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94 points Wine Advocate
Barbadillo is somehow a specialist in Palo Cortado, and they now offer a younger, gentler and more straightforward NV Palo Cortado Criadera Selection from the stock in La Cilla, where they keep their Palo Cortado. It's an elegant oxidative wine, with an average age of 14 years, with a peachy nose, gentle and tender, but with a more saline and sharper palate with a bitter twist in the finish. It has an Oloroso nose and an Amontillado palate. 906 bottles were filled in March 2024.
100% Palomino o sourced from particularly fine musts and aged primarily oxidatively for a total average of between 10-15 years in old American-oak botas o sourced from criaderas in the Sacristía bodega o bottled en rama (minimal filtration)

Organic / Natural Wine

65% Listan Prieto, with the rest of the wine being a blend Listan Blanco, Vijariego Negro, Verdello, Gual and Albillo Criollo from different vineyards, all vinified separately. The Listan Prieto is fermented whole cluster in open oak barrels, Verdello and Negramoll are direct pressed and fermented in oak barrel, and the Gual and Vijariego Negro are destemmed, fermented on the skins, also in oak. Aged for 8 months in used oak barrels. Unfined, unfiltered. Very light color, floral, with light tannins and texture. 350 bottles made.

92 points Wine Advocate
The regular 2022 Blue Label (there's also a special cuvée in 2022) was still matured in new oak, but they used less toast and barrels from coopers that marked the wine less. It was produced with a blend of 60% Monastrell, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon and 10% Syrah and had an élevage of 18 months. It's aromatic, spicy and toasty, with notes of vanilla and cinnamon, ripe berries and aromatic herbs. It's ripe at 15.5% alcohol, with a pH of 3.71, 5.5 grams of acidity and three grams of residual sugar. It's medium to full-bodied with abundant, fine-grained tannins and some oak-related flavors.

97 points Wine Advocate
It wasproduced with grapes from three vineyards in San Vicente de la Sonsierra at different altitudes and is a blend of Tempranillo with 8% Garnacha with limited yields because of mildew. It matured in new French barriques for 20 months. He wanted a more classical image and perhaps a more classical profile of wine. It's perfumed and floral, with notes of aromatic herbs, a little balsamic and quite showy, with very fine tannins and freshness, as he used more grapes from the higher-altitude zones. It's powerful and elegant, and in a way it reminds me of the style of the initial vintages of La Cueva de Contador; it's clean and elegant. It's 14.5% alcohol with a pH of 3.55. It's very young but still drinkable, as the quality of the tannins is very good. I think this is the one wine I'd buy from their portfolio if I could only buy one. It transported me to the wines from the early 2000s. 10,000 bottles produced

Organic

Spontaneous fermentation in stainless tanks with native yeasts. Aged in stainless tanks for a few short months before bottling

Gonzalez Byass is one of the greatest, historical names in Sherry (and Brandy), as well as the largest in Jerez, and the Tio Pepe brand and image one of the icons of Spain, and the best selling Fino in the world stored in an impressive solera of 30,000 botas. Gonzales-Byass was founded in Jerez in 1835 by 23-year-old entrepreneur Manuel Maria Gonzalez, who exported the first cask of Tio Pepe to London in 1844. Gonzalez was advised by an uncle of his, a man called Jose Angel de la Pena. Uncle Jose had a small bodega with his own solera of Fino, which had direct access to the street as he liked to come and go as he fancied. People called Jose are often nicknamed Pepe in Spain, so the solera of uncle Jose (tio means uncle), or uncle Pepe gave name to the famous Tio Pepe brand. The original bodega del Tio Pepe still exists, is in use today, and in fact holds some of the best botas of Tio Pepe Fino. Gonzalez took different partners, and the company changed names a number of times, like Manuel Maria Gonzalez & Cia or Gonzalez & Dubosc. In 1855, the year the people of Bordeaux were really busy making the classification of their chateaux, Gonzalez sold some company shares to his importers and distributors in the UK, Robert Blake Byass. The name of the company was definitely set to Gonzalez Byass & Co., which has been kept till the present day. Today the fifth generation of the Gonzalez family still own and manage the company. Through the years the company and its holdings have been greatly expanded, and the winery today is akin to a small town of 37 hectares, as it has incorporated some of the streets that connected the different bodegas, La Constancia, La Concha (a unique round bodega attributed to Gustav Eiffel), Los Apostoles, La Cuadrada, and the more recent Gran Bodega Tio Pepe, Las Copas or Marques de Bonanza. As a curiosity, if you visit their premises you?????ll be able to see the largest working weathervane on earth, in the shape of a bottle of Tio Pepe!

An earthy, lentil-flavored Cava, rich in the mouth. Muddled in presentation. - WS78

92+ points Wine Advocate
A new wine from the Viña Real winery, the 2020 Bakeder is a village red produced with Tempranillo grapes from Laguardia. It has contained oak and good ripeness at 13.95% alcohol, a more modern style of red that shows very young, quite fruit-driven and with a soft mouthfeel and velvety tannins. It has purity of fruit, elegance and finesse with respectful oak after 10 months in French barriques. There are some 30,000 bottles of this. It was first produced in 2019.

92 points Wine Enthusiast
Aromas of blackberry and white chocolate with a touch of cedar lead the way for flavors of pomegranate, raspberry, milk chocolate and a touch of spice. Polished tannins evaporate into a long and vivid finish.

91 points Wine Spectator
Vanilla, licorice, dried mint, incense and tar notes offer a fragrant overtone to flavors of black raspberry, blackberry, dried fig and iron. This medium- to full-bodied red is refreshed by lively acidity and structured by lightly chalky tannins. Drink now through 2031.

Organic / Biodynamic / Natural

85% Cartoixà (aka Xarel•lo), 15% Macabeu
Making of: the grapes are destemmed and pressed. After settling (debourbage) for 24 hours, the clear must is racked into and stainless steel tanks, where it ferments naturally for 18-20 days at low temperatures (around 14-15ºC). The wine spends 9 months in tanks with weekly lees-stirring (batonnage) to obtain a lush, smooth texture. No fining or filtration, no sulfur added.

Personality: a mixture of yellow peach, apricots and tropical fruits like pineapple, lychee and papaya. Generous, well-structured palate with zesty citrus freshness. A wine to enjoy every day, on its own or with light dishes like salads, fish, or vegetables.

The Celler 9+ vineyards are located only a few kilometers from the Mediterranean coast and benefit from its warm and mild climate – there’s enough rainfall, and the constant breeze called Marinada cools off and dries the grapes, helping them to stay healthy and ripen evenly.

The farm focuses on indigenous grapes and maximum sustainability. As Celler 9+’s winemaker asserts, "Our philosophy is that the future will be environmentally friendly and sustainable … or there won’t be one at all."

92 points Wine Advocate
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.

94 points Wine Advocate
The 2018 Macan has moderate alcohol (14%) and more freshness (pH 3.69), reflecting a cooler and rainier year that forced them to fine-tune the sorting and selection of the grapes, which fermented with selected yeasts. The elevage was in barrel (55%) and larger foudres for 16 months. 2018 was quite different from 2019, as it was cooler and rainier. The wine is serious and harmonious, which was a challenge, and winemaker Gonzalo Iturriaga told me that they had to be very careful and sort and select the grapes. It's textured and elegant, a style that follows the path of the 2016; it's elegant but with depth, managing the elevage in foudre better, which was a learning process they started in 2016. 74,570 bottles, 2557 magnums and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in September 2020.

Organic

from Ribeiro, presents aromas of pear, herbs, peach and apple. Elevated acidity and a rich, slightly sweet palate deliver freshness and full flavor.

100%Albariño coming from the youngest west facing plots, some of them replanted a few years ago and sitting on sandy and clayey soils with some granitic elements. Hand harvest and totally destemmed grapes. This is Robustiano’s entry level wine with a straightforward character. Spontaneously fermented in tank due to only indigenous yeast, the wine is easy to drink, fruit forward and simply delicious. It spends 3 months on the lees in order to gain a bit more body. It’s a balsamic white with some bay leaf aromas and a fresh, mouth-cleansing palate that finishes citrusy clean and with balance. No malolactic fermentation.

93 points James Suckling
Lovely finesse and balance to this red, with berries, light vanilla and dried flowers. Medium body, creamy tannins and a bright finish.

90 points Wine Advocate
The 2019 Cune Reserva was produced with a blend of Tempranillo with 15% Garnacha, Graciano and Mazuelo from Haro. 2018 was a warm and healthy year that delivered a wine with 14% alcohol and good balance. It fermented in 20,000-liter stainless steel vats and matured in French and American oak barrels for 18 months. It's a classical warm year in the style of 2009, or 2015, already with some tertiary notes, hints of earth and leather, spicy and with abundant tannins that call for food

Organic / Biodynamic / Natural

A field blend of Treixadura, Albariño, Godello, Lado, Verdello, Torrontés, and others
Sourced from 70-110 year-old vines in the village of Gomariz on clay with blue and red schist (Ribeiro zone, without appellation)
Whole-cluster pressed and fermented in tank and 500L barrique
Raised 8 months in 500L barriques (mix of new and neutral)
No malolactic
Bottled with minimal added sulfur (< 25mg/L)
‘Selvaxe’ or ‘wild’, refers to XL’s attempt to ‘trap’ his wildest fruit to roam in bottle here with minimal handling

80% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacha sourced from the prized Finca la Pedrizavineyard.

95 points James Suckling
[#38 Top 100 Wines of Spain 2023] A more vibrant and fruitier expression of Ardanza this year with strawberries, mussels, warm spices and berries. Round and silky on the palate with lovely spices and a long, nicely saline finish. A nice touch of creaminess works really well here and further extends the finish. 80% tempranillo and 20% garnacha. Drink or hold.

94 points Wine Advocate
2017 was not an easy harvest, but it produced some beautiful and classical wines, like the 2017 Viña Ardanza Reserva, which shows a little more advancement and polish and is ready to drink. It was produced with 80% Tempranillo and 20% Garnacha from their vineyard La Pedriza in Tudelilla. It fermented in stainless steel with indigenous yeasts and matured in American oak barrels, 36 months for the Tempranillo and 30 for the Garnacha (that was harvested 15 days later), with six rackings. It's ripe and aromatic, tertiary, with 14.5% alcohol and mellow acidity, a medium-bodied palate and sleek tannins. It has a pungent note of clove and pepper, some licorice and ink and the cherries in liqueur from the Garnacha. An updated classical Ardanza. 600,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in March 2021.

94 points Wine Advocate
The wine released in 2024 is the 2019 Pintia, from a very dry year when they did a softer vinification and used some 15% stainless steel for the ??levage to keep the fruit and freshness. It fermented in stainless steel and oak vats with indigenous yeasts. It's a powerful year; the wine has 15% alcohol and is round and full-bodied. It's a heady and ripe Pintia. They had to be careful with the harvest date, and they harvested early and quite quickly. Even though the wine is ripe and heady, with notes of grenadine and small ripe berries, it's also exotic and spicy, quite showy, lush and full-bodied, with 2019 tannins. It's a more powerful wine that is going to require patience.

This layered sweet wine displays a deep, glossy brown color and is truly indulgent. The nose features raisin, pumpkin pie spice, tobacco leaf and pure sugar cane notes. The palate is rich, expansive and beautifully balanced with honeyed, almost milk chocolatey raisin and smoke flavors. It is a very long and elegant PX and finishes with expressive coffee, tea leaf and buttered popcorn tones. Fantastic with blue cheese, toasted nuts, dried fruit, poured over vanilla ice cream or for something truly decadent, pair it with chocolate glazed doughnuts, sticky buns or Paris-Brest pastry. - PJ

Oxidative aging. Criaderas and solera system for a period of 4-6 years in oak barrels .

Organic

Capitan Fanegas is the personal project of Mario Ruiz-Clavijo from the historic Bodegas Marques de Arviza in Rioja. The philosophy behind the Capitan Fanegas wines is to make single vineyard expressions of Rioja that reflect and express the sites they come from. The wines are vinos de author; unique representations that are true to the Rioja style.

A blend of 70% Viura, 20% Malvasia and 10% Garnacha Blanca from two estate vineyards located at an elevation of 650 meters in La Unión: La Muela (old bush vines planted in 1964 on calcareous clay soil), and El Paleton (bush vines planted in 1997 on red clay soils with lot of pebbles).

Fermented in stainless steel tanks and aged in oak barrels for 6 months, followed by 4 months in concrete, resulting in layers of fresh and rich flavors.

Aromas of wild flowers, tropical fruits, and honeysuckle, with flavors of lemony apple, savory herbs and discrete oak spice. Pair with grilled tuna, lobster, and watching butterflies.

Organic

94 points Wine Advocate
As with La Canoca, the 2022 El Bardallo changes from a single-vineyard to a paraje (lieu-dit) wine and includes more plots in the same place to increase the volume of wine produced. It's Tempranillo with some 10% white grapes, mostly Viura. It fermented with some whole-cluster fruit and indigenous yeasts and matured in 500- and 600-liter barrels. It's quite fruit-driven, aromatic and reminiscent of the old carbonic-fermentation reds matured in barrel, juicy and velvety, with abundant, chalky tannins and a dry finish. 3,200 bottles were filled in September 2023.

Jose currently farms 5 hectares of vines located in the villages of San Vicente, Labastida, and Briones. Practices are manual and organic although he is not certified. The vines range in age from 5 to 130 years old with the majority Tempranillo, a small percentage of Viura. The oldest vineyard plots are co-planted with tiny percentages of other grape varieties which include Garnacha and Palomino. When the grapes reach the cellar after being harvested by hand, they are fermented either whole-cluster, or partially destemmed. All fermentations are by indigenous yeasts and extraction is gentle. After pressing the wines are racked into 225-300L French oak barrels and transported to the aging cellar in San Vicente.

Organic

92 points Wine Advocate
I also tasted the 2022 Vi??edos en Labastida. The wines are produced in a similar way to highlight the differences of the places and vintages. In 2022, it's a similar blend of different plots with some 85% Tempranillo, 10% Garnacha and 5% white grapes, and it had a similar vinification and ??levage in 500- and 600-liter oak foudres in their cave. It's very primary and fruit-driven, with a nose of ripe berries and herbs, a lactic twist and a fine thread in the palate, with surprisingly fine tannins for a 2022. 3,600 bottles were filled in September 2023.

These are some of the most exciting new Riojas in the market.
Before modern or traditional Rioja, there was a simpler style of whole-cluster, co-fermented, and shortly-aged wines that were as naked and honest an expression of Rioja as one could find. So it's no surprise that Jos?? Gil followed in his ancestors' footsteps with focus in the vineyard rather than the cellar - which happens to be a cave in the outskirts of San Vicente.

Jose currently farms 5 hectares of vines located in the villages of San Vicente, Labastida, and Briones. Practices are manual and organic although he is not certified. The vines range in age from 5 to 130 years old with the majority Tempranillo, a small percentage of Viura. The oldest vineyard plots are co-planted with tiny percentages of other grape varieties which include Garnacha and Palomino. When the grapes reach the cellar after being harvested by hand, they are fermented either whole-cluster, or partially destemmed. All fermentations are by indigenous yeasts and extraction is gentle. After pressing the wines are racked into 225-300L French oak barrels and transported to the aging cellar in San Vicente.

97 points Wine Advocate
The nose of the 2020 Reserva is beautiful, perfumed and floral, showy and expressive, really open. The palate is medium to full-bodied, with fine-boned and very fine and chalky tannins. It has 14% alcohol, not a shy red, with power and concentration, freshness and terrific balance. It has a long finish with a touch of licorice and violets. It has to be among the best vintages for Reserva. 2020 was a very good year for Dominio del Águila. It matured in French oak barrels for 33 months. 38,221 bottles and 868 magnums produced. It was bottled in July 2023. It is young but approachable and should age beautifully.

Organic

94+ points Wine Advocate
The 2020 Hacienda Monasterio shows what Sisseck calls a "neo-classical" style of Ribera, with more freshness and 14.5% alcohol, harvested early and with higher yields. And possibly because of the Cabernet in the blend (around 10%), which also includes some Merlot and Malbec, the wine has great freshness (pH is 3.5) and avoids some of the excesses from the past. So, higher yields, an earlier harvest and careful oaking resulted in a more elegant wine. To me, it goes back to the benchmark Hacienda Monasterio, which for me is the 1996. A triumph over the natural conditions of the year. Drink 2023-2030.