A journey through Rioja, Bierzo, Ribera del Duero and several other regions in Castilla y Léon and Catalonia. Photo: A.C.
Following last week’s compilation of white releases, it is now the turn for reds. Join us on a journey through Rioja, Bierzo, Ribera del Duero and several other regions in Castilla y Léon and Catalonia.
Most of the wines below are made by experienced producers who are constantly adding new subtleties to their ranges and redefining their wines to emphasise terroir or introduce more suitable grape varieties in the face of climate change. The world of wine is in constant motion.
A very popular wine in its day and produced between 1996 and 2005, Abadía Retuerta has revived Cuvée Palomar to explore new possibilities in the face of climate change. Formerly a blend of varying percentages of Tempranillo and Cabernet (50/50 in 1996; 80/20 in 2004), Palomar now includes the best-performing of the 20-plus grape varieties tested since 2001 on this vast estate on the banks of the Duero River in Valladolid.
After a soft launch with a limited production of just over 1,000 bottles in the 2017 and 2018 vintages, 2019 marks the official debut of the new Cuvée Palomar. Tempranillo is limited to 52%, with Garnacha, Graciano and a small amount of Malbec completing the blend. The aim is to obtain enough acidity and a balanced pH so that the wine does not need to be corrected. In this sense, the choice and proportion of varieties will vary according to the characteristics of each vintage (in 2021, for example, the blend will include some Syrah and Merlot). Availability will gradually increase to 42,000 bottles for the 2020 and 2021 vintages. To extend its cellaring potential, the wine has undergone additional ageing - up to 24 months in French oak - which exceeds the standard for the Abadía Retuerta portfolio.
The most interesting feature of Cuvée Palomar is a distinct tension on the palate, which sets it apart from the standard in the Duero region. It is also more persistent, in a similar way to Rioja, but with its own expression. It offers red fruits and dried herbs (chamomile) over some dairy notes, with a refreshing, inviting character.
Varieties: 52% Tempranillo, 26% Garnacha, 20% Graciano, 2% Malbec
Alcohol: 15% abv.
Bottles: 1,.000
Retail price in Spain: €55
At the end of last year, the Fernández Rivera family released three 2018 Gran Reserva wines made at their wineries in Ribera del Duero: Alenza from Condado de Haza, and Milenium and Janus from Pesquera. While Milenium usually strives to capture Tempranillo at its best, Janus is only made in exceptional vintages.
The choice of the 2018 vintage is no coincidence. In fact, it marks the beginning of a period of change, following the death of Alejandro Fernández, in which the company is reassessing what makes a great vintage in Ribera del Duero. Whereas in the past warm vintages were the most favourable for a region with extreme climate, in the current context of global warming, cool years such as 2018 are considered more suitable for producing wines worth cellaring. According to Rodrigo Pons, the group's technical director, 2018 is cool but not problematic. The long growing season provided good levels of ripeness, as well as generous fruit, aromatic intensity, volume and acidity.
Our overall impression is that all three reds are still very young. Several years of bottle ageing may be required to match the experience of the legendary Pesquera Gran Reserva of the 1980s and 1990s. Our favourite was Janus for its extra freshness, depth and length. It had not been produced since the scorching 2003 vintage. The first Janus was made in 1982, with half the grapes crushed in the family's old press and the other half destemmed. Today, the only wine in the group fermented with stems is Condado de Haza's Alenza.
The grapes for Janus 2018 come from La Rendeja, a vineyard located on the road from Pesquera to Piñel de Abajo. This is a fresh, slightly undulating plot at 800 m elevation on a white chalky soil with some stones, clay and silt. The grapes were harvested on 15 October and the wine was aged in American oak for 28 months. The old Janus were also released after five years, but spent more time in barrel and less time in bottle. Rather than a wine to try in
Varieties: 100% Tempranillo
Bottles: 7,400
Retail price in Spain: €295
It's been a while since Beatriz Herranz and Félix Crespo started exploring other regions beyond their regular base in La Seca and other villages around Rueda. Prapetisco, their first red, comes from Arribes, in the northwestern tip of Castilla y León; at the end of 2022 they released a 'clarete' from Cigales, in partnership with some growers from the area. As all these wines are made at their winery in La Seca, they carry the VT Castilla y León seal. Now comes a red from Cigales, which offers a fresher, less structured approach to Tempranillo - the presence of small percentages of other varieties, including some white, and a slightly fresher vintage certainly help to strengthen this profile.
The vineyards are located in Cubillas de Santa Marta and Trigueros del Valle and are planted on gravel at an average elevation of 800 metres. The grapes are destemmed and the wine is aged for 15 months in seasoned 500- and 600-litre oak barrels. The nose reveals notes of black fruits and liquorice over a herbal background. The palate is fresh and juicy, the kind of wine that makes you salivate.
Varieties: Tempranillo plus some Garnacha, Bobal and white grapes
Alcohol: 13.5% abv.
Bottles: 1,243
Retail price in Spain: €25
After Mauro (Castilla y León), San Román (Toro) and Garmón (Ribera del Duero), the Garcías have now turned their attention to small projects that keep their passion for making wine alive. We have previously written about Banyos, their winery in Baños de Ebro, in Rioja, where they produce a white and a red wine with the local support of French producer Tom Puyaubert, owner of Exopto. They are now releasing a red wine from Bierzo, an area that the family knows well since Mariano García helped out at Luna Beberide in the 1990s. Until 2014, they worked in partnership with the Luna family, resulting in the flagship, characterful Paixar Mencía. In recent years, the García family has been sourcing Godello from Bierzo to produce a white wine under the Mauro brand in their facilities in Tudela de Duero (Valladolid).
The idea now is to set up their own winery in Bierzo. Following the Rioja model, they are working with local producer Gregory Pérez. A fellow student with Eduardo García in France, Pérez worked for Mauro and Luna Beberide before creating Mengoba in Bierzo, a winery in which the García family have now taken a stake.
This first Valeyo lives up to expectations. After a slight reduction, the wine opens up with notes of wild berries, with all the spicy and herbal qualities of the Mencía grape. Although the structure is very restrained, the wine has all the ingredients to develop well in the bottle: good acidity, firm tannins, plenty of freshness and a long finish with hints of white and black pepper. The grapes come from a three-hectare vineyard situated at 650 m elevation in Valtuille de Arriba, on alluvial soils with a sandy-clay-loam texture.
Varieties: 95% Mencía, 5% Godello
Alcohol: 13% abv.
Bottles: 1.866
Retail price in Spain: €38
This Haro winery, owned by Zamora Company, which will celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2024, has spent much of the last decade exploring Rioja Oriental. Although it was already sourcing Garnacha from Tudelilla to blend in equal parts with Tempranillo from Rioja Alta for the fresh, lively Viñedos de Altura red, the purchase of an extensive 90-hectare vineyard on the slopes of Mount Yerga in 2014 provided a deeper immersion in the eastern end of the appellation and its flagship grape, Garnacha. It was also the inspiration for the development of the premium rosé Lalomba and a collection of single vineyard wines under this brand.
Under the Edición Limitada range, which has been highly successful for its red Tempranillo for many years, Ramón Bilbao has now released a Garnacha. The motto here is: "The first Rioja vines to see the sunrise - every day". The grapes come from Yerga, Grávalos and Arnedo. The wine offers ripe fruit and fresh herbal aromas with plenty of spicy notes. A juicy, aromatic wine that flows beautifully on the palate and finishes with liquorice, violets and an earthy mineral touch. Garnacha is steadily gaining ground in Rioja.
Varieties: 100% Garnacha
Alcohol: 14.5% abv.
Bottles: 40,000
Retail price in Spain: €17
Luis Cañas has always paid special attention to old vines and has studied them in depth, with remarkable results, such as the discovery of several plants of Benedicto, the progenitor of Tempranillo, together with Albillo Mayor. Hence the enthusiasm for Rioja's Viñedo Singular category, which provides an opportunity to showcase some of its most distinctive vineyards. After El Palacio, Camino Élez and the wonderful Ribagaitas, we have tasted the new Poyotos.
The grapes are sourced from a 1.18 ha plot planted in 1920 at 580 m elevation in the village of Laguardia. It sits on clay-loam soil over a block of marl at a depth of just 40 centimetres, on a small hilltop site that is difficult to access. Some plants have been lost, so yields are very low. There is a curious combination of varieties, with a relatively high presence of white grapes and Garnacha alongside Tempranillo. When we asked for the percentages, we were provided with a detailed list of the exact number of plants of each variety, including 11 that are currently unknown.
The heavy bottles are in tune with the other cuvées in the Viñedo Singular range, and this is at odds with the subtlety of the wine inside. Poyotos is a complex, harmonious red with lively red fruit and subtle floral notes (violets). On the palate it gains depth without losing freshness. It has weight and balance, it is rich in nuances and has a pronounced chalky finish. The recipe is definitely in the vineyard; that's the beauty of field blends. The alcohol is also perfectly integrated; no one would guess that it reaches 15% abv.
Varieties: 70% Tempranillo, 13% Viura, 8% Garnacha, plus Malvasía, Graciano, Calagraño, Bobal and some unknown.
Alcohol: 15% abv.
Bottles: 1,615
Retail price in Spain: €63
In 2015, when we wrote about the shift in Priorat towards a more refined style and the experience of producers with village wines (Vi de Vila) after their introduction in 2009, Valentí Llagostera of Mas Doix told us that the new category should have come later. In fact, they have waited until now to release a wine under the name Poboleda, the village where they are based and where own around 20 hectares of vineyards.
In 2019, there was a turning point with the construction of a new winery. Mas Doix introduced concrete vats, which used to be the norm in Priorat wineries and cooperatives, and experimented with fermenting and ageing in this material. They believe that concrete is particularly suitable for fining, preserving fruit and acidity and rounding off the tannins. After three years of trials, a new Garnacha has been released. It has been partially fermented in concrete, followed by four months in egg-shaped concrete vats. The grapes come from two different sites. While La Salanca is harvested earlier to provide smoothness and elegance, Barranc de la Morera is a cooler, late-ripening location that brings tension and concentration.
Still young, Mas Doix's Poboleda Vi de Vila is a fruit-driven red with plenty of blueberry notes and lovely depth. Medium-bodied and lively, it shows more tension than roundness, with an abundance of Mediterranean herbs and fresh orange zest notes. Balanced and with plenty of life ahead.
Varieties: Garnacha
Alcohol: 15% abv.
Bottles: 1,800
Retail price in Spain: € 60
Familia Torres continues to release new ancestral grape varieties from the recovery project they started 40 years ago. Compared to the experimental samples we tasted a few years ago, the wines are now better defined, thanks to the development of vineyards in areas that have proven to be more suitable for commercial production. The site chosen for Gonfaus is Purgatori in Costers del Segre, a vineyard with limestone soils, extreme temperature fluctuations and severe summer droughts. In fact, as the group's technical director, Josep Sabarich, explains, it is common in this area to get natural concentrations of sugar and acidity through dehydration in the final stages of ripening.
A few curiosities about Gonfaus. Unlike most Vitis vinifera, which are hermaphrodites, Gonfaus is female. This requires a certain amount of co-planting to aid pollination. Gonfaus is genetically related to other varieties recovered by Familia Torres, such as Pirene and Querol (in fact, Gonfaus seems to be the mother of Querol), rare Catalan varieties such as Trobat, but also to Rioja's Graciano.
The wine shows a deep purple colour and rich aromas of violets, blueberries and liquorice against a background of scrubland. The palate is not overly structured, has good acidity (one of the most sought-after attributes to deal with climate change), tension and a slightly earthy but well wrapped tannins. The wine also has a good aromatic dimension and the alcohol is well integrated.
Varieties: Gonfaus
Alcohol: 14.5% abv.
Bottles: 1,118
Retail price in Spain: €47
Viñas del Cénit, part of the Terra Selecta group, made a name for itself with powerful old-vine Tempranillos that echoed the style of most red wines from the Duero Valley. But the arrival of winemaker Jose Manuel Beneitez has allowed the winery to delve deeper into the mixed nature of many old plots in this area of Zamora and recover the traditional winemaking style of co-fermentation. This practice, known internationally as field blend, is a growing trend among wine producers.
Of the three wines that make up Viñas del Cénit's new range of field blends, this Tradición Clarete, made from Tempranillo, Garnacha and white varieties such as Godello, Palomino and Dona Blanca, is our favourite. Whole bunches are stomped for five days until fermentation begins, then the grapes are pressed and the wine continues to ferment in seasoned barrels where it is aged for six months. The grapes come from 80- to 100-year-old vines grown on clay soils at 800 m elevation.
Resembling a red in terms of colour, the wine is direct and honest, with hints of cherry and earthy undertones. The palate is strikingly genuine, combining lively notes of raspberry, the unctuousness of white grape varieties and the earthy character that ties in with the terroir and lingers on the finish. An example of authenticity over perfection.
Varieties: Tempranillo, Garnacha, Doña Blanca, Godello, Palomino
Alcohol: 14.5% abv.
Bottles: 3,000
Retail price in Spain: €15
One of Vintae's latest releases in Rioja, the Classica range is a collection of limited-edition Gran Reserva wines made in outstanding vintages. Usually aged longer than the standard for the category, the wines include all three styles: white, rosé and red. The rosé is probably the most sought-after wine in the range, given its singularity. Released for the first time in the 2009 vintage, it is made from old Viura and Garnacha vines grown on clay terraces in the Alto Najerilla Valley and aged for four years in barrels.
All the labels are illustrated with women. The 2009 vintage featured the Riojan soprano Lucrecia Arana (1871-1927). She began her working life at the López de Heredia store in Madrid while taking singing lessons. This time it's the turn of Ramona Norberta de Albiz y Ruiz del Castillo, a descendant of Labastida landowners. Born in 1768, she built a winery in 1797 to make wine using the Médoc method. She even had her own muleteers to transport the wine, anticipating the liberalisation of trade in the 19th century by more than half a century.
A salmon pink rosé, the wine has classic notes of toasted almonds and spices, reminiscent of a white wine were it not for the sparkle of spicy red fruit. Remarkable mouthfeel and persistence, with a wonderful sapidity on the finish. Clever use of oak.
Varieties: Garnacha, Viura
Alcohol: 13 % abv.
Retail price in Spain: €51
