2015 Martelo, Reserva, Torre de Oña, Rioja, Spain
Critics reviews
Drink 2020 - 2032
Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate (Oct 2020)
James Suckling, jamessuckling.com (April 2021)
This is the third vintage of Finca Martelo, made with grapes from the highest part of the farm in Páganos. Marrying Tempranillo with 5% Mazuelo, Garnacha and Viura, all of them picked at the same time, it's a fresh, floral, focused wine from a hot vintage with fine oak, chalky freshness and layered rose petal and red berry flavours.
Tim Atkin MW, timatkin.com
Drink 2023 - 2032
Josh Raynolds, vinous.com (Apr 2021)
About this WINE
Spain
For so long, Spain was regarded as a source of inexpensive red wine with only Rioja standing above the parapet. Now there is a plethora of interesting wines in many different styles.
Exciting fresh whites, especially from the Albariño in the Rías Baixas and Verdejo in Rueda, – not forgetting Viura in Rioja - have extended the choice. There have also been interesting developments in that most classical of all wine regions, Jerez - the home of sherry - not so much in modernisation of production, but in developing small-scale bottlings of the highest quality Sherry at remarkably affordable prices.
Modern techniques and a new appreciation of what might be possible have encouraged pioneers to produce some startlingly attractive reds. There are now some thoroughly competent wines from La Mancha, and striking bottlings of Monastrell (known elsewhere as Mataró or Mourvèdre) in Jumilla.
Thankfully, the modernisation of the pedestrian has not held back successful traditional styles of wine. Alongside such modernists as Palacios Remondo and Allende in Rioja, long established houses like La Rioja Alta and CVNE continue to make graceful, old-style wines contingent upon several years’ barrel-ageing before further maturation in bottle. These Reserva and Gran Reserva wines have the gentle fragrance of well-seasoned fruit in partnership with a dash of vanilla oak. There are also subtle differences between regions of Rioja and in the precise makeup of the grape mix, with Garnacha and Mazuelo supporting the dominant Tempranillo.
The only challenger to Rioja's claim to red wine supremacy is the Ribera del Duero, where the same red grape, Tempranillo, defines the wines, though known here as Tinto Fino. Most magisterial of all producers is Vega Sicilia whose Unico wines are not released onto the market before a minimum of 10 years - including at least seven years of barrel ageing.
Tempranillo/Tinto Fino
A high quality red wine grape that is grown all over Spain except in the hot South - it is known as Tinto Fino in Ribera del Duero, Cencibel in La Mancha and Valdepenas and Ull de Llebre in Catalonia. Its spiritual home is in Rioja and Navarra where it constitutes around 70% of most red blends.
Tempranillo-based wines tend to have a spicy, herbal, tobacco-like character accompanied by ripe strawberry and red cherry fruits. It produces fresh, vibrantly fruit driven "jovenes" meant for drinking young. However Tempranillo really comes into its own when oak aged, as with the top Riojas where its flavours seem to harmonise perfectly with both French and American oak, producing rich, powerful and concentrated wines which can be extraordinarily long-lived.
In Ribera del Duero it generally sees less oak - the exception being Vega Sicilia where it is blended with Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot and then aged for an astonishing 7 years in oak and is unquestionably one of the world`s greatest wines.
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Description
Finca Martelo is a single-plot wine from famed producer La Rioja Alta. It’s matured in a mix of French and American oak barrels for 24 months. The wine shows beautifully intense and perfumed aromas of raspberry coulis, soft red plum and cranberry, with subtle notes of violet and vanilla. The palate has a darker, richer character, with juicy black cherry, chocolate and menthol. This is an extremely high-quality Rioja that will cellar for at least another 10 years. Drink now to 2031.
Stuart Fyfe, Assistant Wine Advisor Manager, Berry Bros. & Rudd (June 2021)
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