2019 Yjar (Rioja)
$139.89 (750ml) Pre-Arrival- Buy Now
100 JA / 99 JS / 98 DE / 97 WA / 96 WI
I tasted this at the property from barrel, thrilled to follow it now in bottle. Grabs you from the first moments with its sage, thyme, dried flowers and incense aromatics, clings to your nostrils, drawing you in, so much depth of flavor to the vivid raspberry and sour cherry fruits, delicate and yet powerful. Hard to describe how little artifice is conveyed in the glass, it's not a wine that is coated in new oak, instead it is delicate, poised, crafted, utterly gorgeous, so moreish. Harvest October 6 to 18, 3.8ha, old gobelet vines, with any replacements coming from massal selction. Iconic winemaking partnership Telmo Rodriguez and Pablo Eguzkiza. I hope everyone followed my advice from the first vintage to get on board because it is more than living up to its potential, and its tiny quantities means that first come are almost certainly first served. - Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux
2020 Telmo Rodriguez Matallana
(Ribera del Duero)
$59.58 (750ml) Pre-Arrival- Buy Now
96 WA / 96 JA / 95 DE
First time on the Place, from Vinedos de Matallana, care of the iconic winemaking partnership between Telmo Rodriguez and Pablo Eguzkiza, produced with fruit from plots across Burgos. The pair's signature mix of intensity and concentration playing against delicacy and reserved power is fully on display, a combination that should be impossible to achieve in the heat of Ribera del Duero. It's earthy, in the sense that it feels hewn from rocks that give a feeling of slate, granite, steely tannic hold, fine but intense, all of which melts into fragrant gun smoke, oyster shell, lemon rind, raspberry, pomegranate and red cherry fruits. The flavors are toasted and yet cooling, a wine of contrasts and texture, and utterly compelling. Powerful yet the barest lightness of being. Begs you to find out more. Lucky us that these wines are going through the Place, bringing them to wider attention. - Jane Anson, Inside Bordeaux
2019 Algeuira Dolio (Ribeira Sacra)
$68.89 (750ml) Pre-Arrival- Buy Now
95 WA / 95 JA
The 2019 Dolio is a cuvée of MencÃa, Brancellao (quite a lot here), Sousón, CaÃño and Garnacha Tintorera created as a blend with the help of Telmo RodrÃguez and Pablo Eguzkiza in this first vintage, but they should go much further in future years. They selected north- and west-facing vineyards to achieve more freshness in the wine, trying to reflect the huge potential of Ribeira Sacra. The full clusters were foot trodden and fermented in a troncoconic oak vat with indigenous yeasts and matured in 225-liter barrels and 2,000-liter foudres for 24 months. But the wine has no influence from the wood and is floral and perfumed. It has good grip, fine tannins, moderate ripeness and 14% alcohol, and it's very clean and balanced, with elegance and precision. The best wine from Algueira in recent times. 6,665 bottles were filled in May 2023. - Luis Gutierrez, Wine Advocate
2022 De la Riva Macharnudo San Cayetano Vino de Pasto
(Jerez)
$68.89 (750ml) Pre-Arrival- Buy Now
98 DE / 98 JA / 96 WA
A new-wave Sherry by winemakers Ramiro Ibáñez and Willy Perez makes its debut on the Place de Bordeaux this September. 100% Palomino Fino grapes come from the 3.35-hectare San Cayetano vineyard in Macharnudo, planted in 1988. Beautifully fragranced nose, really perfumed and floral, scented with wildflowers. The wine sees one year of flor ageing but it's distinctly dry and round on the palate. There's a thickness to the texture, like thick honey but with salted, softly spiced edges and a core of bright lemon, peach and pear that gives tang, energy and excitement to the expression. Poised and refined, this has a lovely ease about it, beautifully textured and fully flavored with mouthwatering acidity and bursts of bright citrus zest that counter the saltiness - close your eyes and you could be by the beach! Interesting and captivating, long and lingering, crying out to be eaten with nuts. lovely sea salt spray, close your eyes and you're at the beach! limestone. Small production of only 6,000 bottles. - Georgina Hindle, Decanter
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