2010 Spain

‘La Faraona’ is a wine from a single parcel of vines on the highest hill in Corullon, Bierzo, scaling 855 metres. The vines are south-east facing and have an average age of 65 years. The wine is bottled without being filtered and this adds to its depth and character.

The nose is mineral but there is a note of damp heather and a leathery, animal character which provides a nice contrast with the up-front red fruit. The palate is very dense and concentrated which bodes well for those of a ‘hoarding’ persuasion as a couple of years in the cellar are certainly necessary if this wine is to offer-up its true expression and stomp, flamenco-style across your taste buds.
Nicholas Stewart - Wine Buying Department

Muga’s excellent 2010 is a blend of 75 percent Tempranillo, 20 percent Garnacha with the balance is shared between Graciano and Mazuelo. The wine has been generously aged for 24 months in a combination of French and American oak, none of which is new. An archetypical Muga nose, savoury and rich, with hints of crushed raspberry and black pepper, leads onto a concentrated mid-palate, toasty, generous and long, with chalky tannins providing impressive architectural support. 
Simon Field MW -  Wine Buyer

La Dama is an exceptional expression of Garnacha; the vines are located at 750 metres and have been farmed at extremely low yields. A true expression of what Enrique describes as ‘Atlantic mountain viticulture’, the 2010 is rich, ripe and generously structured. The dense mid-palate boasts dark fruit and hints of liquorice; the 14 months of oak ageing adding structure and concentration, without in any way undermining the inherent freshness of the wine, which emphasises its great appeal. 
Simon Field MW - Wine Buyer

Ungrafted vines from fantastically unpromising sandy single-vineyard soils are the source of one of Spain’s most exciting jewels, named, appropriately enough, after the pater familias of this very gifted family. 18 months in French oak has been worn relatively lightly with the cool elegant fruit already focused, taut tannins in sharp relief and natural high altitude acidity providing refreshing counterpoint. 
Simon Field MW - Wine Buyer

Produced from the local Mencia grape (100%) with vine age of between 50 and 100 years. Pure and spicy red fruit, fine acidity and tannin. Perfumed aromatics, detailed red fruit, very fine. A fine introduction to a lesser known grape variety, which is showing its huge potential in the right hands.
Martin Rolph -  Private Account Manager

Our line-up of all the grand bodegas based around the famous Estación at Haro is now complete. Roda is the youngest and possibly the most dynamic of this illustrious coterie, more in the “modern” camp than their neighbours, favouring French over American oak. Their excellent 2010 vintage really underlines the quality of their range. Cirsion is the estate’s top wine, made with fruit from selected parcels of older Tempranillo vines. The wine has been aged for nearly two years in 100 percent new French oak.

A nose of wood smoke and bitter chocolate cedes to a voluptuous palate, these descriptors complemented by notes of mint, graphite, sous-bois and sweet spice; in other words, multi-faceted and full of potential.

The scenic south-east facing 7 hectare Valdeginés vineyard is located in the narrow corridor of the San Ginés Valley, a couple of miles from the winery in Laguardia. This Tempranillo wine is energetic and fruity, with marked notes of truffle, clove and chocolate. The wine has an almost Pinot Noir texture, velvety and plush, and then a fresh and satisfying finish.

2010 was an unusual vintage for Artadi, its profile marked by seasonal variations which are, it seems, becoming increasingly familiar in Europe, namely a very warm spring and autumn and a relatively lacklustre early summer period. After the cold winter of 2009-2010, with above average rain following in the milder spring, the early flowering of 2010 was well nourished and watered, just as well as later on there were real risks of hydric stress in the dog days of late August.

The conditions resulted in a longer than usual ripening season with grapes that were relatively ripe, with higher sugar levels than normal, lower levels of acidity and higher tannins. The structural integrity of the wines is very impressive and they do not lack for definition, mid-palate weight and tension on the finish.  These are, as ever, impeccable wines, which should drink earlier than the blockbuster 2009s.

(Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer)

Valbuena 2010 has been aged for 31 months in a combination of cask and barrel, the latter of which are both French and American in provenance. Further bottle age before release has ensured that a latent harmony has been amplified, nurtured by Javier Ausás, whose winemaking is deferential above all to the what goes on in the vineyards,  now minutely divided into parcels, all of which are vinified separately. Nuance is all and power defers to elegance. 
The near opaque core cedes to a lively iridescent rim and a generous open nose which marries Asian spice and dark dark fruit….the palate is  more reserved than one would have thought, with dignified floral notes and very finely poised tannins underlining a near-Burgundian purity that is born of day-night temperature variations during the growing season and a clearly  Burgundian sensibility in the winery.
Simon Field MW - Spain Buyer

Macan is the result of a unique new partnership between Vega Sicilia and Benjamin de Rothschild born out of a meeting between Pablo Alvarez and Benjamin de Rothschild in 2003.  At that time Benjamin was looking for help to invest and produce wine in Spain and Pablo agreed, not to help but to become a joint partner in a brand new venture.  The new venture was christened BR&VS (surely the only unimaginative part of the whole project) and the two partners chose Rioja to be its home as both Pablo and Benjamin recognised its great (still largely untapped) potential and hugely admired many of its wines.  It took more than a few years to find and buy the right vineyards, amidst much secrecy to avoid speculation!  Once the very best vineyard sites had been secured, two wines were produced.  In the classic style of Bordeaux, there is a ‘Grand Vin’ (Macan) and a ‘Second Wine’ (Macan Clásico).

The First Wine is meant for ageing, it is more concentrated in core and fuller in body and with a deep colour. Nose is showing kirsch liqueur, dark chocolate and sweet black fruit but is also subtly perfumed. In the mouth it is rich and robust with a tannic grip though underpinned by vibrant acidity and complemented by a long, savoury finish. 


2010 follows the first commercially produced vintage, 2009. Quantities of both wines are limited as, in the absence of a winery, both wines were vinified in rented facilities. A brand new winery dedicated to Macan (and designed by a renowned Scandinavian architect) is currently in the process of being built, the target is to start vinifying the wines at their own winery as of the 2015 vintage. 2010 was a great vintage in Rioja and one that winemaker Javier Ausas rates above 2009 for its freshness and elegance but also because he felt more comfortable with the terroir and therefore feels he made better wines. Having tasted the 2010s, they are certainly very fine and offer a glimpse of what is to come in the future.  Macan straddles the line between traditional and modern. Whilst it is innovative, it retains a thoughtful, fine style with the potential for lots of complexity to emerge over time. Maturation takes place in French oak (50% new, 50% 1 year old), rather than American casks, as is used by the more traditionally focused Rioja producers in Rioja Alta. This allows the sweet and vibrant fruit to take centre stage. Rich and concentrated, this is a powerful red with notes of dark chocolate, kirsch, hung meat and spicy oak.  This is also a fine advert for the undoubted quality of the 2010 vintage in Rioja; depth and intensity of fruit is supported by good acidity to provide precision and freshness across the palate. I will take great pleasure in re-visiting this in a few years’ time.
Martyn Rolph, Private Account Manager

Peter Sisseck, the consultant winemaker at Hacienda Monasterio, sees 2010 in the same vein as 2012 and 2008, that is to say as an elegant , ‘Atlantic’ vintage, a perceived virtue in such a climate and one which allows the wine full aromatic expression. A blend of 80% Tinto Fino and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, the wine has an attractive nose of violets and eucalypt and a palate which is soft and rich, courtesy, in no small measure, of the 20 month ageing in French oak.
Simon Field MW -  Wine Buyer

The Reserva Especial, as its name indicates, is made only in the best years, its previous incarnations being 2009 and 2005. 2010 is a more feminine elegant style and therefore completely complementary to its forebears. The blend ,as usual, favours Tinto Fino over Cabernet Sauvignon, but with a little more of the latter ( 24%) than in the other cuvées. This, allied to a longer ageing in French barrel, imparts spicy richness and a black fruit foundation upon which is built the pleasing idiosyncratic characteristics of the property, among them herbs, spice and a distinctively savoury kick at the back of the palate. Most impressive.
Simon Field MW - Wine Buyer

Bierzo's principal grape is the obscure, indigenous red variety Mencía. While Bierzo is a relatively new wine appellation (a DO since 1989), it has a wealth of very old vines, planted on extremely steep hillsides, and in this respect it much resembles the Priorat region. Alvaro Palacios, with his nephew Ricardo Perez (who also spent time in Bordeaux), established Descendientes de J. Palacios in 1998 in the village of Villafranca del Bierzo.

This is almost the definitive expression of Mencía, its vines perched on a stark vineyard of pure schist, its wine distinctively aromatic, with a Cabernet-Franc-like garrigue and lavender freshness at the front of the palate, then real dark fruit concentration, fine new-oak tannins providing real backbone and support to the generously ripe palate.

The 1945 vineyard now hosts a mini-museum in the modest barn-like building which doubles as an almost perfect location for tasting and lunch for pickers and visitors alike. The gentle sloping vines work hard beneath the surface, deep roots and exceptionally deep subsoil feeding the legend. The 2010 is still a little reticent on the nose, but the palate is already magisterial in its complexity, the purity of fruit at its core lending an almost ethereal character. The finish is long, finely etched and extremely persistent.

2010 was an unusual vintage for Artadi, its profile marked by seasonal variations which are, it seems, becoming increasingly familiar in Europe, namely a very warm spring and autumn and a relatively lacklustre early summer period. After the cold winter of 2009-2010, with above average rain following in the milder spring, the early flowering of 2010 was well nourished and watered, just as well as later on there were real risks of hydric stress in the dog days of late August.

The conditions resulted in a longer than usual ripening season with grapes that were relatively ripe, with higher sugar levels than normal, lower levels of acidity and higher tannins. The structural integrity of the wines is very impressive and they do not lack for definition, mid-palate weight and tension on the finish.  These are, as ever, impeccable wines, which should drink earlier than the blockbuster 2009s.

Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer, October 2011

A wine carrying the Palacios name is always worthy of consideration and this is no exception. The blend is predominantly Tempranillo and Garnatxa, however a small percentage of both Graciano and Mazuelo are added for additional depth and character. The nose displays notes of cassis, toasty oak and cigar box whilst the palate is weighty and concentrated yet remains elegant. Serve with steak or charcuterie. 
Nick Stewart, Wine Buying