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Escabeces Terragona Cartoixa Vermell 2021
Escabeces Terragona Cartoixa Vermell 2021
Regular price Regular Price: $21.99 Sale priceYour Price: $18.97
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Available: 15
92 points Wine Advocate
The characterful rosé 2021 Escabeces was produced with Xarel.lo Vermell grapes, a gris/rosé version of Xarello that is enjoying a revival. They have used different percentages of skins over the years, and in the cooler 2021, the wine continues the austere line of lack of fruit and minerality, serious, a little reductive and with a tasty finish that calls for food. This is more complete than previous vintages; the improvement in viticulture shows, and the wine is very harmonious, balanced and fresh, despite having more ripeness and a tad more alcohol, which also means more complete ripeness of the grapes, more aromas and flavors and a better wine overall. Superb!
This is a brand new wine from René Barbier from the D.O. of Taragona. A few years ago, a farmer acquaintance approached René to see if he’d be interested in making a wine from a small parcel of 65-year-old Cartoixà Vermell, the very rare Catalan grape also known as red Xarel.lo. The trick with this wine is that, while it presents as a rosé, it is made as if it were a red wine. The Cartoixà Vermell, however, never develops a tremendous amount of pigment, so even with a long skin maceration, the wine only achieves a coppery-pink color. The grapes are harvested around 12 degrees of potential alcohol in the beginning of October. From there, they are moved to the winery, where the must ferments on the skins for a period of three weeks to a month in ceramic containers. It is then pressed off the skins to continue its aging in ceramic containers for another 5-6 months and neutral barrels for the remainder of its 18-month élevage.
PJ00493
Spain
Red
2021
.750L
MacRobert & Canals La Nave Rioja Blanco 2020
MacRobert & Canals La Nave Rioja Blanco 2020
Regular price Regular Price: $17.99 Sale priceYour Price: $14.97
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Available: 13
The new entry-level white 2020 La Nave Blanco is fruit-driven, young, fresh and tender, reminiscent of green almonds and white flowers. It mixes grapes and zones, 65% Viura and 35% Garnacha Blanca. It's medium-bodied, with 13% alcohol and a pH of 3.5, so with a soft mouthfeel and a drinkable profile. It fermented with natural yeasts and matured in concrete with the lees. 3,333 bottles were filled in August 2021. This is one very interesting young project that deserves attention. It's young South African winemaker Bryan MacRobert and his father in law here.
PJ00419
Spain
White
2020
.750L
Companon Arrieta Herrigoia Rioja Alavesa 2022
Companon Arrieta Herrigoia Rioja Alavesa 2022
Regular price Regular Price: $14.99 Sale priceYour Price: $12.97
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Available: 38
From the village of Lanciego in Rioja Alavesa
Calcareous clay with high iron content, some of the poorest soils in the region
Carbonic maceration in open concrete tank
Ages in concrete for 3 months
A lighter, fresher style of Rioja meant for early drinking. Carbonic fermentation in concrete, traditional for the Alavesa subregion, leads to ripe aromas and juicy plum fruit on the palate. Fine tannins and bright acidity make this a great food wine.
PJ00494
Spain
Red
2022
.750L
Bodegas Avancia Cuvee De O Mencia 2021
Bodegas Avancia Cuvee De O Mencia 2021
Regular price Regular Price: $26.99 Sale priceYour Price: $21.97
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Available: 10
Hints of spice and medicinal herb lace the plum cake and dried fig flavors of this round, medium-bodied red, featuring lightly juicy acidity and a lingering touch of anise on the finish. Beautifully floral. Towns of O Barco and Villamartín de Valdeorras, in the Valley of Valdeorras, Province of Ourense, in the Northeast of the D.O.
PJ00132
Spain
Red
2021
.750L
Villota Selvanevada Rioja Tinto 2020
Villota Selvanevada Rioja Tinto 2020
Regular price Regular Price: $21.99 Sale priceYour Price: $18.97
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Available: 16
Baked black cherries, olives, baking spices and herbs here, following through to a tactile, medium-to full-bodied palate with juicy black cherries and dusty tannins. Drink or hold.
Tempranillo (86%), Graciano (8%), Mazuela (4%), Garnacha (2%)
PJ00130
Spain
Rioja
Red
2020
.750L
Celler Comunica La Pua Montsant Blanco 2020
Celler Comunica La Pua Montsant Blanco 2020
Regular price Regular Price: $19.99 Sale priceYour Price: $16.97
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Available: 18
An intriguing white that is a good intro into skin contact white wines.
GRAPES 70 Garnatxa Blanca, 15 Garnatxa Roja (Gris), 15 Garnatxa Peluda (Blanc de Noir)
VITICULTURE Organic farming, 10 - 50 year old vines at an altitude of 370 meters
SOIL Calcareous clay, granitic sand, slate.
VINICULTURE Direct pressing and fermentation between 7 and 10 days in stainless steel tanks on the natural yeast. The wine remains in tank for 8 months on the fine lees for 8 months prior to bottling
W21445
Spain
Montsant
White
2020
.750L
Gonzalez Byass Dos Palmas Fino Jerez Sherry 500mL
Gonzalez Byass Dos Palmas Fino Jerez Sherry 500mL
Regular priceYour Price: $42.97
Available: 10
W05584
Spain
Sherry
.500L
MacRobert & Canals La Nave Rioja Tinto 2020
MacRobert & Canals La Nave Rioja Tinto 2020
Regular price Regular Price: $17.99 Sale priceYour Price: $14.97
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Available: 1
The red 2020 La Nave mixes grapes and zones, approximately one-third each Garnacha, Tempranillo and Mazuelo, and has moderate ripeness and 13.5% alcohol. It fermented in concrete with indigenous yeasts, where it matured for a few months. It's serious, austere and a bit reductive/flinty, in need of some air, with a medium-bodied palate and fine and chalky tannins. 8,550 bottles were filled in August 2021.This is one very interesting young project that deserves attention. It's young South African winemaker Bryan MacRobert and his father in law here.
PJ00420
Spain
Red
2020
.750L
Dominio Basconcillos Vigna Magna 6 Meses Barrica Ribera del Duero 2021
Dominio Basconcillos Vigna Magna 6 Meses Barrica Ribera del Duero 2021
Regular price Regular Price: $24.99 Sale priceYour Price: $18.97
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Available: 26
Intense cherry red layer, with reflections violete hues on the rim. Clean on the nose. High intensity under notes of red fruits, strawberry and raspberry. Balsamic and light toasted notes with vanilla appear after areation of the wine. Dry wine with round and silky tannins. Gentle and full entry in the palate, where red fruits lead to a fresh and crisp finish. Long aftertaste with spicy notes, light toasted touch and hints of minerality from the calcareus soils of the winery's altitude vineyard.
PJ00337
Spain
Red
2021
.750L
Numanthia Toro 2017
Numanthia Toro 2017
Regular price Regular Price: $65.99 Sale priceYour Price: $57.97
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Available: 7
93 points Wine Advocate
The 2017 Numanthia represents a blend of their terroirs selected from over 100 plots of ungrafted vines, and it fermented with commercial yeasts and matured in 225- and 400-liter French oak barrels, 60% of them new, for 18 months. They lost 30% of the crop to frost, and then it was warm and dry and the grapes ripened thoroughly. They made an effort to remove all the raisins and did a softer vinification to moderate the extraction. It's ripe at 15.5% alcohol and has a pH of 3.79 and is quite harmonious, big and rich but with no excess and with integrated oak.
W21697
Spain
Toro
Red
2017
.750L
La Rioja Alta Vina Alberdi Reserva Rioja 2016 1.5L
La Rioja Alta Vina Alberdi Reserva Rioja 2016 1.5L
Regular price Regular Price: $51.99 Sale priceYour Price: $46.97
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Available: 23
Vina Alberdi is a 100% Tempranillo that was hand-harvested, destemmed, and vinified in tank. The wine was then aged for two years in American oak barrels manufactured in-house; the first year in new oak and the second in barrels averaging three years in age. The wine was then manually racked four times by the light of a candle; it doesn?€?t get more old school than that!
La Rioja Alta was formed in 1890 as a partnership of 5 quality-conscious growers keen to exploit the export potential for well-made Rioja. At this time, French vineyards were ravaged by phylloxera, and connoisseurs were having to look elsewhere for supplies of fine wine. Rioja, with its excellent climate and soils, had already attracted attention, and experiments with Bordeaux-style vinification and barrique-aging were proving very successful.
La Rioja Alta?€?s wines are still crafted in the traditional Rioja manner. The bodega is adamant about not using French oak, keeping the unique Rioja style which has been developed since the end of the 19th century. In spite of the varying amount of time in cask and bottle, the wines all display a wonderful rich ruby color, gorgeous aromas of oak, spices, and fruit followed by a sensational feel on the palate, with a wonderfully smooth texture, clean rich oaky/fruity flavors, and a long lingering finish.
W21777
Spain
Rioja
Red
2016
.750L
Senorio De P. Pecina Finca Iscorta Gran Reserva Rioja 2010
Senorio De P. Pecina Finca Iscorta Gran Reserva Rioja 2010
Regular price Regular Price: $49.99 Sale priceYour Price: $44.97
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Available: 35
94 points Wine Advocate
The 2010 Finca Iscorta De Peciña Gran Reserva is their usual blend of Tempranillo with 3% Garnacha and 2% Graciano, sourced from 50-year-old vines from their Finca Iscorta vineyard in the Sonsierra zone; therefore, it is a single-vineyard bottling. It fermented with indigenous yeasts and aged in well-seasoned American oak barrels for 48 months with manual and gravity rackings every six months. This feels very harmonious, combining some primary notes with more-developed tertiary aromas. The palate also reveals a rare mix of power and elegance that only the very best vintages are capable of. It has polished tannins, good volume, freshness and length. Drink or hold, there should be no rush.
John Gillman, "The 2010 Rioja Gran Reserva “Finca Iscorta” is the first single vineyard bottling from Bodegas Hermanos Peciña that I have had the pleasure to taste. This vineyard is located at five hundred meters above sea level and planted to fifty year-old tempranillo vines. It is aged four years in older American oak casks prior to bottling, and another three years in bottle prior to its release. The wine is deep, still fairly youthful at age eight, and very promising aromatically, offering up scents of black cherries, Rioja spice tones, cigar smoke, a superb base of soil, bitter chocolate and a nice touch of coconutty American oak. On the palate the wine is pure, fullbodied and quite black fruity, with a fine core of fruit, good soil signature, tangy acids and a long, moderately tannic finish. This still needs several years in the cellar to blossom, but it will prove to be outstanding when it is ready to drink. Stylistically, it stands out quite a bit from the blended Peciña bottlings of Rioja, which are usually far more red fruity and spicy in personality than the 2010 Finca Iscorta, but the wine shares the customary Peciña refinement and classic sensibilities that has made this bodega so popular amongst traditionally-minded Rioja lovers. 2020-2050."
W21302
Spain
Rioja
Red
2010
.750L
yes
La Rioja Alta Vina Ardanza Reserva Rioja 2016 1.5L
La Rioja Alta Vina Ardanza Reserva Rioja 2016 1.5L
Regular priceYour Price: $77.97
Available: 35
95 points James Suckling
Savory and complex with dried orange peel, cedar and plenty of sweet spices, walnuts, caramel, dried mushrooms and pine needles. Shows maturity here, with a medium body and superb freshness. Incredibly long finish with lots of truffle and walnut. Lasts over a minute. Very complete now, but you can still hold it.
94+ points Wine Advocate
The 2016 Viña Ardanza Reserva was produced with 80% Tempranillo and 20% Garnacha that matured in used American oak barrels for three years, where it was hand-racked from barrel to barrel six times in the case of Tempranillo and five times for the Garnacha, as it had a slightly shorter élevage of 30 months. Against all odds, I found the 2016 to be fresher than the 2015 and less developed, despite the fact that winemaker Julio Sáenz told me he considers it a warmer year. But I have found many wines I like in 2016, and the wine feels very clean and quite harmonious, younger and less developed, with more primary notes and a velvety mouthfeel. 600,000 bottles produced. The wine was bottled in June 2020.
PJ00743
Spain
Red
2016
1.5L
Bodega Contador Benjamin Romeo Alma Rioja 2020
Bodega Contador Benjamin Romeo Alma Rioja 2020
Regular price Regular Price: $114.99 Sale priceYour Price: $99.97
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Available: 9
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
PJ00411
Spain
Red
2020
.750L
Jose Gil San Vincente de la Sonsierra Village Rioja 2021
Jose Gil San Vincente de la Sonsierra Village Rioja 2021
Regular price Regular Price: $51.99 Sale priceYour Price: $45.97
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Available: 17
93+ points Wine Advocate
The village 2021 Viñedos en San Vicente de la Sonsierra was produced with 75% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacha and the rest white grapes, mostly Viura from vineyards in the middle and higher part of the village. It fermented partly with full clusters and matured 50/50 in concrete and 500- and 600-liter barrels in their cave. This feels quite serious, with ripeness and power, slowly revealing more elegant notes and some floral hints, with an earthy touch. It feels like the grapes ripened thoroughly in the longer cycle and developed plenty of nuances. It has 13.9% alcohol and is medium to full-bodied, serious and balanced, with the stuffing to develop in bottle. 16,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in September 2022. Drinking Window 2023 - 2030
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 José 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.
PJ00369
Spain
Red
2021
.750L
Xose Lois Sebio Vinos de Encostas Heaven & Hell Blanco 2021
Bodegas Frontonio Las Alas de Frontonio Garnacha 2019
Bodegas Frontonio Las Alas de Frontonio Garnacha 2019
Regular price Regular Price: $69.99 Sale priceYour Price: $62.97
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Available: 6
The 2019 Las Alas de Frontonio La Tejera was produced with a Garnacha-based field blend, as the 1.4-hectare 85-year-old vineyard where it comes from also has some Macabeo. It's a plot on clay, slate and quartzite soils at 630 meters in altitude with a northwest orientation in the village of Alpartir. They used 100% full clusters for the native fermentation in open-top oak barrels, which allowed them to foot-tread the grapes. The wine matured for 14 months in small (550-liter) oak vats from Italy in a cold underground cellar 17 meters below ground. This has a spectacular nose, subtle and elegant and an improvement even over the great 2018. It's vibrant and pungent, and the tannins are very fine, slightly chalky and give it a nice texture. There's a salty twist on the finish.
PJ00139
Spain
Red
2019
.750L
Bodegas 501 Gades Pedro Ximenex Viejo Sherry NV
Bodegas 501 Gades Pedro Ximenex Viejo Sherry NV
Regular priceYour Price: $36.99
Available: 14
Where: Sherry, Spain
Why: Because for the money this is one of the most intense PX’s we’ve ever tasted. Why? Lets start with honeyed raisins, oranges and almonds. Then there’s chocolate and coffee and figs. But that’s just the sugar talking. After those candied notes hit you they give way to salt, herbs, coffee grounds, tar and licorice. The flavor show does not stop... ever.
W07125
Spain
Sherry
.750L
Perez Barquero Gran Barquero Pedro Ximenez Montilla-Moriles NV 750mL
Perez Barquero Gran Barquero Pedro Ximenez Montilla-Moriles NV 750mL
Regular priceYour Price: $11.97
Available: 28
Oxidative aging. Criaderas and solera system for a period of 4-6 years in oak barrels .
W-00001302
Spain
Montilla-Moriles
.750L
Freixenet Extra Dry Cava Semi-Sweet Sparkling Wine NV
Ameztoi Rubentis Getariako Txakolina Rosado 2023
Ameztoi Rubentis Getariako Txakolina Rosado 2023
Regular price Regular Price: $24.99 Sale priceYour Price: $20.97
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Available: 111
The iconic Rubentis rosé is a field blend of Hondarrabi Zuri and Hondarrabi Beltza varieties, co-fermented for three weeks. When most local wineries gave up on the indigenous red Hondarrabi Beltza vines, the Ameztoi family retained their old vines, this gives their rosé exceptional vibrancy and complexity. Rubentis, the region’s first pink wine, was inspired by the historic claret-style wines that were once produced in the area long before the current global craze made rosé famous. The backbone of the blend comes from a Hondarrabi Beltza vineyard planted in 1840, preserved by the Ameztoi family for generations. Lean, bright, and briny with the subtlest hint of herbaceousness make this a knockout vintage for Rubentis. Some years the wine can taste stemmy or green, perhaps due to under-ripening of the grapes, but not this year. The 2023 is smokin’ good!
Ameztoi is one of the top producers of Getariako Txakolina. They own 20 hectares of vines in the best location. From the vineyards one can see the town of St. Sebastian and understand the influence of the Atlantic Ocean on local viticulture.
PJ01094
Spain
Rose
2023
.750L
Raul Perez La Vizcaina de La Vitoriana Bierzo Tinto 2021
Raul Perez La Vizcaina de La Vitoriana Bierzo Tinto 2021
Regular price Regular Price: $42.99 Sale priceYour Price: $37.97
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Available: 11
I love the 2021 La Vizcaína La Vitoriana, where they use the westernmost part of the vineyard with more sand in the soils, mostly north facing. It's a wine with a floral nose that is aromatic and perfumed, elegant but with clout, with concentration and power. They have been picking earlier and earlier, lowering the alcohol, and they feel more comfortable below 13%; they removed the rusticity and extraction, and the wine is more elegant than ever. It reminds me of the 2018, with similar a profile of freshness. They produced around 5,000 liters from the one+ hectare they have here.
PJ00954
Spain
Red
2021
.750L