Spain

95 Points! An aromatic charge of smoky herbals amid a ripe peach and apricot redolence. Broad and generous with a silty, saline acidity carrying the long finish. - Decanter World Wine Awards

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

93 Points! The white 2023 Costumbres Blanco has a bright golden color and a very expressive nose that is serious, fresh, balanced and harmonious, really very good. It was produced with a blend of 50% Viura, 20% Pasera, 20% Tempranillo Blanco and 10% Garnacha Roya taken from individual vines interplanted with the red ones. It fermented with indigenous yeasts and matured in used 300- and 400-liter oak barrels for 11 months. It has a moderate 12.5% alcohol, a pH of 3.3 and 5.6 grams of acidity. It has notes of pollen, herbs and flowers, a medium-bodied palate and notable freshness and balance. It is clean and pure, with a dry, chalky finish. 2,200 bottles and 36 magnums were filled in September 2024. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

92 Points! Brine with lime aromas as well as dried herbs. Medium- to full-bodied, fresh and incisive, with a touch of fruit and salinity. Nervy finish. - JamesSuckling.com

The Eguren family produces Protocolo, one of the world's best value wines, from vineyards in Manchuela, Rioja, and Toro. They lease vineyards on long term contracts from farmers in Manchuela who grow Tempranillo on the limestone rich soils at high altitudes in this southeastern corner of Spain. The oldest vineyards are 35 years old, grown sustainably, and dry farmed. These conditions reduce yields and result in incredibly balanced but fruit forward Tempranillo. The Eguren family also blends 10-15% of the wine with young estate grown vineyards in Rioja and Toro, which are planted with massal selections from the family's best estate grown plots. For the first 10-15 years of these vineyards' lives, they are used for Protocolo before they graduate into the estate wines of Rioja and Toro.

The Eguren family produces Protocolo, one of the world's best value wines, from vineyards in Manchuela, Rioja, and Toro. They lease vineyards on long term contracts from farmers in Manchuela who grow Tempranillo on the limestone rich soils at high altitudes in this southeastern corner of Spain. The oldest vineyards are 35 years old, grown sustainably, and dry farmed. These conditions reduce yields and result in incredibly balanced but fruit forward Tempranillo. The Eguren family also blends 10-15% of the wine with young estate grown vineyards in Rioja and Toro, which are planted with massal selections from the family's best estate grown plots. For the first 10-15 years of these vineyards' lives, they are used for Protocolo before they graduate into the estate wines of Rioja and Toro.

90 Points! A big, dense, chewy wine, the 2023 Breca El Nacido is grown in iron-rich soils that retain good moisture where the site contains some white varieties as well (mostly Macabeu), blended into the whole. From the Garnacha de Aragon clone, it has rich, concentrated red fruit, mostly cherry and plum, with a back beat of soy and leather and velvety tannins. There’s some good acidity on the back of the palate that helps balance, but this is all about intensity. Drink now and through the next 7-10 years. - Virginie Boone, jebdunnuck.com

97+ Points! The super pale and subtle white 2022 El Jardín de las Iguales Macabeo is a wine that feels a lot younger than it is, undeveloped and young. It comes from the same vineyard, a centenary plot, and with the same process as in previous years, fermented and matured in a 1,000-liter oak foudre. It has a complex nose with notes of dry yellow flowers and pollen and a round palate with texture, chalky minerality and a very long finish. It is complete and complex, just a more tender than the 2021, which was more chiseled. This is a wine that really grows in bottle. It was a success to hold it for one year before releasing it, and that's why the vintage in the market is one year older than the red. 1,305 bottles produced, a good year for quality and quantity. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

96 Points! The white 2023 La Loma & Los Santos, containing some 60% Macabeo and 40% Garnacha Blanca, fermented in concrete and matured in 500- and 900-liter oak barrels, with some Macabeo in concrete egg, for 13 months. This has to be the finest vintage of this white; it's a year with more tension and is very expressive and nuanced, with notes of dry yellow flowers and pollen. It is finessed, beautifully textured and velvety, with volume, sapidity and electricity, and it is crunchy and citrusy, with a salty twist in the finish. This should age nicely in bottle. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

97+ Points! The 2023 Las Alas de Frontonio La Tejera is super serious, complete and harmonious, with power and elegance. It keeps the profile from the previous years, with similar parameters of alcohol and freshness. It's perfumed and nuanced, floral and citrusy, with faint spice and earthiness, serious and mineral. Th palate is seamless, precise and chiseled, symmetric and balanced, with super elegant tannins. This wine evolves very nicely in bottle. It is very precise. 2,082 bottles, 30 magnums and two double magnums produced. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

99 Points! The nose of the 2023 El Jardín de las Iguales Garnacha is stunning and made me go back to the glass over and over again, as it kept changing and unfurling new layers every few minutes. It's perfumed and elegant, spicy à la Vosne-Romanée from the south, with aromas of wild flowers, red fruit freshness, aromatic herbs, curry, celery and even white flowers. It is long, complex and balanced, with very fine-boned, chalky tannins. It has contained ripeness and 12.5% alcohol. Weightless but with structure, power with elegance, it is the proverbial iron fist in a velvet glove. This is the most complete, most elegant and finest vintage of this wine since they started. It should develop beautifully in bottle and for a very long time. 1,399 bottles, 60 magnums and three double magnums produced. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

93 Points! The red 2024 Microcósmico Garnacha is a clear step up from the Botijo from this same year. It is more serious, with more tension and more elegant and polished tannins, a subtler and more harmonious wine with citrus and floral characteristics. It's still quite primary but has complexity, depth and a mineral feeling, the texture on the palate. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

94+ Points! The nose of the 2017 Viña Gravonia Blanco is unmistakably López de Heredia, with those mushroom, white pepper and pollen aromas that remind you so much of the smell in their ancient caves. 2017 was the year of the big frost in April and the scarcity of rain that made it the earliest, scarcest and quickest harvest they have experienced in their recent history. The grapes for this wine were the first grapes picked, the 14th of September, from vines aged 93 years. It fermented in even older oak vats with indigenous yeasts ("We have never added yeasts to our wines," they answer when asked) and matured in used American oak barrels for four years (possibly more looking at the bottling date). Of course, this could qualify as a Gran Reserva, but they keep it at Crianza (to have a range), and it's sold at a bargain price for its quality and age. It's characterful and nuanced, with some hints of development (diesel) and a lightish palate with pungent flavors and great harmony. It has the usual parameters: 12.5% alcohol, a pH of three and seven grams of acidity. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

92+ Points! The white 2024 Mestizaje Blanco was produced with a blend of 40% Merseguera, 20% Viognier, 18% Malvasía, 14% Xarello and 8% Macabeo, but it feels like it was made with rocks, because the wine is so stony and mineral and lacks fruit. It really feels like liquid rocks, though it does have some herbal and floral notes. It fermented and matured in stainless steel and concrete with lees. It has 13% alcohol, a pH of 3.41 and 5.44 grams of acidity, coming through as balanced and fresh. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

93 Points! The 2022 Montecastro is surprisingly harmonious and balanced, not showing any heat or excess ripeness despite the 14.5% alcohol on the label, which is not much for the zone and year, even if they harvest two weeks later than at Hacienda Monasterio. The Tempranillo is complemented with some 5% Merlot, and the oak is neatly integrated; they only used 20% new barrels. The wine is harmonious and balanced, going back to the "vino fino" style with surprisingly polished tannins. This is really impressive. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

We put this one in the 'Rosé' seciton though some folks think of it as a 'chillable red'. Regardless, this stuff is TASTY. Field Blend Tradición comes from organic century-old vineyards, the average vine age is 80 to 100 years. These vineyards sit in clay soils at an altitude of 800 meters. The region has a continental climate with very cold winters and hot summers, an ideal environment for producing wine with depth and complexity.

The blend is approximately 65% Tempranillo; 30% white varieties as Dona Blanca, Palomino or Godello, 5% Garnacha and Garnacha Tintorera. Grapes are hand-harvested and then placed in a press as whole bunches without destemming. They are then treaded for five days until spontaneous fermentation occurs. At this moment, the grapes are pressed and transferred to used French barrels for alcoholic fermentation. Aged for 6 months prior to release.

Very complex nose dominated by raspberries, white fruit, and grass aromas. In the mouth, it is electric, fresh, and highly complex.