Wines

99 Points! Super smooth and mouth-filling but also lacy and filigreed, the wine combines powerful, broad and ripe strawberries, red plums and cedar on a full body blanketed in soft tannins but with fresh acidity. Aged 18 months on the lees in neutral, large-format barrels. Drink now or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

96 Points! All Grenache from this brilliant lieu-dit with sandy soils situated just to the north of Rayas, the 2023 Châteauneuf Du Pape Les Secrets De Pignan was destemmed and aged 18 months in stainless steel. Gorgeous wild strawberry, spring flowers, mint, and loamy earth-like nuances all shine here, and it's medium to full-bodied, with a pure, graceful, layered mouthfeel, ultra-fine tannins, and a great finish. There are roughly 333 cases of this beauty, which is already gorgeous yet should keep for 15 years in cold cellars. - Jeb Dunnuck

97 Points! A sweet stunner made from Grenache Noir and 10% Carignan, both from a schist terroir, the NM Banyuls Reserva is a stunning, multi-layered, and hugely age-worthy wine, with notes of cherry, candied strawberry, ripe mango, dried apricot, prunes, and dates. Light and delicate, with a seamless balance between sweetness and acidity, it adds some mocha, cigar, and smoky notes, transporting the senses right into an old New York jazz club. Tender, modern, and nostalgic at the same time. Wow. Drink 2025-2050. - Birte Jantzen, jebdunnuck.com

The 2023 Cuvée Nicolas Vieilles Vignes de Grenache is rich and expressive, revealing aromas of black raspberry, kirsch, lavender and garrigue. Plush and concentrated, it delivers ripe red and dark fruit supported by supple tannins and vibrant freshness. Hints of licorice and spice linger through the long, polished finish.

The vineyards lie on the initial slopes of the Iberian System, where altitude, stony soils, and a stark continental climate—scorching summers, frigid winters, and the fierce, dry north wind known as the Cierzo—naturally limit yields and concentrate flavor in Garnacha. Cariñena, in Aragón’s Ebro Valley, is one of Spain’s historic wine heartlands: viticulture here predates the Romans, the town was established as a Roman settlement around 50 BC, and the region was officially recognized as a Denominación de Origen in 1932, making it one of the country’s earliest protected appellations. Today, Garnacha is the dominant grape, and many vineyards—often bush-pruned old vines—sit on poor, rocky soils and endure hot days and cold nights, conditions that drive phenolic ripeness while preserving the grape’s naturally vibrant acidity and spicy, red-fruited profile.

The grapes are destemmed and fermented with wild yeasts in temperature-controlled stainless steel. The wine rests on the lees for about seven months without racking. The cold climate naturally calrifies the wine which is bottled with only a slight filtration needed.

97 Points! Starting with the 2021 Grenache Estate Blend, this blend of 70% Grenache, 15% Syrah, 11% Cinsault, and 4% Roussanne comes all from the Adams Ranch Vineyard and was aged 20 months in new and used mostly French oak. It has a deeper ruby/plum hue as well as a beautiful nose of ripe black raspberries, darker cherries, spicy herbs, sandalwood, and ground pepper. It's complex, medium to full-bodied, has a broad, layered, seamless mouthfeel, and an incredible finish. It's a brilliant Grenache that has so much to love. It will evolve like a great Châteauneuf du Pape and have 15 years or more of overall longevity. - Jeb Dunnuck

93+ Points! The young red Garnacha 2023 Suzzane, inspired by the Leonard Cohen song, is ripe and creamy, showy and extroverted. It was produced with grapes from Camprovín and Badarán on red limestone and clay soils. It was foot trodden with different percentages of stems—between full clusters and fully destemmed—and fermented in stainless steel with indigenous yeasts. It matured in 600-liter barrels for 10 months. It has some toasty flavors but a very fine palate with elegant tannins and a chalky feeling I found in many wines here. Like most of its siblings, it also needs a little more time in bottle. It comes in at 14% alcohol while keeping a pH of 3.4. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

From the winery: 100% Grenache. This soil profile, combined with whole-cluster grenache, is a special mix that brings a singular expression to the wine. Unic is not about power and concentration, it is about elegance and restraint. It has this charming, less-is-more style, with great tension, freshness, refinement and nuances.

93 Points! A light beautiful color of red marks the visual appeal of the 100% varietal 2022 Grenache, grown at high elevation on the producer’s estate around 2,400-feet. There’s a beautiful perfume to the wine, a combination of wild strawberry and lilac, accented in blood orange. Tobacco, white pepper, and garrigue play along the full-bodied palate that tastes more delicate than it is, the tannins smoothened into rounded submission. This should age well another 5-7 years. - Virginie Boone, jebdunnuck.com

From 100+ year-old Grenache vines in Bas de La Crau...

97 Points! The 2022 Châteauneuf Du Pape Cuvee Speciale is on another level, with a blockbuster perfume of ripe black cherries, melted licorice, jus de viande, lavender, and roasted garrigue. A rich, opulent style of Châteauneuf du Pape, it brings full-bodied richness while staying graceful, weightless, and flawlessly balanced, with ripe tannins and incredible length. This tour de force 2022 should be snatched up by savvy readers and enjoyed over the coming 15 years or so. - Jeb Dunnuck

93 Points! I was really looking forward to the 2017 Las Enebradas, because the first vintage, 2016, was the revelation of my last review of the zone of Gredos. I was quite surprised because the profile is very different: the wine has a lot more color and up to 2% more alcohol. Nacho Jiménez, one of the partners, explained that the profile of the 2016 vintage was exceptional and hard to replicate, as yields were higher and it rained just before they picked the grapes, so the wine is a lot lighter. 2017 was very different, a lot warmer and with lower yields, and the grapes delivered a concentrated juice with a lot more color, tannin and alcohol. It has a more Mediterranean profile, more in line with the rest of the wines. This fermented with 50% full clusters and temperature control and matured in one 500-liter oak barrel. Despite the higher ripeness and the headier character, the wines from Navatalgordo have a different texture and fine thread, the finesse of a cooler place and sandy soils at higher altitude (even if the vines are south-facing here), and you see it when tasting this next to the wines from Cebreros. It's more elegant and fresher. 570 bottles were filled in August 2019. - Luis Gutiérrez, robertparker.com

94 Points! There is a new and impressive red 2020 Barrio Pastores, a village wine produced with old Garnacha grafted on Rupestris du Lot roots. It is perfumed and floral with moderate alcohol (13.8%) and with a medium-bodied palate with very fine tannins and a dry, austere finish. It has impressive freshness and a pH of 3.2 with 6.5 grams of acidity. The production tried to replicate the wines from yesteryear, and they achieved a clean, fine, soft, perfumed and happy red through foot-trodden grapes and maturing in large oak vats for 10 months. Superb debut. 2,000 bottles were filled in August 2021. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

93 Points! The Garnacha 2022 Barrio Pastores is a village red from Aldeanueva de Ebro and produced with grapes from two plots planted in 1989. The full clusters fermented with indigenous yeasts after being foot trodden, and the wine matured in a 3,000-liter oak vat until it was needed the following harvest. It has a fruit-driven nose that's a little grapey, with a sense of ripe berries and wild herbs. It has 14% alcohol and a pH of 3.45. The palate is medium to full-bodied with fine tannins, ripe flavors and fine tannins. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com