Spain

92 Points! Attractive aromas of sweet spices, smoke and seaweed. Some roasted nuts. Hints of Iberico ham. Medium-bodied with a nice rounded character to the tannins and juicy fruit. Pure tempranillo. Drink now. - JamesSuckling.com

91 Points! Hints of toast, smoke and spices lace flavors of soft cherry and plum fruit, mandarin orange peel and dried flowers and herbs in this well-knit, medium-bodied red, framed by lightly chewy tannins. Drink now through 2029.- Wine Spectator

94 Points! There's also a village red from Labastida, of which I tasted two vintages. The 2021 Viñedos en Labastida is a blend of different plots with some 85% Tempranillo, 10% Garnacha and 5% white grapes fermented with indigenous yeasts and some whole clusters in search of balance and elegance. The wine matured in 500- and 600-liter oak foudres in their cold cave. This was my favorite of the village reds, with a perfumed and elegant nose, complex, deep and nuanced. It's serious, harmonious and with very fine tannins. It has medium ripeness and good balance. 3,600 bottles were filled in September 2022. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

94 Points! I love the pale, floral and delicate 2021 Kauten. This wine is the reason they started in the zone of Olite. The wine is elegant and ethereal. They do a soft extraction and only use half of the skins for the fermentation (50% of the clusters were pressed directly and the juice put in the fermentation vessel). They were worried because it's from a 20-year-old vineyard and they didn't want to extract much. They age it in used barrels for five months. The wine has 13.5%, and it's very approachable and expressive, with notes of sous bois, a vibrant palate and great freshness. Amazing wine and superb value. This is expressive, pure, deep and very satisfying. It should also age well. 1,246 bottles were filled in August 2022. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

94 Points! Dense and broad Viñas de Gain with impressive concentration and compact tannins that give gravity to the palate, showing fine rust to the fresh blackberries, iodine and fresh violets. I love the power here with the fine-grained, chocolaty tannins. Long and nicely chewy. Tempranillo. From organically grown grapes. Drinkable now, but better from 2024. - JamesSuckling.com

92 Points! The young red 2020 Viñas de Gaín was produced with Tempranillo grapes from different vineyards in Laguardia and Elvillar at 450 to 700 meters in altitude. It fermented in oak and stainless steel vats followed by malolactic in barrel and an élevage in barrel for eight months. This is a blend from some 20 vineyards at various altitudes, keeping the older ones to produce a wine that has complexity and depth, the expression of Tempranillo in Laguardia and Elvillar. It is approachable and pleasant but with complexity and depth. It has ripeness and richness without excess. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

94 Points! There is a change in the 2022 La Bruja. It is no longer a village wine from Rozas de Puerto Real. In 2022, it is a regional wine, and in 2023, it also will be a regional wine but from Ávila, from the Cebreros appellation, as they are focusing their work there. It's a juicy and aromatic Garnacha, very much in the Comando G style, with good ripeness, 14% alcohol and more in the style of the 2020. It has a medium-bodied palate and a sapid finish with contained ripeness and fine granite granularity. They macerated less to adapt to the vintage, and it partly fermented with less skins. It's a more approachable La Bruja, expressive, open and more fruit-driven, more in a Morgon style. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

92+ Points! The ripe red 2018 Terra de Cuques is a 50/50 blend of Garnacha and Cariñena from different vineyards around the village of Torroja (there are some grapes from Poboleda, a cooler village) that fermented equal parts in stainless steel and concrete; it matured in concrete and foudres but with the intention to abandon the aging in oak in the near future. It has lots of notes of licorice and Mediterranean herbs, intermixed with ripe berries and very little impact from the oak. The palate is round and reveals abundant grainy tannins. This is a powerful Terra de Cuques. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

93+ Points! The very recently bottled 2021 Terra de Cuques Blanc was produced with 90% Pedro Ximénez and 10% Muscat with a moderate 13% alcohol, the minimum required by the appellation. It's serious, with good freshness, a little reductive at first but then more expressive with abundant notes of pollen and a honeyed touch, with a little skin contact that gives it character and some notes of quince and fine tannins. There's finesse and elegance and it's very clean. They have food in mind when they do the wines, so there is a constant search for freshness. There is a good demand for whites, and they sell everything, but the planting of white vineyards is limited. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

94 Points! Subtle green spice and cement to the squeezed lemon and grapefruit, with a hint of nori-like umami. Dry, creamy and sleek, with medium to full body and lovely texture to the neutral fruit, though not lacking in substance. Very contained. Drink now or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

92+ Points! The 2019 Terroir Históric is charming, approachable, round, open and expressive, with good ripeness and 14% alcohol, a juicy palate with a soft mouthfeel and round tannins. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

94 Points! The white 2021 Trenzado comes from eight different vineyards in the Orotava Valley, mostly from the village of Los Realejos where the basalt soils are quite shallow. It fermented in oak foudres of different sizes and 500-liter oak barrels, where it matured for 11 months. It has 12.9% alcohol with a low pH (3.04) and high acidity (6.35 grams) for the variety. The wine has settled in bottle, where it seems to gain weight. The year was a little cooler, and the wine is fresher. It has notes of toasted sesame seeds. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

94+ Points! The 2021 Anza wants to show the typicity of Laguardia and Elvillar with freshness, precision and no makeup. It's a blend of grapes—Tempranillo, Garnacha, Graciano, Malvasía, Calagraño, Viura and Moscatel—from different vineyards that were fermented by plot with some full clusters and a significant amount of white grapes. It matured in 500-liter barrels and oak vats of different sizes. It has 13.5% alcohol and a little more depth and clout compared with the 2022, and it's fine-boned and has very elegant tannins. Precision, my friends. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

92 Points! The 2021 O Estranxeiro is a Mencía from the village of A Cova, different plots fermented in concrete, chestnut and oak and matured in those components for seven months. It has a medium-bodied palate and a moderate 12.5% alcohol and mellow acidity. It has a soft texture and a juicy mouthfeel, with clean and precise flavors, not terribly complex but very pleasant. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

92 Points! The 2019 Tinta De Toro Triton is another great value. Coming from six vineyard sites located in Toro and Morales de Toro, all planted between 1900 and 1958, it offers a rich, powerful, structured style in its smoked black fruits (there are some red fruits as well) to go with notes of sandalwood, cedary herbs, graphite, and loamy earth. Medium to full-bodied, its balance is spot on, it has ripe, velvety tannins, and a great finish. It’s going to keep for a decade. - Jeb Dunnuck

92 Points! Roasted thyme and rosemary spice up the black-cherry, plum and blackberry aromas. The tight yet silky tannins seamlessly envelop the generous red and black fruit on the palate, leaving a supple and vivid finish. Tannin quality is the highlight here. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

92+ Points! The 2020 Unculín Blanco is even better than the already impressive 2019. A blend of Godello and Doña Blanca, it is austere and reveals a light to medium-bodied palate with a moderate 12.2% alcohol and a low pH of 3.0 and 7.4 grams of acidity. The vines are in Valtuille on sand, clay and stone soils. After macerating with the skins for 24 hours, the grapes were pressed, and half of the juice was let to settle and the other half fermented with all the solids, the Doña Blanca in an oval oak foudre and the Godello in stainless steel, all with indigenous yeasts. It matured with the lees for five months. It's tasty, serious and dry—a white that can develop in bottle. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

From Finca Aeiroá (1939) – O Barco de Valdeorras – Pure slate soils intermixed with broken quartz, northern orientation – three field blend parcels planted adjacent to each other, primarily Godello with intermixed planting of indigenous red varieties. Northern orientation.

92 Points! A nutty, full-bodied white with notes of salted almonds, baked apples, brown butter, praline and cloves. Buttery and tasty, with bright acidity too. Just the right amount of oak opulence. Drink now. - JamesSuckling.com

92 Points! The new young red 2021 El Predilecto recovers Predilecto, which was a historic brand of the house, a wine with less aging than the rest and more fruity character. In this case, they want it to show the fruit expression of the vineyard without oak. They call it the new old concept in Rioja, what the wines used to be before the arrival of the French, pure fruit. It's a blend of 65% Garnacha from Cárdenas and Cordovín and 35% Tempranillo from Samaniego that fermented destemmed but uncrushed (so not exactly a carbonic maceration) with clean and fresh aromas and flavors. It's ripe and hedonistic, with 14.5% alcohol and good freshness. It matured in concrete for five months. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

94 Points! The 2019 Reserva, sold as Crianza in Spain, comes from a dry and warm year with low yields and concentrated wines. The grapes from the Haro zone, the four from Rioja, Tempranillo, Garnacha Tinta, Mazuelo and Graciano fermented destemmed and lightly crushed in oak vats with indigenous yeasts, and 80% of the volume matured in French oak and the rest in Centro European and American oak, 20% of them new, for 22 months, during which time the wine was racked every eight to nine months. This is serious and young but balanced, nuanced and complex. They are shortening the time in oak, as they feel they have better and younger barrels and think the wines need less time in oak and more time in bottle. This is very Muga, very Rioja and very good. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

92 Points! Quite an understated and traditional bottling of Rioja, showing red and black berries, hints of dried mushroom, peppercorns, dark earth and tobacco on the nose. Chewy and juicy on the medium-bodied palate, showing a fresh array of berries and plums. Drinkable now, but better from 2025. - JamesSuckling.com

94 Points! The 2019 San Vicente was produced with Tempranillo Peludo, a special strain of Tempranillo planted from a massale selection in 1985 in the village of San Vicente de la Sonsierra. Like all their reds (except the carbonic maceration ones), the destemmed grapes fermented in French oak vats, and the wine matured in new oak barrels (90% French, 10% American) for 20 months. This wine is quite regular, and I found similar wines in 2019 and 2018, the two vintages that I tasted together, combining power and elegance and juicy fruit with good ripeness but without excess and good acidity and balance and fine-grained tannins. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

92 Points! Aromas of red berries, earth and undergrowth. It’s medium-bodied with velvety tannins. Harmonious and supple on the mid-palate with a silky and transparent character towards the crunchy and vibrant finish. Drink now. - JamesSuckling.com

91 Points! The 2020 +Altitud is a regional Garnacha from the villages of Navatalgordo, Navalmoral de la Sierra, Navarredondilla, Burgohondo and Villanueva de Ávila. It has 13.62% alcohol and a low pH of 3.32, denoting freshness. It fermented in concrete, oak vat and stainless steel, depending on the paraje, or plot, with around 50% full clusters. Then it matured in concrete and tinaja, except for 20% that aged in used 500-liter French oak barrels, for 14 months. It has a floral and perfumed nose with red berry and herbal aromas, imperceptible oak, a medium-bodied palate and fine-grained tannins with the granularity of the granite. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com