Castilla Y Leon
Castilla y León, a prestigious wine region in north-western Spain, is renowned for its exceptional fine wines. With its diverse terroir, ancient vineyards, and rich winemaking traditions, Castilla y León offers a captivating selection of wines that epitomize the region's winemaking excellence.
One of the most famous vineyards in Castilla y León is Bodegas Emilio Moro, a family-owned winery that has become a benchmark for quality wines. Their wines, such as Emilio Moro and Malleolus, are highly regarded for their elegance, depth, and exceptional craftsmanship.
Castilla y León is celebrated for its red wines, with the Ribera del Duero and Toro regions leading the way. Vineyards like Vega Sicilia, Pingus, and Dominio del Águila produce world-class red wines that showcase the region's mastery in crafting bold, complex, and age-worthy wines. These wines express rich flavours of ripe dark fruit, earthy undertones, velvety tannins, and a remarkable sense of place.
The region is also known for its white wines, with the Rueda and Bierzo regions standing out. Vineyards such as Marqués de Riscal, Naia, and Dominio de Tares produce exceptional white wines that exhibit vibrant acidity, citrus flavours, and a refreshing crispness. In Bierzo, red wines made from the Mencía grape variety are also highly acclaimed for their finesse and elegance.
Castilla y León's fine wines beautifully reflect the region's diverse landscapes, from the rolling hills of Ribera del Duero to the rugged terrain of Toro and the green valleys of Rueda and Bierzo. The wines of Castilla y León are a testament to the region's winemaking legacy and unwavering commitment to quality.
Explore the flavours of Castilla y León's fine wines and embark on a remarkable journey of taste and tradition. Whether you're savoring a robust Ribera del Duero red, a crisp Rueda white, or a nuanced Bierzo red, Castilla y León's wines promise an unforgettable experience that captures the essence of this esteemed Spanish wine region.
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Castilla Y Leon
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| Product Name | Region | Qty | Score | Price | |||||
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Castilla y Leon | 3 | 93 (WA) |
Inc. TAX
€289.45 |
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Wine Advocate (93)The 2013 Aalto is a lighter wine, with less color, more freshness as it should be in a cooler vintage. It has a bright color which also denotes high acidity. The year was not easy and they had to work more on the origin of grapes: it has less from La Horra and more from La Aguilera, a cooler village, both in the province of Burgos, because in La Horra they had more frost problems. It's aged in less than 30% new barrels and the oak feels better integrated, definitively less oaky than other vintages. The nose has a combination of red and black fruit, spicy aromas and a sense of freshness, with even some violets. The palate is medium to full-bodied, with very fine tannins, abundant but well padded by juicy fruit, good acidity and freshness. This is a lot more fluid and balanced, with better-integrated oak than in the past. This is a fresher Aalto that should age nicely in bottle. 175,000 bottles were filled in July 2015 after 18 months in barrel. 2013 has delivered the freshest bottles of Aalto so far, a lighter regular Aalto and one of the best PS to date. |
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Castilla y Leon | 1 | 94 (WA) |
Inc. TAX
€122.87 |
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Wine Advocate (94)The 2018 Aalto reflects the cooler conditions of the year, with a more austere profile, subtle aromas and a harmonious palate. This is a classic example of modern, ripe and well-oaked Tempranillo from Ribera del Duero, which this year feels creamy, juicy and balanced. This follows the path of 2017 with integrated oak (they used only around 20% new oak) and a lively palate in a more drinkable and approachable style. They added some new vineyards from the zone of Boada where the soils are red and the wines bring freshness and lots of fruit. The wine had a shorter maceration with the skins and a softer vinification. This is finer and more balanced, with finesse but still very much recognizable as Aalto. 300,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in July 2020. They have a new white first produced in 2019 and a non-vintage red blend to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the winery. They are also going to release small lots of library releases. The 2018s reflect the cooler year and show more integrated oak, following the path of the 2017. |
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Castilla y Leon | 5 | 94 (WA) |
Inc. TAX
€252.30 |
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Wine Advocate (94)The nose of the red 2020 Aalto comes blasting with tons of toasted oak, spice, smoke and more toast, ripe berries and a luxurious creaminess like the finest modern wines from the turn of the century. This is predictable but exactly what their customers are looking for, with ripe berries, generous oak and a velvety palate with volume, soft tannins and mellow acidity. It matured in French and American oak barrels for 18 months. Some things never change. 330,000 bottles. It was bottled in July 2022. |
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Castilla y Leon | 2 | 95 (WA) |
Inc. TAX
€205.67 |
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Wine Advocate (95)The 2018 PS follows the style of previous bottlings of this wine, selecting plots from La Horra, La Aguilera, Baños and Moradillo, looking for a similar profile of soils and the style of the wine. This is an exuberant, ripe and generously oaked Tempranillo that was matured in new oak barrels for 19 months. It's from a generous crop that was harvested between the 24th of September and the 19th of October, a slow and late harvest of fully ripe grapes that developed plenty of aromas and flavors. It was also a cooler year. This is a long-distance runner. Today, the 2018 Aalto is more approachable and shows better balance. 40,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in July 2020. They have a new white first produced in 2019 and a non-vintage red blend to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the winery. They are also going to release small lots of library releases. The 2018s reflect the cooler year and show more integrated oak, following the path of the 2017. |
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Castilla y Leon | 2 | - |
Inc. TAX
€460.15 |
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Unveiling sheer opulence in a glass, the Aalto Ribera del Duero PS 2019 is a fine Spanish offering created under the Aalto winery's esteemed portfolio. Hand-crafted to perfection in Ribera del Duero, Spain's premier wine region, this tantalising Tempranillo illustratively encapsulates the essence of its terroir. Aalto’s laudable commitment to sustained viticulture and manual harvesting techniques sets the stage for the impeccably made Aalto Ribera del Duero PS 2019. The wine boasts masterful maturation in new fine-grain French oak barrels for 22 months, achieving unparalleled structure, depth and complexity. Flirting on the palate with expressive notes of black fruit, mocha, and a subtle hint of tobacco, this stellar wine harbours impressive aging potential. Under the expertise of Mariano García, former Vega Sicilia winemaker, the Aalto Ribera del Duero PS 2019 has swiftly emerged as a significant force on the international wine scene. Its intricate tapestry of flavours promises a transcendent tasting experience for the discerning palate. |
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Castilla y Leon | 1 | 98 (WA) |
Inc. TAX
€732.25 |
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Wine Advocate (98)The scarcest and rarest of the reds is the single-vineyard 2015 Canta la Perdiz, produced with the field-blend grapes of one of the oldest vineyards in the village of La Aguilera, a plot at 890 meters in altitude that has sandy and limestone-rich soils that give the wine a specific texture reminiscent of chalk. It's planted with a field blend dominated by Tempranillo but with small percentages of many other grapes, and the aim is to be able to ferment them all together. The ripeness of 2015 allowed for all the different varieties to achieve good ripeness, and they were all included in the wine, which fermented with full clusters and indigenous yeasts. It was foot trodden, and the malolactic and slow and long aging was in French oak barrels and lasted 31 months. It's a wine of perfume and finesse, gentle and tender, attractive and showy, developing nice complexity in the glass, with a more Mediterranean profile, some fennel and aromatic herbs. It has a velvety texture with very fine tannins. It also has very good freshness and balance, and it finishes long and dry. 1,220 bottles and 24 magnums were filled in May 2018. |
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Castilla y Leon | 1 | 99 (WA) |
Inc. TAX
€689.00 |
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Wine Advocate (99)Their Gran Reserva is released a good six or seven years after the harvest, and they consider the 2013 Peñas Aladas Gran Reserva still too young. It comes from small plots of some of the oldest vineyards in the village of La Aguilera, in the zone known as Peñas Aladas in a cooler place at 870 to 890 meters in altitude. The topsoils are sandy, and then there is clay and a limestone-and-marl mother rock that they consider perfect. The dominant grape is Tempranillo, but in these old plots, there is always a mix of varieties—Albillo, Bruñal, Garnacha, Bobal, Cariñena—and the aim is to ferment them all together (ripeness permitting). This fermented with full clusters that were foot trodden, and malolactic was in barrel and extremely slow (19 months). It matured in barrel for five years. It is an incredibly backward wine, young and undeveloped, with tons of gunpowder, earthy and mineral, diesel-like, complex and with a magnetic attraction that makes you go back over and over again. It has pungent and pristine flavors, with amazing precision and symmetry, like laser cut, long, with very fine tannins and a supple, almost salty finish. This wine should age forever in bottle. This wine is just magic. 1,671 bottles and 69 magnums were filled in September 2018. The initial 2010 is now glorious, but I agree, still young... |
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Castilla y Leon | 18 | 97 (WA) |
Inc. TAX
€169.48 |
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Wine Advocate (97)Quite different from the 2015 was the 2016 Reserva, a red from a cooler year with good yields, so they were able to increase production of this wine over twofold and increase the quality! It took some seven months to complete fermentation, and the élevage in barrel lasted some 29 months. It has an incredible nose, violets and something musky, intriguing, complex and nuanced, mysterious and difficult to define, with some notes reminiscent of soy sauce. The palate is seamless and with terrific balance, a silky texture and very fine but chalky tannins. This is an amazing Ribera del Duero. 18,834 bottles and 519 magnums produced. It was bottled in April 2019. |
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Castilla y Leon | 2 | 97 (WA) |
Inc. TAX
€221.05 |
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Wine Advocate (97)2017 was a low-yielding year, so I also tasted the 2018 Reserva, their flagship red wine that wants to be a representation of the village of La Aguilera—fine, serious and elegant. It's 95% Tempranillo with the remaining grapes found interplanted in their oldest vineyards at an average of 880 meters in altitude on limestone, clay and sandy soils. All the clusters ferment together with indigenous yeasts in concrete, where they are foot trodden, and malolactic was carried out very slowly (11 months) in oak barrels where the wine matured for a total of 27 months. It has a somewhat shy nose but is very elegant. The wine was recently bottled, and that can make it a little closed and subtle, and it clearly improves with air as it sits in the glass. It's still young, and the palate reveals lots of energy; the flavors are very pure and the wine precise and delineated. The tannins are very fine and provide for a chalky texture and an almost salty twist in the finish. This is very in line with the 2016. 15,250 bottle and 101 magnums produced. It was bottled in February 2021. |
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Castilla y Leon | 20 | 92 (VN) |
Inc. TAX
€224.87 |
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Vinous (92)Inky ruby. Powerfully scented nose offers an alluring bouquet of cherry-vanilla, blackcurrant, cola, graphite and Asian spices. Plush and creamy, with deep red and dark berry liqueur flavors and slow-mounting tannins. Picks up smoky minerals and candied rose on the finish, which delivers a whiplash of sweet dark berry fruit. Extremely sexy wine that is built to age but is compelling even now. |
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Castilla y Leon | 1 | 96 (WA) |
Inc. TAX
€1,789.45 |
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Wine Advocate (96)I tasted the 2013 Pingus one week before the wine was to be bottled, but one never knows. I tasted the 2012 under the same circumstances last year, and after my tasting, Peter Sisseck decided the wine needed some more time, so the élevage was extended and the bottling delayed. I was told this should be very close to the bottled version. The nose is aromatic, expressive and open, quite perfumed and subtle, with no traces of oak (the wine now ages in used barriques); even the spices are very much in the background. The Pingus vineyards behaved quite well in a difficult vintage, as great vineyards are a lot more homogeneous, so the vines are very balanced: the two vineyards used for Pingus, San Cristobal and Barroso, were planted in 1929 with two different massale selections. The palate is also approachable and gentle, with very good acidity and very fine tannins, elegance and character. I think there will be very few (or none!) wines in Ribera in 2013 like this Pingus. Well done! Three weeks later, I received an email letting me know that the wine had been bottled, so I proceeded to taste the bottle version, which showed what the sample promised. 2013 will be a vintage, that in Ribera del Duero, will show the differences of the work in the vineyards and what they do at Pingus clearly paid off. Even after the recent operation, the wine is harmonious and feels very balanced; there is no dizziness and it keeps the poise. A real triumph for the vintage. 6,600 bottles were filled at the end of July 2015. |
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Castilla y Leon | 1 | 100 (WA) |
Inc. TAX
€2,821.45 |
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Wine Advocate (100)I was really looking forward to the bottled version of the 2018 Pingus after a great showing of the cask sample last year. Part of the wine matured in 20,000-liter oak casks, so it's not all barrique. This is the first time they used the vats, and based on the results, Sisseck thinks in the future Pingus will be around 50% in oak vats. The Pingus vines were planted in 1929 in two different sectors of the village of La Horra, Barroso and San Cristobal and contain some 2% other varieties. The vineyards are certified organic and biodynamic and are manicured like few vineyards in Spain. The wine is subtle and harmonious, elegant and insinuating, with all the components in very good balance. This is precise and pure; Sisseck is thorough and meticulous, and the wine shows that precision. This follows the line of the 2016, showing very well even if it was bottled only one month before I tasted it. 9,300 bottles were filled in August 2020. |
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Castilla y Leon | 1 | - |
Inc. TAX
€2,461.45 |
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Castilla y Leon | 1 | 92 (WA) |
Inc. TAX
€2,354.95 |
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Wine Advocate (92)There was no Unico released in 1977 or 1978 so this must have come as a blessing at the time. The 1979 Unico has a generous bouquet that is not quite as complex as other vintages, with notes of mint, sandalwood, dried blood and redcurrant. The palate is medium-bodied, a little more rustic with tart red fruit, racy acidity with raspberry coulis, strawberry and a healthy sprinkling of white pepper towards the finish. It is a little compact at the moment but it has a fine effervescent, ferrous aftertaste that has more breadth and length than the 1976. 42,100 bottles produced. Drink now-2025. |
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Castilla y Leon | 1 | 93 (WA) |
Inc. TAX
€2,523.01 |
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Wine Advocate (93)Spain's most consistently great winery continues to turn out exciting wines. There are four Unico Reservas currently in the market. The 1985 Unico Reserva is already revealing considerable complexity and low acid, plump, round, rich flavors. There is no amber to be found in the wine's deep ruby/purple color. The nose offers tobacco, smoke, tar, and gobs of sweet black cherry fruit aromas. Full-bodied, with a layered, nuanced character, high glycerin (hence the sweetness in the flavors), and a lush, round, generously-endowed finish, this is a substantial as well as elegant, savory style of Unico Reserva that can be drunk now and over the next 15+ years. Importer: A Christopher Cannan Selection, Europvin USA, Watertown, MA; tel. (617) 924-7620 |
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Castilla y Leon | 1 | 98 (VN) |
Inc. TAX
€969.85 |
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Vinous (98)Inky ruby. An assertively perfumed, highly complex bouquet displays powerful, mineral-accented dark berry preserve, exotic spice, vanilla, potpourri and incense aromas, along with suggestions of cola and mocha. Broad, focused and deeply concentrated, offering palate-staining black and blue fruit liqueur, violet pastille and spicecake flavors that show remarkable clarity and are given spine and lift by a core of juicy acidity. The spice, mineral and floral notes resonate emphatically on the strikingly long, sweet finish, which features harmonious tannins and building, resonating dark berry character. |
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Castilla y Leon | 7 | 96 (WA) |
Inc. TAX
€563.05 |
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Wine Advocate (96)2017 was marked by the frost of the night between April 27 and 28 that Vega Sicilia fought with their anti-frost towers. The end of the season was warm, and the overall rain was low, 235 liters. The 2017 Valbuena is marked by these circumstances, produced with 94% Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) and 6% Merlot, with good ripeness (14.5% alcohol) and mellow acidity (4.65 grams of tartaric acid and a pH of 3.85). The grapes were cooled down and took three to four days of maceration to start fermenting with indigenous yeasts. The wine matured in a combination of new and used French and American 225-liter oak barrels and 21,000-liter oak vats for almost three years. The result, for whatever reason, was nothing short of spectacular. The wine is perfumed, floral, expressive and balsamic like few vintages before. It doesn't feel like a 2017 at all; it is harmonious, and the tannins were fine. It's an amazing Valbuena that clearly transcends the character of the vintage. What I see here is that since 2010, the wine has a very high consistency. And in 2017 it excels. 170,071 bottles, 5,516 magnums and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in June 2020. |
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| Product Name | Region | Qty | Score | Price | |||||
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Castilla y Leon | 3 | 93 (WA) |
In Bond
€235.00 |
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Wine Advocate (93)The 2013 Aalto is a lighter wine, with less color, more freshness as it should be in a cooler vintage. It has a bright color which also denotes high acidity. The year was not easy and they had to work more on the origin of grapes: it has less from La Horra and more from La Aguilera, a cooler village, both in the province of Burgos, because in La Horra they had more frost problems. It's aged in less than 30% new barrels and the oak feels better integrated, definitively less oaky than other vintages. The nose has a combination of red and black fruit, spicy aromas and a sense of freshness, with even some violets. The palate is medium to full-bodied, with very fine tannins, abundant but well padded by juicy fruit, good acidity and freshness. This is a lot more fluid and balanced, with better-integrated oak than in the past. This is a fresher Aalto that should age nicely in bottle. 175,000 bottles were filled in July 2015 after 18 months in barrel. 2013 has delivered the freshest bottles of Aalto so far, a lighter regular Aalto and one of the best PS to date. |
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Castilla y Leon | 1 | 94 (WA) |
In Bond
€95.00 |
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Wine Advocate (94)The 2018 Aalto reflects the cooler conditions of the year, with a more austere profile, subtle aromas and a harmonious palate. This is a classic example of modern, ripe and well-oaked Tempranillo from Ribera del Duero, which this year feels creamy, juicy and balanced. This follows the path of 2017 with integrated oak (they used only around 20% new oak) and a lively palate in a more drinkable and approachable style. They added some new vineyards from the zone of Boada where the soils are red and the wines bring freshness and lots of fruit. The wine had a shorter maceration with the skins and a softer vinification. This is finer and more balanced, with finesse but still very much recognizable as Aalto. 300,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in July 2020. They have a new white first produced in 2019 and a non-vintage red blend to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the winery. They are also going to release small lots of library releases. The 2018s reflect the cooler year and show more integrated oak, following the path of the 2017. |
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Castilla y Leon | 5 | 94 (WA) |
In Bond
€204.00 |
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Wine Advocate (94)The nose of the red 2020 Aalto comes blasting with tons of toasted oak, spice, smoke and more toast, ripe berries and a luxurious creaminess like the finest modern wines from the turn of the century. This is predictable but exactly what their customers are looking for, with ripe berries, generous oak and a velvety palate with volume, soft tannins and mellow acidity. It matured in French and American oak barrels for 18 months. Some things never change. 330,000 bottles. It was bottled in July 2022. |
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Castilla y Leon | 2 | 95 (WA) |
In Bond
€164.00 |
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Wine Advocate (95)The 2018 PS follows the style of previous bottlings of this wine, selecting plots from La Horra, La Aguilera, Baños and Moradillo, looking for a similar profile of soils and the style of the wine. This is an exuberant, ripe and generously oaked Tempranillo that was matured in new oak barrels for 19 months. It's from a generous crop that was harvested between the 24th of September and the 19th of October, a slow and late harvest of fully ripe grapes that developed plenty of aromas and flavors. It was also a cooler year. This is a long-distance runner. Today, the 2018 Aalto is more approachable and shows better balance. 40,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in July 2020. They have a new white first produced in 2019 and a non-vintage red blend to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the winery. They are also going to release small lots of library releases. The 2018s reflect the cooler year and show more integrated oak, following the path of the 2017. |
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Castilla y Leon | 2 | - |
In Bond
€376.00 |
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Unveiling sheer opulence in a glass, the Aalto Ribera del Duero PS 2019 is a fine Spanish offering created under the Aalto winery's esteemed portfolio. Hand-crafted to perfection in Ribera del Duero, Spain's premier wine region, this tantalising Tempranillo illustratively encapsulates the essence of its terroir. Aalto’s laudable commitment to sustained viticulture and manual harvesting techniques sets the stage for the impeccably made Aalto Ribera del Duero PS 2019. The wine boasts masterful maturation in new fine-grain French oak barrels for 22 months, achieving unparalleled structure, depth and complexity. Flirting on the palate with expressive notes of black fruit, mocha, and a subtle hint of tobacco, this stellar wine harbours impressive aging potential. Under the expertise of Mariano García, former Vega Sicilia winemaker, the Aalto Ribera del Duero PS 2019 has swiftly emerged as a significant force on the international wine scene. Its intricate tapestry of flavours promises a transcendent tasting experience for the discerning palate. |
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Castilla y Leon | 1 | 98 (WA) |
In Bond
€604.00 |
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Wine Advocate (98)The scarcest and rarest of the reds is the single-vineyard 2015 Canta la Perdiz, produced with the field-blend grapes of one of the oldest vineyards in the village of La Aguilera, a plot at 890 meters in altitude that has sandy and limestone-rich soils that give the wine a specific texture reminiscent of chalk. It's planted with a field blend dominated by Tempranillo but with small percentages of many other grapes, and the aim is to be able to ferment them all together. The ripeness of 2015 allowed for all the different varieties to achieve good ripeness, and they were all included in the wine, which fermented with full clusters and indigenous yeasts. It was foot trodden, and the malolactic and slow and long aging was in French oak barrels and lasted 31 months. It's a wine of perfume and finesse, gentle and tender, attractive and showy, developing nice complexity in the glass, with a more Mediterranean profile, some fennel and aromatic herbs. It has a velvety texture with very fine tannins. It also has very good freshness and balance, and it finishes long and dry. 1,220 bottles and 24 magnums were filled in May 2018. |
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Castilla y Leon | 1 | 99 (WA) |
In Bond
€568.00 |
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Wine Advocate (99)Their Gran Reserva is released a good six or seven years after the harvest, and they consider the 2013 Peñas Aladas Gran Reserva still too young. It comes from small plots of some of the oldest vineyards in the village of La Aguilera, in the zone known as Peñas Aladas in a cooler place at 870 to 890 meters in altitude. The topsoils are sandy, and then there is clay and a limestone-and-marl mother rock that they consider perfect. The dominant grape is Tempranillo, but in these old plots, there is always a mix of varieties—Albillo, Bruñal, Garnacha, Bobal, Cariñena—and the aim is to ferment them all together (ripeness permitting). This fermented with full clusters that were foot trodden, and malolactic was in barrel and extremely slow (19 months). It matured in barrel for five years. It is an incredibly backward wine, young and undeveloped, with tons of gunpowder, earthy and mineral, diesel-like, complex and with a magnetic attraction that makes you go back over and over again. It has pungent and pristine flavors, with amazing precision and symmetry, like laser cut, long, with very fine tannins and a supple, almost salty finish. This wine should age forever in bottle. This wine is just magic. 1,671 bottles and 69 magnums were filled in September 2018. The initial 2010 is now glorious, but I agree, still young... |
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Castilla y Leon | 18 | 97 (WA) |
In Bond
€135.00 |
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Wine Advocate (97)Quite different from the 2015 was the 2016 Reserva, a red from a cooler year with good yields, so they were able to increase production of this wine over twofold and increase the quality! It took some seven months to complete fermentation, and the élevage in barrel lasted some 29 months. It has an incredible nose, violets and something musky, intriguing, complex and nuanced, mysterious and difficult to define, with some notes reminiscent of soy sauce. The palate is seamless and with terrific balance, a silky texture and very fine but chalky tannins. This is an amazing Ribera del Duero. 18,834 bottles and 519 magnums produced. It was bottled in April 2019. |
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Castilla y Leon | 2 | 97 (WA) |
In Bond
€178.00 |
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Wine Advocate (97)2017 was a low-yielding year, so I also tasted the 2018 Reserva, their flagship red wine that wants to be a representation of the village of La Aguilera—fine, serious and elegant. It's 95% Tempranillo with the remaining grapes found interplanted in their oldest vineyards at an average of 880 meters in altitude on limestone, clay and sandy soils. All the clusters ferment together with indigenous yeasts in concrete, where they are foot trodden, and malolactic was carried out very slowly (11 months) in oak barrels where the wine matured for a total of 27 months. It has a somewhat shy nose but is very elegant. The wine was recently bottled, and that can make it a little closed and subtle, and it clearly improves with air as it sits in the glass. It's still young, and the palate reveals lots of energy; the flavors are very pure and the wine precise and delineated. The tannins are very fine and provide for a chalky texture and an almost salty twist in the finish. This is very in line with the 2016. 15,250 bottle and 101 magnums produced. It was bottled in February 2021. |
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Castilla y Leon | 20 | 92 (VN) |
In Bond
€180.00 |
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Vinous (92)Inky ruby. Powerfully scented nose offers an alluring bouquet of cherry-vanilla, blackcurrant, cola, graphite and Asian spices. Plush and creamy, with deep red and dark berry liqueur flavors and slow-mounting tannins. Picks up smoky minerals and candied rose on the finish, which delivers a whiplash of sweet dark berry fruit. Extremely sexy wine that is built to age but is compelling even now. |
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Castilla y Leon | 1 | 96 (WA) |
In Bond
€1,485.00 |
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Wine Advocate (96)I tasted the 2013 Pingus one week before the wine was to be bottled, but one never knows. I tasted the 2012 under the same circumstances last year, and after my tasting, Peter Sisseck decided the wine needed some more time, so the élevage was extended and the bottling delayed. I was told this should be very close to the bottled version. The nose is aromatic, expressive and open, quite perfumed and subtle, with no traces of oak (the wine now ages in used barriques); even the spices are very much in the background. The Pingus vineyards behaved quite well in a difficult vintage, as great vineyards are a lot more homogeneous, so the vines are very balanced: the two vineyards used for Pingus, San Cristobal and Barroso, were planted in 1929 with two different massale selections. The palate is also approachable and gentle, with very good acidity and very fine tannins, elegance and character. I think there will be very few (or none!) wines in Ribera in 2013 like this Pingus. Well done! Three weeks later, I received an email letting me know that the wine had been bottled, so I proceeded to taste the bottle version, which showed what the sample promised. 2013 will be a vintage, that in Ribera del Duero, will show the differences of the work in the vineyards and what they do at Pingus clearly paid off. Even after the recent operation, the wine is harmonious and feels very balanced; there is no dizziness and it keeps the poise. A real triumph for the vintage. 6,600 bottles were filled at the end of July 2015. |
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Castilla y Leon | 1 | 100 (WA) |
In Bond
€2,345.00 |
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Wine Advocate (100)I was really looking forward to the bottled version of the 2018 Pingus after a great showing of the cask sample last year. Part of the wine matured in 20,000-liter oak casks, so it's not all barrique. This is the first time they used the vats, and based on the results, Sisseck thinks in the future Pingus will be around 50% in oak vats. The Pingus vines were planted in 1929 in two different sectors of the village of La Horra, Barroso and San Cristobal and contain some 2% other varieties. The vineyards are certified organic and biodynamic and are manicured like few vineyards in Spain. The wine is subtle and harmonious, elegant and insinuating, with all the components in very good balance. This is precise and pure; Sisseck is thorough and meticulous, and the wine shows that precision. This follows the line of the 2016, showing very well even if it was bottled only one month before I tasted it. 9,300 bottles were filled in August 2020. |
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Castilla y Leon | 1 | - |
In Bond
€2,045.00 |
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Castilla y Leon | 1 | 92 (WA) |
In Bond
€1,955.00 |
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Wine Advocate (92)There was no Unico released in 1977 or 1978 so this must have come as a blessing at the time. The 1979 Unico has a generous bouquet that is not quite as complex as other vintages, with notes of mint, sandalwood, dried blood and redcurrant. The palate is medium-bodied, a little more rustic with tart red fruit, racy acidity with raspberry coulis, strawberry and a healthy sprinkling of white pepper towards the finish. It is a little compact at the moment but it has a fine effervescent, ferrous aftertaste that has more breadth and length than the 1976. 42,100 bottles produced. Drink now-2025. |
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Castilla y Leon | 1 | 93 (WA) |
In Bond
€2,095.00 |
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Wine Advocate (93)Spain's most consistently great winery continues to turn out exciting wines. There are four Unico Reservas currently in the market. The 1985 Unico Reserva is already revealing considerable complexity and low acid, plump, round, rich flavors. There is no amber to be found in the wine's deep ruby/purple color. The nose offers tobacco, smoke, tar, and gobs of sweet black cherry fruit aromas. Full-bodied, with a layered, nuanced character, high glycerin (hence the sweetness in the flavors), and a lush, round, generously-endowed finish, this is a substantial as well as elegant, savory style of Unico Reserva that can be drunk now and over the next 15+ years. Importer: A Christopher Cannan Selection, Europvin USA, Watertown, MA; tel. (617) 924-7620 |
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Castilla y Leon | 1 | 98 (VN) |
In Bond
€802.00 |
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Vinous (98)Inky ruby. An assertively perfumed, highly complex bouquet displays powerful, mineral-accented dark berry preserve, exotic spice, vanilla, potpourri and incense aromas, along with suggestions of cola and mocha. Broad, focused and deeply concentrated, offering palate-staining black and blue fruit liqueur, violet pastille and spicecake flavors that show remarkable clarity and are given spine and lift by a core of juicy acidity. The spice, mineral and floral notes resonate emphatically on the strikingly long, sweet finish, which features harmonious tannins and building, resonating dark berry character. |
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Castilla y Leon | 7 | 96 (WA) |
In Bond
€463.00 |
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Wine Advocate (96)2017 was marked by the frost of the night between April 27 and 28 that Vega Sicilia fought with their anti-frost towers. The end of the season was warm, and the overall rain was low, 235 liters. The 2017 Valbuena is marked by these circumstances, produced with 94% Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) and 6% Merlot, with good ripeness (14.5% alcohol) and mellow acidity (4.65 grams of tartaric acid and a pH of 3.85). The grapes were cooled down and took three to four days of maceration to start fermenting with indigenous yeasts. The wine matured in a combination of new and used French and American 225-liter oak barrels and 21,000-liter oak vats for almost three years. The result, for whatever reason, was nothing short of spectacular. The wine is perfumed, floral, expressive and balsamic like few vintages before. It doesn't feel like a 2017 at all; it is harmonious, and the tannins were fine. It's an amazing Valbuena that clearly transcends the character of the vintage. What I see here is that since 2010, the wine has a very high consistency. And in 2017 it excels. 170,071 bottles, 5,516 magnums and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in June 2020. |
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