Wines

From the winery:

La Antigua Clásico is one of Alberto Orte’s most enduring history projects and shows off an unexplored region of DOCa Rioja, the western mountain range of Sierra de la Demanda. Inspired by the style of winemaking that was popular in the first half of the 20th century, Alberto’s winemaking emphasizes freshness and minerality, leading to balanced, long-lived wines. To that end, he has found old vine Garnacha, Tempranillo and Graciano in Sierra de la Demanda, south of the Ebro river in Rioja Alta. The north-facing, high-altitude vineyards receive far less sunshine than those in the valley, resulting in grapes that ripen slowly, showcasing intense flavors of greater balance and focus. This poses quite a risk that only hands-on viticulture can remedy: this area is one of the last to harvest in all of Western Europe, usually in early November! In addition to the cool climate, Sierra de la Demanda’s vineyards are extremely scattered and steep. This terrain is impossible to mechanize, and all vineyard work must be done by hand. The result is a handcrafted wine of precision and elegance – fresh and beautiful to drink now, with built-in longevity. Learn More

92 Points! The white 2023 Blanco was produced with 85% Viura, 15% Garnacha Blanca and 5% Tempranillo Blanco, which is the taste they have found works for them, without adding yeasts and putting the wine through malolactic fermentation and using some skin contact for the fermentation. They use grapes from eight vineyards, most of them from the Montes Obarenes, except a little bit from Remelluri. In 2022, a very warm and dry year with a tendency toward less acidity and higher pH, they decided to use less skin contact, perhaps 10%. They aged the wine in concrete, oak vats and 500-liter barrels, working the lees less and less as the élevage advances. Despite everything, it has a moderate 12.8% alcohol and a pH of 3.29, a clean and floral nose, with perhaps some hints of yellow fruit, and a tender and velvety palate with tasty flavors and a dry and chalky finish. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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91 Points! This year, the 2019 Sologarnacha Amphora Aging was produced with grapes from a vineyard planted in 2017. It's "only" 13.5% alcohol (most of the other wines are much higher in alcohol) and has a perfumed and floral nose, showing some lightness after a short maceration to keep the more ethereal part of the variety. The wine matured in a clay tinaja for five months. Only 295 bottles were filled in July 2020. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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96 Points! Juicy, ripe, plummy fruit with a spicy wood touch and a hint of citrus. Assertive and fine-grained with medium to full body. Excellent tannins are nicely woven and integrated with the fruit. Long finish. La Hoya stands out in this challenging vintage. 95% tempranillo and 5% viura. Sand and silt soils on an east-facing slope. 3.3 hectares. From organically grown grapes. - JamesSuckling.com

95 Points! The bottled version of the 2023 La Hoya feels quite serious and harmonious. It spent its first winter in 500- and 600-liter barrels and the second one in a 4,000-liter oak foudre. The nose is quite subtle and a little shy, with finesse. The top part of the plot is sandy, and the lower part has more silt; the combination gives the wine fruit and structure. It also has a lot of limestone and comes through as very balanced too. It's medium-bodied and really fine-boned. This is now showing much better than anticipated. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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97+ Points! The bottled 2023 San Lázaro, from the 1.62 hectares of vines they have, shows contained ripeness and has 14.4% alcohol. This is always more restrained, and there's no exuberance here; there's subtleness, finesse and verticality. It has a spicy side, with notes reminiscent of curry, a little à la Vosne-Romanée, a little cinnamon perhaps, but with the Tempranillo austerity, of course. The palate is medium-bodied, with great balance and super fine and elegant tannins. The wine is a little closed at the moment, but it should grow with time in bottle. It's really good and challenges El Carretil this year. I give it the edge—perhaps because it is the more approachable of the 2023s. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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94 Points! The only white produced here is the 2020 Viñas de Gaín Blanco, which is balsamic and aromatic, floral and herbaceous, from a fresher and more elegant vintage. It fermented with some skins to give it complexity and volume, but he has reduced the time the wine is in contact with the skins, and this year, the wine finished part of the fermentation in used 600-liter demi-muids and was kept in stainless steel with lees for two years. They have stopped racking the white, and they feel it keeps a livelier character. It has the profile of the traditional Rioja whites with a modern twist, cleaner, more focused and precise. It has a moderate 13% alcohol, a pH of 3.31 and 6.05 grams of sugar, fresh and vibrant. It's beautiful, possibly the best year for the white and a year they think was better for the white than for the reds. Bravo! - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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92 Points! The eponymous 2024 Artuke is a juicy and tasty carbonic maceration red, a modern rendition of the classical "cosechero" wines. It is perfumed, aromatic and heady, with aromas of bubble gum and flowers and a velvety palate with almost unnoticeable tannins. It's a young and unoaked Tempranillo with some 5% white Viura grapes from the village of Baños de Ebro and was kept in concrete until it was bottled...This is a bargain to buy by the truckload and drink unashamedly. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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93 Points! This ruby-colored wine has aromas of cherry, dark chocolate and freshly ground espresso. It is bright in the mouth, with flavors of pomegranate, strawberry, white chocolate and orange zest, with hints of herbes de Provence. Downy tannins drift off into an enduring finish. - Wine Enthusiast

90 Points! The very classical 2016 Reserva has notes of meat and blood, spices and smoke, developed with hints of iodine and a very polished and silky palate. Brilliant. It's 90% Tempranillo and 10% Graciano with 14% alcohol that matured in French and American oak barrels for 18 months. - Luis Gutiérrez, Robert Parker's Wine Advocate

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94 Points! This is so gorgeous and well polished with aromas of berries, tobacco, cedar and fresh mushrooms. Medium to full body, fine tannins and a beautiful, textured finish. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

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95 Points! Very pale in colour yet surprisingly concentrated for a wine of such light hue, delivering lots of delicate red berries and an ample palate with plenty of fleshy fruit and texture. The 100% Garnacha fruit is sourced from 70- to 90-year-old vines on several plots at 600m-750m. Only half of the free-run must is used, fermented plot by plot in small oak vats, with the wine remaining on its lees for at least four months before a final selection and blend is made. Wonderfully elegant with stony minerality, this is seamless, fruity and refined, with a very moreish finish. A really clear definition of the region. - Decanter Magazine

94 Points! The top rosé is also extremely young. The 2025 Flor de Muga Rosado was produced with the direct pressing of Garnacha grapes from the Najerilla and Oja valleys, grapes that usually ripen but keep a pale red color and are not suitable for red wines. It fermented in small oak vats, where it was kept with fine lees and bâtonnage for four months. This is even paler and certainly subtler, more elegant and complex than the regular rosé. It comes in at a lower 13.5% alcohol, keeping very good freshness, reflected by a pH of 3.27 and 6.2 grams of acidity. It's balanced and subtle, really elegant and more delicate, with more freshness. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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95 Points! Aromas of limes, white nuts, green apples, savory seaweed and seashells. So delicious, with a creamy, nutty touch and a savory, lightly saline finish. Nori at the end. Really long and intellectual. Viura aged in Sherry butts. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

93+ Points! The 2021 Monopole Clásico Reserva comes from a cooler year with a long cycle and was produced with grapes that were picked on October 7 and 8, fermented in stainless steel, then matured in oak barrels and Sherry casks of different sizes—300, 400 and 500 liters—where it matured for eight months and managed to grow a veil of flor yeasts in the butts filled with the wine. Still pale and young but with incipient complexity, it has a very spicy nose with notes of esparto grass, hints of pollen and cereals. It's fresh and comes in at 13.38% alcohol, with a pH of 3.26 and 5.61 grams of acidity, meaning balance and freshness. It has depth, complexity and character, with more freshness and acidity and some grip, showing more of the character of the vintage. It's very tasty and ends with a very pleasant bitter twist in the finish. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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94 Points! A tight, structured Rioja with blackcurrants, sandalwood, coffee and cassis on the nose, followed by a chewy, toasty and medium- to full-bodied palate. Firm, dusty tannins. Compact. Better after 2026. - JamesSuckling.com

94 Points! Beautiful nose with lifted herbal notes hovering over the lush black and blue fruit. Tannins are fresh and well presented lending fluidity to the fruit. The mineral backbone as further support to the framework. An alluring, long finish of zesty citrus married with herbal intensity (oregano and thyme). - Decanter Magazine

93 Points! The 2020 Imperial Reserva was produced with a blend of Tempranillo and 15% Graciano, Mazuelo and Garnacha grapes that were put through optical sorting and fermented in oak vats by vineyard, and the wine matured for 24 months in barrels, 70% French and the rest American. It has a shy nose that takes time to open up in the glass, but it is surprisingly harmonious and balanced and fresh for the year. It has a little more ripeness, but there's no excess at all; it has 14% alcohol, a pH of 3.65 and 5.44 grams of acidity. It has notes of spices, cigar box and ash, berries and wild herbs and a sleek and polished palate with resolved tannins.  - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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94 Points! The 2022 Anza red blend, which I already tasted last year, and seems to have had very little development and comes through as young and fresh, perfumed, floral and elegant. It's a blend of Tempranillo, Garnacha, Mazuelo, Viura and Malvasía with a very elegant, medium-bodied palate with very fine tannins. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

93 Points! Chalk, vibrant berries, hibiscus and wet stones. Rich in red cherry fruit and plums, but fresh, with a medium to full body and tight, fine-grained tannins. Long and structured. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

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95 Points! The red blend 2023 Anza was produced with Tempranillo, Garnacha, Graciano, Malvasía, Calagraño, Viura and Moscatel grapes from the zones of Laguardia and Elvillar, produced in a fresh and direct style with no makeup. It fermented with some stems by plot and zones and matured in used 500-liter barrels and oak vats of different sizes for 12 months. They had 568 liters of rain in 2023, which also saw mild temperatures, save for a 12-day heat wave at the end of August, followed by a rainy September and October. The wine is clean, open, aromatic and nuanced. None of the reds show any aromatic influence from the wood. It has a contained 13.5% alcohol and a very balanced, medium-bodied and elegant palate, with very fine tannins. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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97 Points! The 2021 Anza Especial was produced with the idea to obtain a wine with aging potential while keeping the freshness and drinkability from early on. It was produced with the fruit from three old vines—Tempranillo, Graciano, Garnacha and Viura—fermented by plot in stainless steel and matured in used 500-liter oak barrels. It encapsulates the perfume, finesse and elegance that is present in the whole portfolio here with the aid of a very balanced 2021 vintage. It has notes of violets, red and black berry fruit, wild herbs and subtle spices. The palate has symmetry, elegance and precision, the tannins are extremely fine-bonded, and the flavors pure and precise and stay in your mouth for a long time after you swallow. Great juice. It should age effortlessly. 2,800 bottles produced. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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93 Points! The 2020 Angelita del Challao comes from a blend of different vineyards in the three valleys from Labastida, looking for a village wine; it was produced with 85% Tempranillo and the rest Garnacha, Mazuelo, Viura, Garnacha Blanca and other rare varieties from their own vineyards and purchased grapes. It fermented in concrete with indigenous yeasts, 40% full clusters that are foot trodden and the rest uncrushed grapes and matured in 225- and 500-liter barrels and 2,000-liter foudres—10 months with each plot separate—and then it was blended and let to settle in concrete for another 10 months. They look for a more approachable wine than Challao, with more floral aromas in a very elegant and harmonious way. The palate is medium-bodied with medium ripeness, 13.5% alcohol and very good freshness and acidity, balanced and harmonious, very tasty and with elegant, refined tannins. Really very good. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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91+ Points! The pale, fruit-driven and very young red 2022 Bozeto de Exopto is juicy and approachable, mixing 60% Garnacha with 35% Tempranillo and 5% Graciano. Fresh and dominated by the Garnacha, it is ripe without excess at 14.5% alcohol, reflecting the conditions of the year. Only the Tempranillo aged in oak vats, and the Garnacha was kept in concrete. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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