There 22 products in this category
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Gonzalez Byass
This Amontillado Muy Viejo has more than 30 years of ageing in oak barrels giving it an intense concentration and complexity. Dry in taste with hints of cedar, leather, walnuts and a lingering, nutty finish. It is a great partner for roast beef, hearty casseroles, game or mature Cheddar cheese. “Aromatic and intoxicating, offering toasted almonds, caramel, dried figs and coffee bean. Dense and rich yet tight and precise. Extraordinary.” IWC 2019 Gold
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R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia
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R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia
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Luis Canas
Ripe red fruits combine with interwoven oak to give touches of spice, cherries and a hint of licquorice. A beautifully elegant, lasting finish. 12 months in French oak & 6 months in American oak
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R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia
94/100 Luis Guttierez, WineAdvocate "There was a big crop, and it was not easy, but it was possible to make great wines." The 2013 Viña Tondonia Blanco Reserva has nutty aromas, perhaps showing a little more development, but according to Mercedes López de Heredia, "[With] the old vines with the right rootstock, in the right soils, you can have more or less quality, but you're not going to have a disaster." It's a wine that has to have aging potential, and they need to start with good grapes, so they harvested earlier, as their grapes were riper because they had lowered their yields. They took risks, and I think they got it right. The palate has intense and pungent flavors, a velvety mouthfeel and a vibrant core of acidity, with a fine thread and a chalky finish. But it's a slightly weaker year. 14,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in April 2022."
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Proelio
With it's cherry red colour in the glass, you'll get intense black fruit aromas, blackberries and blueberries, and deeper aromas of red fruits, notes of coffee and vanilla peeking through in the back ground. On the palate, it's those black and red fruits, vanilla and mineral chalky notes (from the Tempranillo). A long long finish, slightly dry on the palate. But don't take my word for it ... The Wine Critics say 93 Points Penin Guide - Aromas of ripe fruit, dried herbs, creamy oak, toasty Flavours - powerful, ripe fruit, spicy, round tannins 92 Points James Suckling.com
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Dominio Romano
Produced from 100% Tinto Fino from vines age 30 years, aged 12 months in French Oak with minimal filtration. The result is a wine with a beautiful ruby colour with deep and intense aromas of red and black fruit with hints of liquorice and spice. The palate elegant and fresh with predominant fruit structure balanced by soft tannins and a lovely expressive finish. Dominio Romano was established in 2005 when the Pares Balta family decided to to initiate a project in Ribera del Duero. Selecting the finest old and wild Tinto Fino vines in the best terroirs of the region, and farming with the utmost respect for the environment and tradition, the family produces wines that transmit the character of the autochthonous grape.
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Hacienda Lopez De Haro
95/100 Decanter "Another wonderful example of aged white Rioja with an inherent creaminess, volume and immediate appeal. It has the potential to age further but is absolutely ready to drink now. In a blend of Viura and Malvasía with 10% Garnacha Blanca, the oak - aged for three years in oak barriques sourced from France and Eastern Europe, one third each new, second-use and third-use - supports the wine perfectly with a fresh grainy texture and the lemon backbone is persistent and somewhat refreshing."
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UKAN
UKAN is the new project of the youngest generation of the famous Eguren family. Ukan is a small winery that follows the Bordeaux model and is focused in producing a great wine in very limited quantities. Founded by Koldo Eguren, fifth generation of the family, with the winemaking collaboration of his cousin Eduardo. Together, they seek to reflect the Rioja Alavesa landscape into a unique wine using knowledge acquired from previous generations and adding a younger, more contemporary vision that both have learned in their international experience. The foundation of the project is in the vineyard, where a sustainable and ecological viticulture is practiced. This care for detail is spread into the elaboration process, fully hand-crafted, that takes place in the winery located in Laguardia. UKAN 2020 is the flagship wine, with an excellent second wine called Senderos being the only other wine made. UKAN is a complex, full-bodied, elegant and well-structured wine. Somehow it manages to be very drinkable but has a lot of ageing potential. Deep violet-red to the eye, this wine has a bouquet of blackberry, dark chocolate and caramel. It is luscious on the palate, offering polished tannins wrapped around black cherry, mocha, anisette, violet and butterscotch flavors that wind down to a licorice-infused finish. Highly recommended and freshly arrived in the UK.
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R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia
"The 2001 Viña Tondonia Gran Reserva is the follow-up of the 1995. There is a sense of harmony and elegance, of nuance and subtleness that wasn't quite the same in the Bosconia, as comparing both wines is inevitable. They started picking the red grapes the 15th of October, and the last grapes were picked the 29th of October with good weather. The grapes ripened properly and thoroughly, and the wine has great balance for a long aging in bottle. This is 70% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacho and 5% each Graciano and Mazuelo that fermented in their 153-year-old oak vats with indigenous yeasts and matured in used barrels for 10 years. It has 13% alcohol, a pH of 3.4 and 6.4 grams of acidity (tartaric). The nose shows young (tasting it blind, you'd guess a 10-year old wine, not a 20-year-old wine!). It has a nose of sweet spices, underbrush and cigar ash, somewhat balsamic, bramble fruit with perfect ripeness, integrated and young but starting to show some tertiary complexity. The palate is velvety and medium-bodied, with fine-grained, chalky tannins denoting a limestone soil that brings finesse and texture and a sapid, tasty, almost salty finish. This is going to make a beautiful bottle of old Rioja in 30 years' time! 25,000 bottles produced. " It was bottled after being fined with egg whites in July 2012. Drink 2021-2040. 98/100. Luis Gutierrez, The Wine Advocate – Oct. 2020
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Beronia
Beronia has blended modern and traditional touches to create a fine gran reserva with spice, vanilla, coconut, tobacco and dried berry aromas. Plump black fruits blend with cacao and cedar notes, finishing with layers of smooth spice. Our Gran Reserva is full-bodied with silky tannins and a long, smooth finish.
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R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia
2012 Vintage Report 2012 was rated as a ‘very good’ vintage in Rioja. The year was defined by the lack of rain which was 25% lower than normal for the region with over a third of the rainfall falling after the harvest. High spring and summer temperatures resulted in picking starting early. The rain finally began to fall on 11th October, extending the harvest by an extra week but all grapes were in by 18th October, which is still early for Haro. Given the dry conditions, yields were down as grapes were small. However, they were also very healthy and López de Heredia are very happy with the quality of the vintage, saying that the wines, ‘continue to develop favourably in terms of freshness and fineness’ and that they have a long ageing potential. The 2012 is a blend of 70% Tempranillo and 20% Garnacho with the remaining 10% a mix of Graciano and Mazuelo. The wine was aged in barrel for 6 years, being racked twice per year and fined with fresh egg whites. Overall, the wine has spent 10 years maturing in the perfect, cool conditions of López de Heredia’s incredible underground cellars and was bottled in January 2022. Tasting Notes The nose of the 2012 Tondonia Tinto Reserva is gloriously open, perfumed and fine. Gentle aromas of jamón and cured leather mingle with subtle notes of raspberry tea and a touch of musky, cedar spice. A sweet red cherry compote top note comes through but, above all, this is remarkably scented, floral and mineral-pure Tondonia. The palate is incredibly fresh with well-defined red fruit and a vibrating hint of orange zest at the back. This is a more accessible and less dense style than the previous two vintages but that is more than compensated for by its superb poise and sense of energy. Reminiscent of the lovely 2009 in its charm, the wine dances on the palate towards the focused, pure finish. Delicious. Drink 2024 (decanted) to 2042. Catriona Felstead MW, Senior Buyer BBR “2012 López de Heredia Viña Tondonia Tinto Reserva (13%)
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Proelio
Cherry red colour with a garnet rim, intense aromas of black fruit, blackberries and blueberries, accompanied by deep aromas of fresh red fruit, together with creamy notes of green coffee and a background of vanilla and spices. On the palate it is intense, round. and silky with flavours of ripe red berries of the forest, vanilla and mineral notes of chalk and silky silica sandstone, in the retronasal notes of very ripe red berries appear, with a very long finish, the texture of the calcareous soil is also appreciated and the sand that gives us freshness and persistence in the mouth.
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R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia
A perennial CWM fave – a ready to wear fine wine at a fine price. Smells of leaf tea and autumn forest - what more could you want? Bargain. Some noted reviewers on previous vintages: Jancis Robinson OBE MW "Rich fruit plus development and real drive and tertiary aromas without a trace of new oak or alcohol! Good Value" Parker “More rustic and powerful than Tondonia. Easily Gran Reserva standard. Tertiary and developed, super-classy.” Suckling "rich and silky...plums, cedar and autumn leaves"
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Hacienda Lopez De Haro
97/100 Decanter "Over the past decade, Bodega Hacienda López de Haro has become one of Rioja’s rising stars, a producer capable of making both consistently high-quality, high-volume brands and smaller-scale ‘artisanal’ bottlings such as this Gran Reserva Rosado. It’s a blend of 60% Viura and 40% Garnacha, macerated for 24-48 hours before fermentation in stainless steel. The wine was then matured for four years in French and Eastern European oak barriques, mostly new. It spent a further five years in bottle before release. David Williams: Complex interplay of polished wood, cherry and rosehip, and macadamia nuts, a touch of sweet green olive and fennel, baked strawberry: just fascinating. Very savoury and satisfying, with lovely glide and a silky texture. Matthew Forster MW: Brick red, attenuated colour, firm savoury oak aromas. Concentrated stewed plum fruit, with rose petal and caramel on the finish. Very complete. Diana Rollan: Intense and complex, oxidative style. Notes of dried cranberry, orange zest and sandalwood. Textured, elegant and vibrant, with a subtle saline finish. Superb." Julia Harding on jancisrobinson.com 17.5/20 "Deep coppery pink. Aromas as dramatic as the colour: rich notes of orange-skinned plums and spiced apricots (though no impression of sweetness). A touch of dried grasses. In the mouth, this is fabulous, especially for the price. Mouth-wateringly fresh, layers and layers of flavour and just the right amount of tannic structure (more than I expected, perhaps more from the oak than from the maceration) for the wine to continue to age well, though it is delicious now. Firm, persistent and a style it is hard to find outside Rioja. Great length. A wine to savour at the table. VGV".
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Luis Canas
A beautifully balanced example of white Rioja that straddles the styles of the old and the new. Vibrant citrussy Viura is blended with the more weighty Malvasia and the brief barrel maturation adds a honeyed roundness to the crisp lemony fruit. Beautiful golden yellow colour with bright lemon-tinted reflections. Elegant, combining hints of flowers, fruits and hazelnuts. Dry, with just enough acidity to make it fresh and lively with a structured and tasty finish of ripe fruit.
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Imperial
A precise, layered nose that shows excellent purity despite some sweet oak spices. More berry fruit comes out as you give it some time in the glass. Plums, cherries, red berries with dark mushrooms, cured meat, grilled spices, stones, vanilla and iodine. Juicy, spiced berries quickly tighten up on the medium- to full-bodied palate with dusty, powerful tannins, allowing it to expand into the finish. It grows on the palate and the creaminess is already chiselled. This will age beautifully in the next 10-15 years.
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Contino
Mid-deep ruby. Ripe, red-cherry fruit, with beautifully layered clove and cedar oak spice notes. Lovely integration of oak and fruit. Well crafted, though there’s a good backbone of fine tannins that will carry it through for a decade from now. Such a delicate, nuanced Rioja that's full of red berries, blueberries, grilled pepper, spices and minerals. So transparent and ethereal, with lots of finesse and delicacy. The tannins are fine, with a very silky, elegant center palate. Seamless and long. Drink from 2025.
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R. López de Heredia Viña Tondonia
Clear, bright ruby. Fresh and slight aroma to licorice with consistent texture and persistent aroma. Smooth, fresh and persistent flavours on the palate. Classic and high class Cubillo.
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Equipo Navazos
A fine Manzanilla that's powerfully aromatic. Fresh, with a salty tang, with plenty of acidity together with a very satisfying lemon twist to the finish. A natural Product with plenty of colour, weight and concentration.
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Equipo Navazos
This embodies finesse with its rich, gourmet and wonderfully unique character. The perfect Amontilado from DO Montilla-Moriles, combines elegance with complexity and has a sensory appeal which shows a definite sense of place.
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Cellers Grifoll
Aged 9 months in French oak barrels. Ripe dark fruit, spiced oak, licorice, cloves and wet rock here. Full-bodied with creamy tannins, dense structure and a mellow, sweetish finish. Rich and ripe, yet soft and somewhat easy to drink. 45% garnache noir, 45% carignan and 10% merlot.