Celebrate International

Tempranillo Day, November 10th!

 

Up to 98 points for these Spanish Beauties

In stock and ready for your cellar!

 

It is thought that the grape that is now called Tempranillo, from the diminutive of the word Temprano, which means “early” (as in early ripening), was brought to the Iberian Peninsula over 2,000 years ago by the Phoenicians. It is now the signature grape of Rioja and the Ribero del Duero, and goes by many names (Tinto Fino, Tinto de Toro, Cencibel, and Tinta del Pais in Spain, Aragonez or Tinta Roriz in Portugal). It handles the warmer climate of the Iberian peninsula, ,as well as the higher elevations of many of the main growing regions.

 

So to celebrate International Tempranillo Day November 10th, I thought I’d point out a few of the tasty wines we have that are all Tempranillo, or Tempranillo-driven, and are in stock.  Tempranillo is often aged longer before release, which is why we have a few older vintages available. ¡Disfruta de un buen vino! ( #TempranilloDay / #InternationalTempranilloDay ) 

 

 

2010 Lopez de Heredia Vina Bosconia Reserva

$39.89 (750ml) In Stock- Buy Now

 

95 JS / 94 WA

Dried flowers and dark fruit on the nose with some mahogany and bark. Medium-bodied with fine tannins and lovely polish and length. Compact and long. Tangy, too. Special wine, showing its age and tradition. Decant an hour before serving. Drink or hold.-James Suckling

 

The fresh and balanced 2010 Viña Bosconia Reserva is a textbook example of the wine, perhaps the successor of the great 2006, a powerful blend of 80% Tempranillo, 15% Garnacha and 5% between Graciano and Mazuelo. It matured in used American oak barrels for five years and is clean and complex with a nutty and mushroomy nose, polished tannins and good acidity.-Luis Gutierrez, Wine Advocate

 

 

2019 Pingus Flor de Pingus

$99.89 (750ml) In Stock- Buy Now

 

97 JS / 94 WA

Blackberries, black cherries and hot crushed stones with cement and black licorice. Subtle yet complex aromas. Medium to full body and an exquisite texture, with intense tannins and a long, flavorful finish. The verve and mouth-feel is luxurious and captivating. This is very structured. Try after 2024.--James Suckling

 

The 2019 Flor de Pingus is marginally riper than the PSI and Pingus from the same vintage but still shows the freshness and finesse the cask sample showed a little over one year ago. The wine has more concentration than the 2018, and it has absorbed the oak quite well. They use maybe 20% new barrels for the élevage here. It has abundant, fine-grained tannins. It's a powerful vintage of flor, reflecting the solar vintage, but still keeping the poise, harvesting early and fermenting at low temperature.-- Luis Gutiérrez, The Wine Advocate

 

 

2019 Sierra Cantabria El Bosque Rioja

$144.79 (750ml) In Stock- Buy Now

 

98 JD / 97+ WA / 95 JS

The 2019 Finca el Bosque is another single vineyard and comes from a site on a deep, gravelly escarpment overlooking the Ebro River. It offers more ripe blue fruits and cassis as well as sappy herbs, flowers, violets, graphite, and chalky minerality. It shows a more elegant, flawlessly balanced, incredibly pure style on the palate, with ultra-fine tannins, wonderful overall balance, and no hard edges. This is pure class. Give bottles 3-4 years in the cellar and enjoy over the following two decades of more.

 

I was truly impressed by the elegance, finesse and balance of the 2019 El Bosque, which shows very integrated oak and velvety tannins. It comes from deep gravel soils that produce powerful wines, but somehow this 2019 is very elegant, and it's already approachable. For Marcos Eguren, this shows what El Bosque is. This matured in new oak barrels, 95% of them French and the rest from central Europe. -Luiz Gutierrez, The Wine Advocate

 

 

 

2014 Vega Sicilia Valbuena 5°

$187.89 (750ml) In Stock- Buy Now

 

96 WA/ 96 VM

The 2014 Valbuena, mostly Tempranillo with some 5% Merlot fermented by plot, making a selection from their 210 hectares of vineyards, and then matured in a combination of barriques and larger 20,000-liter oak vats. 2014 is a spectacular vintage of Valbuena, and it reminds me of the 2010, perhaps a tad more elegant and less powerful. It's expressive and has floral notes on the nose along with wild berries, herbs and a spicy and smoky touch that's nicely integrated. It has good complexity and nuance, and the palate is medium to full-bodied and intense, with pungent flavors and great length and persistence. Truly spectacular!.- Luis Gutierrez- Wine Advocate

 

Vivid ruby. A highly perfumed, complex bouquet displays smoke-accented cherry and black currant liqueur, vanilla, pipe tobacco and incense qualities, along with exotic spice and mineral overtones Sweet and deeply concentrated, offering expansive dark fruit, floral pastille, chewing tobacco and spicecake flavors that become livelier and pick up a hint of cola with aeration. Seamless, focused and lively for its lushness, finishing very long and sweet, with building florality and fine-grained tannins lending gentle grip.- Josh Raynolds, Vinous Media

 

Check out all of our wines from Spain