varieties, Pardilla, Moravia Dulce, Rojal, Coloraillo, Moravia Agria, Airén, Moscatel and Monastrell, that all go into the fermentation vats with the Bobal. In 2019, they pruned to get slightly higher yields, and they protected the grapes from the sun with the canopy and harvested early. It's still a powerful wine at 14.62% alcohol and integrated acidity, but it has good balance and freshness. It fermented with 70% full clusters in a concrete vat with indigenous yeasts for a total of 28 days. The wine matured in three 500-liter oak barrels and a 1,100-liter clay pot for 14 months. It feels riper and more rustic, with notes of tree bark and esparto grass, characterful and powerful with a full-bodied palate and abundant, powdery tannins that give it a dry, chalky texture. It needs time and/or powerful food.
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.