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

This vineyard faces Valdeginés in the San Ginés Valley, its west exposition engendering a wine with a different character, firmer, denser and with more stentorian tannins. 

Biurco is a vineyard that we have enjoyed visiting over the years; it has a tranquillity and beauty and, predominately west-facing, is particularly attractive in the evening. The soil is homogenised clay and limestone, and the wine is marked by the charm of its aromas; violets, truffles and dark chocolate to name but three. If its stablemate Valdeparasio is linear, this wine is more fleshy and noted for both the sweetness of fruit on the palate and the power on the 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)

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

I’m a huge fan of this wine having enjoyed many back vintages over the last few years. The 2010 is a stupendous effort, a wine which comprises power, depth and concentrated fruit, all finely wrapped up with a sensational texture. Displaying aromas of forest fruits, allspice, and a sweet earthy character, the palate delivers a framework of refined oak and broad, ripe tannins. A mouth filling richness of flavour meets the mid-palate combining flavours of damson, crushed blackberries and balsamic, held in tension by a finite acidity. Layered and complex, I have great confidence this may even surpass the fantastic 2001 in 10 years’ time. Superb from magnum with a bright future ahead, recommended drinking from 2020 – 2045+
Chris Lamb, Private Account Manager

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)

2010 Pintia is a big gutsy wine with a lovely rich textured palate. Dense savoury plum and nutty oak give an initial impression of a Rioja on steroids. There is a sweet strawberry edge but this is subsumed by the savoury dark fruit, gentle spice, finely grained earthy tannins, a viscous intensity. Stylish and satisfyingly with a burst of fruit in the finish emphasising its class.
Peter Newton - Private Account Manager

Vega Sicilia’s owners, the Álvarez family, bought Bodegas Pintia in 1996. Located in the baking hot Toro region, just west of Ribera and dissected by the River Duero. Pintia is produced with 100% Tinta de Toro (Tempranillo) from ungrafted 40-60 year old vines. 12-15 months of maturation in oak from France (giving cool cedar aromas and structure) and America (giving vanilla and coconut flavours) adds to the complexity. The vineyards are steep around 600m above sea level and the hot continental climate gives powerful black wines with noticeable smoky notes. Pintia’s aim is to tame the wild heat of the Toro region and make a wine with all the powerful, rich flavours of Toro, but with structural charm and elegance. Extraordinary value for money; 2010 is a superb Spanish vintage, producing a Pintia which combines huge concentration and depth with real refinement. A wine to enjoy over the coming 8+ years

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

Bodega Contador was founded as recently as 1995, but has already become one of Rioja’s most respected wineries – thanks to its superb terroir and the brilliant winemaking skill of proprietor Benjamin Romeo. His first vintages (2004 and ’05) both garnered 100 points from the Wine Advocate. Benjamin’s winemaking is relatively modern, with individual plots vinified separately, choosing French over American oak. The results are extraordinary.

The nose is sumptuous, layered with rich red fruits, enveloped in spicy cassis, vanilla and white chocolate. A stunning palate follows – velveteen, dense and smooth, with masses of fruit. The finish is excellent, full of balanced power, with crunchy, long, fresh tannins. The wine spent 18 months in new French oak. This is a brilliant expression of pure Tempranillo.

 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 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

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.

Deep and ancient soils now with the percentage of Garnacha increased to 80%. Dark, linear, extremely fresh and finely structured. Velvety and yet with ethereal charm and real presence.

Alvaro is a staunch defender of Garnacha, for him the archetypical and original Mediterranean variety, only replaced by Cariñena after the Civil War because the latter was seen as higher-yielding. Garnacha he describes as La Reina, the queen of all varieties, generous, soft and benevolent and, of course, completely devoid of caprice.  Clonal selection and deeply rooted old vines underwrite the quality here...mules till the soil as they always have done, and the high mineral content of the sub-soils ( zinc, aluminium and iron) lends definition and purity to the grapes, bolstered by high levels of citric acidity.

Attention to detail is evidenced in the winery too; Alvaro has built an underground barrel cellar which allows maturation in the most natural conditions possible. His philosophy of oak aging has evolved and he now uses larger barrels, his 2000 litre foudres similar in dimension and purpose to those of the other great Grenache citadel; Châteauneuf-du-Pape. Less oak influence translates into more expression of terroir, suitably deferential to the monastic heritage.
(Simon Field MW, BBR Buyer)

This wine, a blend of Garnacha, Carinena, Cabernet Sauvignon, Syrah and Picapoll, is sourced from six of the nine villages of Gratallops. The 2010 has a dense colour then an attractive nose of forest floor, herbs, dark fruit and garrigue. Garnacha exuberance, albeit dignified, with dense serious grippy tannins and a fresh lively finish.

Alvaro Palacios is a little dismissive of the Romans, who had Taragona as their Catalonian headquarters, because they only planted grapes on the flattest and easiest terrain. The Carthusian monks, on the other hand, knew a thing or two about terroir and the terraced vineyards which they established in the 12^th century around the small town of Gratallops still make up the heart of the Priorat Denominacion. Alvaro is eloquent and passionate about the heritage of his vines; monastic mysticism finds preternatural expression in the extraordinarily intense light here, a reward for a location 10 km away from the Mediterranean and over 4000 hours of sunshine a year.  The vineyards are steep and marked by the distinctive licorelle slate soil, the result of ancient tectonic compression of clay-based igneous rock.
Simon Field MW, Fine Wine Buyer

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