2015 Spain

This Crianza spends 13 months gently maturing in barrel, then a further year in bottle prior to release. It displays ripe fruit notes while remaining remarkably fresh thanks to the region’s significant diurnal shift. Deep ruby in colour, the wine offers aromas of black cherry, blackcurrant, forest fruits and fresher raspberry notes alongside subtle hints of cedar and nutmeg. On the palate, it is fleshy but structured, with a finesse and silkiness that lingers on the finish. Ready to drink now.
Lucy Bland, Assistant Buyer

The 2015 Rioja Blanco from Finca Allende is 95% Viura with 5% Malvasía, from 55-year-old vines. The vineyards face southeast and northwest, giving the wine an excellent balance between ripe, fruity notes, and the fresh acidity and structure. This wine was fermented in French oak and then spent seven months on lees, before spending a further seven months in barrel, which adds a generous, slightly creamy texture and a subtle ground-nutmeg character. This richness is perfectly complemented by crisp notes of pink grapefruit, white nectarine and jasmine. It offers real complexity and would go very well with paella or even slightly spicy Thai food. Ready to drink now.
Lucy Bland, Buying Assistant (summer 2019)

The 2015 Finca Dofi also has a wonderful fragrance but is a very different expression to the Gratallops. Macerated red fruit dominates here bringing a richness and a luscious quality to the wine. The mouthfeel is concentrated and sensual yet the wine is still incredibly fresh with classic Priorat notes of nectarine, pomegranate and grapefruit peel adding a lively vibrancy. The brown slate of Finca Dofi makes it the warmest site of the single vineyard wines, and it really is rather gorgeous.
Catriona Felstead MW, Spanish Buyer

Alvaro Palacios is one of the world’s great winemakers, crowned both 2015 Decanter Man of the Year & Winemaker’s Winemaker by the Institute of Masters of Wine most recently. Alvaro spent 2 years at Petrus before setting up on his own in Priorat in 1989, his wines are now consistently excellent and in the past few years have found a further level of refinement and elegance, they have found yet another gear.

Valdegines is the vineyard which provides striking aromatics and wonderful purity and definition.  A Plump texture and silky feel – not the most structured of the Artadi offerings, but shows the mineral elegance of the vineyard.

The 2015 Valdegines is an excellent demonstration of the angular, structured character that this vineyard brings. Sweet, blue and black berry fruits dominate the nose with an earthy, hedgerow note behind. The lovely generosity of fruit character is evident but this is also a tightly structured wine with solid foundations of fine but grainy tannins. The finish has a savoury note of smoked meats but the freshness comes through bringing harmony to the whole. This is the least expensive of the Artadi single vineyard wines but it certainly has the structure to go a long way. Drink 2020-2028+.
Catriona Felstead MW, Spain Buyer


Juan Carlos Lopez de Lacaille, owner and winemaker of Artadi, is recognised as one of the greatest names in the business in Spain.  The winery was once a co-operative of 13 growers who owned well-sited vineyards around the town of Laguardia in the Alavesa wine region of Rioja.  Juan Carlos saw the potential of these wonderful vineyards and purchased the Bodega, immediately amending the philosophy and style of winemaking.  The work being done here underlines the quality of the soils and demonstrates once again how Rioja is ripe (no pun intended) for a qualitative reappraisal at the top end.  These wines sit very comfortably at the vinous top table.

The signature notes of the 2015 Artadi single vineyard wines are the exceptionally sweet red and black fruit notes from the hot days in July alongside the wonderful freshness and balance provided by the slow end to the ripening period. This is a fantastic range of wines.

One of Cillar de Silos’s best yet, the 2015 Viña de Amalio offers a perfume of black raspberry leaf and a core of red plums and damson fruit. Gentle aeration brings further complexities with notes of sweet earth and spices. Perfectly aligned silky tannins caress the palate, laden with flavours of wild raspberry and blackberries, complemented by attractive clove and chocolate notes. Powerful yet restrained, there’s depth and volume across the palate, and proof that all the components are working in harmony as you are left with a moreish finish of well-defined fruit and an elegant freshness. A wine of great stature which will only get better, I’d recommend leaving this for a few years and enjoy from 2021 to 2032.
Chris Lamb, Private Account Manager

Fresh, very pure fruit dominates this wine, with an attack of almost strawberry coulis notes, broadening out into darker cherries and bramble fruit. The richer, red soils here give a gorgeous succulence to the wine, with a top note of sweet cranberries yet a fine backbone and poise. This is a really beautiful wine. Drink 2020-2028.
Catriona Felstead MW, Spain Buyer, October 2017

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There is something slightly exotic about 2015 Valbuena with its deep, intense, blueberry-blackberry nose mixing with heady Christmas spice. The palate is wonderfully sophisticated with impressive concentration; multi-layered dark fruits tumble over each other, framed and refreshed by an edge of soft raspberries. There is a real blackcurrant cassis density to this wine, yet all is lifted by a fine seam of acidity that cuts right through its core, taking away any sense of heaviness. The tannins initially feel high but then melt away, drifting off into a pinpoint, focused precision. This still needs time for the tannins to resolve fully but, even at this youthful stage, the palate is left coated with an impression of concentrated dark fruit, liquorice and chocolate on an amazingly long, mineral, powdery finish.

This is the first Valbuena vintage of which winemaker Gonzalo Iturriaga de Juan had full control and his consummate skill is ever more clear, especially in the quality of the tannins that melt effortlessly in the mouth. The mature vines here did well in the hot, dry conditions of 2015, all factors conspiring to make this a truly exceptional Valbuena; in my opinion, this is the best vintage to date. Drink 2024-2044.
Catriona Felstead MW, Spain Buyer