2010 Spain

The 2010 Cubillo from López de Heredia is utterly delightful and is really coming into its element at nine years of age (three of which were in barrel). It is a blend of Tempranillo (65%), Garnacha (25%) with small amounts of Mazuelo/Carignan and Graciano. The nose is vibrant, displaying red fruit notes of raspberry and cranberry in particular. As well as a little vanilla spice there is also a toasty note derived from the time in oak. Further time in the glass reveals a tertiary, lightly leather-like aroma. The crunchy refreshing acidity and fine-grained tannins on the palate are perfect for cutting through the fat of charcuterie, meat pâtés or soft cheeses. 

The 2010 Viña Ardanza Reserva Selección Especial is all about balance and tension and it delivers on every level. The nose is lifted and pure with wild red fruit and a smattering of toasty vanillin, complemented by floral notes of orange blossom. Seductively textured with sufficient weight, the palate rolls out waves of defined redcurrants, damson and cured meats, held in suspense by bright acidity and immense freshness. Full of charm and complexity, its structure and acidity will allow sensational drinking over its 2+ decade evolution. I was incredibly fortunate to enjoying the blinding 1964 vintage just last year which was still holding up and simply fabulous. I daresay this 2010 will succeed it, becoming the greatest Viña Ardanza Reserva Selección Especial of this century. Pop a case or two away in the cellar and enjoy from 2020 – 2040.
Chris Lamb, Private Account Manager 

La Faraona is a tiny, yet unique vineyard, perching almost vertically, at incredible altitude high on a hillside in Bierzo. Alvaro Palacios talks about the “magnetic” energy of this place and you can see how this translates into this absolutely thrilling wine with its poise, complexity and perfection.
Catriona Felstead MW, Spain Buyer

‘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

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

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)

The 2010 Flor de Pingus is raised in 40% to 50% new French oak (Darnajou and Taransaud). It has a superb bouquet that is taut at first, but unfolds beautifully with very pure small dark cherries, cassis, orange blossom and a faint, attractive note of strawberry cheesecake. The palate is medium-bodied with sumptuous, plush tannins counterbalanced by the crisp thread of acidity. It has great clarity and tension with vibrant allspice and white pepper notes towards the finish that closes down a little, suggesting that it will need two or three years in bottle. Excellent.
Neal Martin - Wine Advocate - eRobertParker.com #202 Aug 2012

Pagos Viejos is a continually evolving wine, its grapes sourced from the oldest and the best vines from this increasingly extensive estate. Grapes are also used from the single vineyards and one can detect their benevolent influence; ripeness from Poza, minerality from El Carretil and aromatics from the Valdeginés. The whole is more than the sum of the parts: a wine of incredible complexity and subtle nuance.

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)

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

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

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

The two key features in this Selección Especial are the 20% of Garnacha, which adds warm and generous fruit to the ensemble but also the almost opposing influence of the exemplary 2010 vintage itself which lends a cool linear character to the wine. Aged for 26 months in locally coopered barrels, the 2010 is poised and supremely elegant, its red and black fruits dancing a measured pas de deux across the palate.
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.

This delightful vineyard is a natural amphitheatre made up of four hectares of vines with a north-east aspect. Only 1.45 hectares of the oldest vines, which date from 1939, go to make up L’Ermita, which is seen as one of the very best wines in Spain. Tasting the 2010 it is easy to understand why this is the case, such is its energy, complexity and class. Notes of blood orange and soft red fruit on the nose give way to a wonderfully balanced palate, with fine linear acidity underpinning a broad and muscular structure.

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^thcentury 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