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Organic

95 points Wine Advocate
There is a change in the 2022 La Canoca, as this year it's no longer a single-vineyard wine but a paraje, or lieu-dit, wine that includes more plots from the same place. Therefore, volumes have grown from 500 bottles in the previous vintage to 3,200 in 2022. This is surprisingly fresh, harmonious and elegant, getting closer to the character of the 2021s, closer than any of the other 2022s. It slowly opened up in the glass to floral notes, hints of wild herbs and crushed stones. The palate is solid and complete, with fine, chalky tannins and a long and tasty finish. It was bottled 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.

92 points Wine Advocate
There is a new range of not-so-old wines from different styles, like the NV Oloroso Criadera Selection, a gentler and younger wine with around 20% alcohol. It was produced from the soleras and criaderas dynamic style of blending vintages, and it aged in topped-up barrels without flor in an oxidative style. This is a little darker and younger than the Amontillado and Palo Cortado, gentle, with a peachy nose with some spiciness from the old wood, low-pitched, wider and warm. It's tasty and long. Only 690 bottles were produced. It was bottled in December 2023.

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 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.

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.

La Unión comes from a single parcel in the La Unión village in Rioja that feautres a mixture of red and white clay with sandy soils. All grapes are hand-harvested from vines that average 25 years of age. A blend of 85% Tempranillo and 15% Graciano that is fermented with native yeasts in concrete tanks and aged for 12 months in barrel. Expressive aromas of blackberry, red currants and violets with a fine, silky palate and long, polished finish, enjoy this striking Rioja with grilled lamb chops.

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

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.

95 points James Suckling
A really fresh and serious nose here with mineral, subtle cream and freshly squeezed lemon zest. Lime and a hint of meringue, too. This is really zingy, chalky, fresh and packed with a very taut mid-palate and a long, mouthwatering finish. Effortless drinkability and you barely feel any alcohol here. A hint of white almond at the end. 80% viura and 20% garnacha blanca. Exciting! Drink or hold.

93+ points Wine Advocate
The white 2021 Blanco wants to go back to the traditional whites from Rioja with aging potential but keeping the floral and fruit-driven character using 500-liter barrels. It's mostly Viura, with 20% Garnacha Blanca, and it has a moderate 12.44% alcohol and amazing freshness and acidity parameters (pH 3.07 and 7.01 grams of acidity). This feels like a light vintage, and it's more herbal (fennel emerges with time...), balsamic and with a smoky touch. It has lower alcohol and, therefore, more noticeable acidity and ends with a dry, chalky finish. The oak is nicely integrated (they stopped using 225-liter barrels for this wine), and the palate is fine-boned, lively and lighter than in the initial vintages..

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.

Natural / Sustainable

Capit??n Xurelo is a red blend from many different vineyards. It's produced like of the all reds here, with full clusters that were foot-trodden and fermented with indigenous yeasts. It finished fermenting in barrel and remained there until the next harvest, when it was transferred to stainless steel where it matured for a further eight months. Here, they look for a more austere, perhaps rustic profile. This has tons of notes of acid berries and is light to medium-bodied, with a minty and balsamic touch.

Organic / Natural

100% Trepat made in a crushable light red style. Make sure to put a chill on it!

94 points The Wine Advocate 
Black olives and a hint of black bean puree to the fresh black cherries, damsons and a hint of mint. Refined, medium-bodied palate with fine, fresh tannins that are present but not grainy. Really elegant and long. Drinkable now, but will develop well in the next six to seven years.