Spain

95 Points! From a slightly more challenging year for the region, the 2020 Muga Selección Especial checks in as 70% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacha, and the rest Graciano and Mazuelo that's aged six months in new French barrique, followed by two full years in older French and American (70/30) oak barriques. Rocking levels of cassis and black raspberry-like fruit as well as graphite, spicy wood, violets, and lead pencil notes all shine on the nose, and it hits the palate with medium to full-bodied richness, a round, layered mouthfeel, and silky tannins. It's already hard to resist. - Virginie Boone, jebdunnuck.com

94 Points! Their most gastronomical red is the 2020 Selección Especial, a blend of the four traditional varieties from Rioja—Tempranillo, Garnacha Tinta, Mazuelo and Graciano—fermented in oak vats. Half of the destemmed grapes were put through an optical sorting machine. The wine matured in French oak barrels, 40% of them new, for 26 months and was racked every eight to nine months. 2020 was a warm year, and the wine comes in at 14.5% alcohol, with a pH of 3.56 and 5.75 grams of acidity. Manu Muga likes 2020 very much and says it's a year that suffers because it's in between 2019 and 2021. This is also a textbook example of this wine, a little more developed and tertiary, with generous spice and toast and a palate with more grip. The tannins are not as precise and elegant as those from 2021 (yeah, it suffers in the comparison), but it's a very worthy wine. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

93 Points! The 2020 Selección Especial Muga is Tempranillo, Garnacha, Mazuelo and Graciano. This aged for 26 months in 40% new French oak. Concentrated, with aromas of sour cherry, plum, fine oak, cedar and herbal notes, it's dry in the mouth with plush tannins and well-defined fruit. The tackiness adds structure and promises good aging potential.-  Joaquin Hidalgo, Vinous

 

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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

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94 Points! Glossy, pure fruit here showing excellent concentration of red berries, cherries, hibiscus, stones and subtle spices. Concentrated and deep on the palate with outstanding volume for this vintage. Vertical and pretty long. One of the best Corimbos here. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

93 Points! 2019 was a warm year, but the style of the wines is quite balanced, and the 2019 Corimbo shows quite faithful with the character of the year. It has a contained 14% alcohol and shows balance and seriousness. The nose shows some restraint, with varietal berry fruit and measured oak. It matured for 14 months in oak barrels, 80% of them French and the rest American. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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93+ Points! The Mercenario range changes with the 2022 vintage and the wines will be renamed, the red to 2022 Ollos Tinto. 2022 was a warmer year, and the blend is 50% Caíño and then equal parts of Brancellao, Sousón and Espadeiro. It fermented in bin with some 35% full clusters and the rest destemmed grapes and had a long and soft fermentation, followed by time in used barrels. It has a perfumed nose with notes of flowers and herbs, spicy and tasty. The wine is clean and precise, with a light to medium-bodied palate with vibrant flavors and almost unnoticeable tannins. It's elegant, fresh, light and perfumed.- Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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95 Points! This shows dark fruit with floral notes of violets and a hint of graphite. Medium- to full-bodied with firm, polished tannins, dark fruit character and a long, deep, persistent finish. This comes exclusively from vineyards planted in the village of Abalos. Drink now or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

93+ Points! The serious and austere new 2020 Lindes de Remelluri Viñedos de Ábalos was produced with grapes on marl and limestone from the Marqués de Legarda, who is mentioned on the label. It's a blend of 73% Tempranillo, 17% Graciano, 6% Garnacha and 4% other varieties, presented in a straight Bordeaux bottle. It reflects more the character of Haro than the Rioja Alavesa, wines with more Graciano. It's medium to full-bodied with 14.17% alcohol and has fine-grained, chalky tannins. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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93+ Points! Rivas de Tereso are parishes of San Vicente de la Sonsierra, but the difference with the 2020 Lindes de Remelluri Viñedos de Rivas de Tereso is that the vineyards are at higher altitude and the percentage of Garnacha is much higher here (38%), so there's more mountain character and more herbal notes in the wine. It has 57% Tempranillo and some 5% other varieties. Despite a moderate 13.95% alcohol, the nose shows good ripeness, and there is some wilderness here, perhaps a little more rusticity too. The soils are very stony and rich in limestone, and the altitude gives the wine an austere twist. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

94 Points! Pretty profound nose with crushed stones, dried herbs and crushed blueberries. Dissolved, fine-grained tannins here with a full body and a lengthy, tightly wound finish. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

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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

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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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93 Points! The mellow and soft 2020 Camino de los Arrieros comes from the same plots as the 2019 I tasted next to it, but the profile of the wine is quite different. This 2020 is a full 1% higher in alcohol, and despite keeping a low 12.5% alcohol, it comes through as riper and more fruit-driven. The integration of the oak in all the wines from De Dios is amazing; the wines show purity, delineation, balance, elegance and freshness. It reveals fine, chalky tannins and a long and dry finish. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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93+ Points! The village 2021 Viñedos en San Vicente de la Sonsierra was produced with 75% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacha and the rest white grapes, mostly Viura from vineyards in the middle and higher part of the village. It fermented partly with full clusters and matured 50/50 in concrete and 500- and 600-liter barrels in their cave. This feels quite serious, with ripeness and power, slowly revealing more elegant notes and some floral hints, with an earthy touch. It feels like the grapes ripened thoroughly in the longer cycle and developed plenty of nuances. It has 13.9% alcohol and is medium to full-bodied, serious and balanced, with the stuffing to develop in bottle. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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93+ Points! The 2020 Cuvée Las Santas was produced from a number of small plots at higher altitudes and cooler expositions (north), only Garnacha, small plots. It has some Mediterranean, Châteauneuf-like character (cherries in liqueur, Mediterranean herbs) with 14% alcohol, very good acidity and very fine grained tannins. They fermented it with 50% full clusters and matured it in used French oak barrels for nine months. This is the wine they produce in the style they like, a more personal wine from special plots. 1,423 bottles were filled in March 2022.  - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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93 Points! There's a little more ripeness and concentration in the 2020 Parajes, which matured in well-seasoned (at least fourth use) barriques and a 5,000-liter oak foudre. It's a little rounder and creamier, a more powerful wine (it was bottled 15 days before I tasted it) with a nice Bierzo character. - 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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93 Points! The more traditional 2012 Gran Reserva comes from one of the driest years on record. It's mostly Tempranillo with some 3% Graciano matured in American oak barrels, 25% of them new, for 26 months, despite which, the wine is not excessively oaky. They wanted to keep the traditional profile but adjusted the toast on the barrels to adjust the excessive vanilla and coconut. This is structured, powerful, ripe without excess, spicy and balsamic, developing the bouquet, still young and with very good balance. It should be long lived. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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92 Points! The white 2019 Le Domaine is mostly Sauvignon Blanc, with 30% Verdejo, and comes from a warm year (not as warm as 2017) when Sauvignon Blanc achieved perfect ripeness. The wine has good ripeness, 13.5% alcohol, very good freshness, a subtle nose that is not that varietal (as it's often the case) and a soft palate with great balance and purity. It finishes with a faint bitter touch. The oak is neatly integrated. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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93+ Points! The 2020 Centales is a new single-vineyard bottle that has been given the Viñedo Singular category. It comes from a plot in Centales de Uruñuela bordering Huércanos and was planted in 1966 at 500 meters in altitude on limestone-rich soils where they have a field blend of varieties all fermented together that produces a characterful wine with a different, perfumed nose and a medium to full-bodied palate. The number of varieties gives the following breakdown: 52% Tempranillo, 25% Mazuelo, 14% Viura, 7% Garnacha and 2% Maturana Tinta that achieved 13.9% alcohol after fermenting in stainless steel and maturing in second-use French oak barrels for 11 months. It's a bit oaky and creamy but has the depth and balance to digest it and integrate it with some time in bottle. Only 780 bottles were filled in September 2021. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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93 Points! Notes of pastry, roasted pineapple, minerals, cashews and fine lees on the nose. This is a flavorful and round verdejo, but subtle and tactile, with a bright streak of acidity passing through the palate and leaving a broad but fresh-toned mouth-feel. From organically grown grapes. Drink now or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

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93 Points! The grand vin 2019 O Gran Mein is a blend of different varieties and vineyards that represents the best they have in white, fermenting each variety by plot, which gives them a lot of lots to make a blend. The idea is to achieve something that is complex but delicate rather than intense. It achieved 13% alcohol while it kept a pH of 3.34 and 6.29 grams of acidity, blending wines that fermented in stainless steel, concrete, foudre and 600-liter barrel and matured in tank for 14 months. It has aromatic complexity and depth and is elegant and nuanced, with herbal, balsamic and spicy aromas and the inland, river character. The palate is really balanced, and the mouthfeel is terribly stony, with a drying finish. Here they are again looking for potential to create this blend; they talk about wines for 30 years, guided by the first vintages in the 1990s. - Wine Advocate

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93 Points! The red blend 2019 Pacio Tinto was produced with Brancellao, Merenzao Caíño Longo, Sousón and Mencía grapes that fermented in granite lagars with indigenous yeasts. The wine matured in used 500-liter oak barrels and has a very Ribeira Sacra character, mixing rusticity with elegance, wilderness with restraint. It's medium-bodied with fine tannins, pure flavors and a long, clean finish. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

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93+ Points! The regular white 2018 Manda Huevos Blanco Carramainas was produced with grapes from the single vineyard that is mentioned on the label. There is a skin-contact version of grapes from this same plot, but these grapes were harvested 12 days earlier than those destined to ferment with the skins, as the aim here was to achieve higher acidity and freshness and let the lees rather than the skins be the ones defining the style of the bottled wine. This is 95% old-vine Macabeo with only 5% Garnacha Blanca, with good ripeness and bright acidity. It fermented after a slow pressing and one night of settling in 500- and 900-liter oak barrels, where it was kept with the full lees for two months. It was then racked into Flextank (plastic) eggs with fine lees and then matured for another 12 months. It has a Burgundian profile, going back to the style of the 2014, in a leesy and smoky style, still very young and undeveloped. There's also something that reminded me of old-style white Rioja. The palate is vibrant and has pungent citrus acidity. It feels like a white to lay down, as it should develop nicely in the bottle. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com Learn More