1981 Portugal

Violets and lavender dominate the nose of this mighty wine. Its palate is tannic and powerful, as is the norm in Toro, but not without silky elegance too, with notes of tobacco, macerated plum and tapenade all vying for attention. Long and harmonious, this will be more than a match for even the most robust of Iberian dishes.
Simon Field MW - Wine Buyer

Numanthia is a patchwork of ancient vineyards in Toro, touched by extreme climate conditions and also by the boundless benevolence of LVMH’s ownership, which has reinvigorated the estate and confirmed its place very close to the top of Spain’s vinous hierarchy.

Torresilo is a powerful, old-vine Tempranillo from outstanding vineyard plots in the Ribera del Duero and it spends 16 months in new French oak barrels. A further interesting piece of trivia to ponder as one pours a generous glass of this deep, dark and broodingly powerful wine is that some of the vines which offer up their fruit are on pre-phylloxera rootstock.

This is sure to raise a few eyebrows amongst the hardened oenophiles among you and is perhaps worth tasting for that reason alone! However that would do the wine a disservice, as the ripe damson, nutmeg and mocha aromas hold great promise which is fulfilled by a palate, generous and elegant yet restrained. The finish is mineral and leaves the drinker with questions that can only be answered by pouring another glass.
Nicholas Stewart - Wine Buying Department

A blend of 95% Tinto Fino and 5% Merlot, the Valbuena 5° takes its name from the village where it is produced. It is aged for less time than the ‘Unico’ or the Reserva Especial with the 5° designating the years it has been aged before release. The wine is made from younger vines (average vine age of 25 – 20 years), although their aggregate age would compete with most other leading wines.

It has a similar blend to its older brother ‘Unico’ and the Valbuena 5° is best thought of as a younger sibling. The nose shows damsons and plums and is quite floral with violet undertones. The palate is bursting with flavours: forest fruit and red cherries are underpinned by vibrant acidity. The tannins are ripe and sinewy but have a firm grip. Complex and complete. The 2009 is probably the best vintage of Valbuena we have tasted to date. It shows precision and focus but also conveys the richness, concentration and freshness of this great vintage.
Stuart Rae - Private Account Manager

From the clay and limestone soils of the high plateau of Pedrosa in the Ribera del Duero, this aromatic Tinto Fino (aka Tempranillo) wine is richly concentrated with mulberry and black cherry fruit aromas and flavours, all framed by stylish, spicy new oak and bright damsony acidity. The wine includes 10% of Cabernet Sauvignon and has spent 18 months in French oak and was bottled unfiltered. Purple-coloured, it has an uplifting perfume of pain grillé, scorched earth, violets, cinnamon, and blackberry liqueur, then a dense rich and velvety palate, pleasingly decadent but with a refreshing cerebral twist on the finish.
Simon Field MW - Wine Buyer

The bodega of Pago de los Capellanes is located one kilometre from the village of Pedrosa de Duero, in the heart of Ribera del Duero. The name means ‘land of the chaplains’, a reminder that the land was owned by chaplains until the church donated it to the city council in 1855. The vineyards are planted with a 100%Tempranillo and are divided into 35 different plots which are harvested separately. The wines are aged for one to three years (depending on style) in 22 different types of French oak, and offer a modern style alternative to the wines of Vega Sicilia. I have enjoyed the wines of Pago de los Capellanes for a number of years no, but it’s at least 2-3 years since I tasted this excellent 2009 Reserva. On the nose this is very much of the vintage, rich and opulent fruit floods out of the glass with the warm spice and sweetness of oak framing the waves red and black fruit. This is a very generous wine on the palate too, mouthfilling red fruit with spice which seems to darken and become ever more brooding as the wine develops on the palate. This is a wine which is perfectly ‘á point’ at the moment, to borrow a French phrase, it is a wine which cries out for long slowly braised lamb, many friends and a second bottle. Really very enjoyable.
Gary Owen, Private Account Manager, Fine Wine Dept.

Alión was the first 100 percent Tinto Fino wine aged in 100 percent new oak in Ribera del Duero. The winemaking is innovative and independent; ageing takes place in new French oak and the end result is a wine bursting with fruit (red and black) but simultaneously demonstrating a parental level of restraint which will see it age wonderfully in the cellar. This is a connoisseur’s wine which requires patience but will be hugely rewarding for those who can remain steadfast in the face of temptation. 
Simon Field MW - Wine Buyer

Bodegas Alión was formed in 1986 as a winery to be run independently to its big brother, the great Vega Sicilia. This 85-hectare estate was founded by the Álvarez family to provide a modern expression of Ribero del Duero. 35 hectares of the estate is located around the winery, with a further 50 hectares dedicated to Alión within the historic Vega Sicilia vineyards. Unlike Vega Sicilia, where we find a merging of the traditional and modern winemaking techniques, Alión is made using state-of-the-art equipment. Forward and uncompromising, these are wines of impressive stature and show an alternative side of Tinto Fino (Tempranillo).

Artadi El Pison, this unassuming 1945 vineyard, with its rather modest pad-locked gate and purely functional hut at its centre, does not immediately announce itself as the most celebrated vineyard in Spain.

One taste, however, confirms this fact. Aromatically complex, civilized and life-affirming, the wine opens up on the palate with great confidence, precision and density. Dark fruit, spice and hints of pepper at this early stage, but very very fine supporting tannins and incredible length.

Juan Carlos Lopez compares it to 2007, but feels that it is a shade riper and may have an even longer life. We also see a resemblance to the superb 2004, which is now approaching a second phase of excellence.

The combination of Vega Sicilia and Rioja is, of course, alluring. The fact that Vega have been secretly buying up top plots around the village of San Vincente de la Sonsierra for over ten years adds a note of intrigue to the story and the fact that they now own 120 hectares, stretched over the border of Riojas Altas and Alavasa, makes for a most satisfactorily dénouement.

The input of winemaker Xavier Ausas has, as always, been invaluable and the philosophy has drawn on eclectic influences and specifically the partnership between Pablo Alvarez and Benjamin de Rothschild. The influence of the latter is hard to avoid; the wood is all French and the wines are bottled by lot, separating the first (Macan) from the second wine (Macan Clasico) in the Bordelais fashion. Most importantly, however, the wines are 100% Tempranillo and never lose sight of provenance.
 
The senior wine has been matured for 15 months in French oak, 70% new and 30% one year-old. The elegance and linear dexterity of traditional Riojas has been cleverly captured in this subtle nuanced example, its velvety texture and fine tannins recalling, appropriately enough, Bordeaux, but its savoury generous flavour offering a melliferous hymn to the greater glories of the finest Tempranillo.
Simon Field MW – Wine Buyer

The nose is very attractive; the fruit is vibrant and fresh with notes of wild strawberry, blueberry and black pepper. The palate is rich with firm but supple tannins and the fruit characteristics to the fore, the finish reveals a further burst of red fruit, as well as peach and toasty oak.
Simon Field MW, Wine Buyer

Bodegas Muga was founded in Haro in 1932 and is still in family ownership, farming an impressive 250 hectares in La Rioja Alta. The winery is located in Haro’s golden triangle of bodegas, its immediate neighbours being La Rioja Alta and López de Heredia. The extended Muga family controls all aspects of the production and advocates the complexity afforded by the entire canon of grapes: Tempranillo, of course, but also Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano for the reds, in addition to Viura and Malvasia for the whites. The key to everything is wood, from the magnificent 18th century wooden bodega to the impressive collection of 14,000 barrels used for the maturation. Organic viticulture is also fundamental here and the resulting wines are pure, linear of structure and memorable.

The vineyards in Pintia are steep; around 600m above sea level. The hot continental climate gives powerful black wines with noticeable smoky notes. Pintia is produced with 100% Tinta de Toro (Tempranillo) from ungrafted 40-60 year old vines. Fermentation is done in new French oak barrels and the wine is aged for 12 months in new oak (50% new and 30% American). Strong aromas of scorched earth, melted liquorice, freshly ground espresso beans and ripe red plums and dark blackberries.
Simon Field MW, Wine Buyer

Vega Sicilia’s owners, the Álvarez family, bought Pintia in 1996, attracted to the galet strewn terroir, the rich clay subsoils and the familiar altitude. Toro’s main point of difference to Ribera del Duero is the ambient temperature, which can blaze in the height of summer. The challenge here is to match concentration with elegance, a challenge met by Bodegas Pintia with no shortage of aplomb.

The smallest and highest of Artadi's single vineyards, Montes El Carretil is marked by deep penetrating roots and a distinctive clay-sandstone soils. This Rioja wine is rich, energetic and dense, with very marked tannins at the moment and a fine mineraldriven finish. Notes of scorched earth, spice and black olive. A wine described by Juan Carlos Lopez, with no shortage of resonance, as ‘full of soul and life’. Sounds even better in Spanish…

The maiden 2009 Valdegines is sourced from a seven-hectare plot located on clay-limestone soils, one of three hitherto blended into the Pagos Viejos. It has a very pure, rounded, blackberry, cassis and cedar-scented nose that is reminiscent of a very young, fine Saint Emilion. The palate is medium-bodied with black cherry, licorice and cedar on the entry. There is patently a lot of cedary new oak that needs to be subsumed into the wine, and the finish is severe and tannic at present.

Artadi was one of several imperative visits during my visit to Rioja, where I met respected winemaker Juan Carlos Lopez de Lacalle. His wines need little introduction, having already garnered glowing reviews in this publication and elsewhere. But what I was interested in discovering was whether Rioja can really exploit the minutiae of its multifarious terroirs and offer genuine nuances in a similar fashion to Burgundy or the Mosel (to give but two examples of regions where place is everything). If there is one man who lives by that philosophy, it is Juan Carlos, who oversees a coveted range of modern style Rioja that receive a generous amount of new French oak. Let us commence with the entry-level Vinas de Gain red and white. The Viura is harvested separately from Juan Carlos's intermixed vineyard and is fermented in 500-liter French oak barrels and kept in stainless steel tanks on the lees with three of four lees-stirring.
Neal Martin - Wine Advocate #202 Aug 2012