Events

93 pts Stephen Tanzer
"Ruby-red. Aromas of dried cherry, raspberry, vanilla, mocha and Cuban tobacco, with smoke and potpourri accents. Supple and expansive, offering sweet, spice-accented red and dark berry and floral pastille flavors that stain the palate. Dusty tannins add shape and grip to the very long, smooth, penetrating finish. I find this wine quite approachable now but it has the balance to age. Not the weightiest Valbuena but very impressive for the vintage."

"The 2007 Valbuena is rounded and warmer than the 2006 with lush dark berry fruits interlaced with scents of espresso and bay leaf. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins, crisp acidity with a composed, focused finish of black cherries, raspberry, cedar and mocha. The 2007 has great precision and focus. It is more feminine and assured than the 2006, but one senses that it is holding something back to charm consumers in five or six year?????s time. This is very impressive. Drink 2017-2030. " 92pts WA

Intense red cherry colour. Complex and elegant on the nose with aromas of plum and sweet spices such as cinnamon and nutmeg. Slight notes of almonds with the oak very well integrated. Good structure on the mouth with notes of mature fruit and chocolate. A lively wine with good tannic concentration. Long and persistent. Food Matching: Ideal with red meats, game and cheese

"Good full red. Deeply pitched aromas of smoke, minerals, leather and truffle. Supple and silky but nicely penetrating, with ripe, intense flavors of cherry, minerals and oak perfectly framed by harmonious acids. Subtle, textured Rioja finishing with good grip and thrust." 90pts Vinous

"This red shows depth and complexity, maturing but still fresh. It's generous on the palate, with plum, raisin, cedar and chocolate notes. A true expression of Rioja character. Drink now through 2010. 5,000 cases made." 90pts WS

85% Tempranillo, 10% Graciano, 5% Mazuelo. Aging in French and American oak cask 36 months and aging in bottle 48 months before going to market. This wine is produced from grapes harvested in vineyards that are over 20 years old. They are bush pruned, with low yields, and hand harvested. Only the healthiest and ripest grapes are selected, and following destalking, the grapes are cold macerated prior to a cold temperature fermentation. Following a long maceration to achieve optimum colour and structure, the wine goes through a malolactic fermentation, to refine the wine, and to leave it with the necessary acidity.

Imperial is one of the renowned references in the entire history of Spanish winemaking. It is a true classic in Rioja and was first bottled in the 1920?????s. Its name was originally adopted after a special bottling for the English market in a bottle called ?????Pinta Imperial????? or ?????Imperial Pint????? (an Imperial pint, half a litre approximately). The grapes to make Imperial have always come from our own 28 hectares of vineyards in Villalba (Rioja Alta), and selected vineyards in the nearby communes of Briones and Montalvo, where our vines average age is kept over 20 years to secure quality.

Rioja Alta is the westernmost part of Rioja's three subregions. Its climate is noticeably influenced by the Atlantic Ocean. The soil in Rioja Alta is rich in iron salts, limestone and clay, along with nutrients deposited in the region by the tributaries of the Ebro River. Rioja Alta is known for producing full-bodied wines with a medium alcohol content and a high acidity level that are suitable for being aged in casks, forming the basis of most red Rioja.

CVNE (Compania Vinicola del Norte de Espana) is one of the most renowned and historic bodegas in all of Spain. Founded in 1879 by the Real de Asua brothers, Eusebio and Raimundo, the company has been an integral part of the Rioja region?????s ascendance in the world of fine wine. With their combination of traditional roots and innovative vision, CVNE has been one of Rioja?????s most reliable sources for high quality wine. The company is still run by descendants of the Real de Asua brothers, now represented by the fifth generation with current CEO Victor Urrutia Ybarra. Since its founding, CVNE?????s goal has been to increase the scope of production while maintaining the level of quality on which their reputation was built. Forty years after the original bodega was created, CVNE expanded into the Alavesa region. Today, CVNE is comprised of three separate bodegas: Cune, Vina Real, and Contino. Each of the three estates produces a distinct style of wine from a distinct terroir, and each of their flagship bottlings occupies a well-deserved place in the pantheon of great Spanish wine.

95 points Wine Advocate
2020 was drier than average until the harvest, when it rained and diluted the grapes, and they had to wait to regain concentration. The result is that the 2020 Alion is a wine with better balance and freshness. They felt the skins were very ripe and they could extract more and use a little more American oak (4%) in the elevage. From 2019, they kept the press wine separate until June, and they keep separate quantities of press wines that are aged in different containers depending on the quality of the wine. They used a percentage of concrete and oak vats for the elevage, which gives the wine more verticality and freshness. It's a subtle and elegant Alion, not as dense as some other vintages, but with nice balance and very elegant tannins Drinking Window: 2025 - 2035

94pts Wine Advocate:
The Lot 38 La Bota de Viejo Cream Bota No is the sequel to the sweet oloroso that was Lot 19. It originates from the blending of a Pedro Ximenez over a century ago when the Solera was started. It has a fairly light bouquet that opens with aeration: hazelnut, macadamias, subtle note of caramel and nougat. The palate is medium-bodied with a lovely viscous opening: a touch of spice, eau-de-vie, caramel and cafe latte underpinned by beautifully judged acidity and a sensual harmonious long finish. Superb.

900 bottles produced. La Bota de Viejo Cream 38 "Bota NO" is a new release of edition 19 in the series: a sweet oloroso that has aged as such in a 9-butt solera under the label "Viejo Cream", never before commercially available except for a few exceptional sacas for British customers. This solera has in turn a bota NO as well as a double NO- of notably higher age and character, and which is where this wine has been sourced, again in limited volumes. This sweet oloroso results from a blending process with top-quality pedro xim??nez that was performed early on, when the solera was founded, likely over a century ago. Harmonious integration during these decades has made the wine finer and rounder, thanks to the patience of several generations of winemakers, reaching today a prodigious balance between the raciness of dry oloroso and the mellowness of sweet PX.

What originally started out as a private buying club for an outstanding Amontillado located in the cellar of Miguel S??nchez Ayala, has become one of the most sought after series of bottlings sourced from, and inspired by the wines of Jerez and Montilla-Moriles. Jes??s Barqu??n, a professor of criminal law at the University of Granda and Eduardo Ojeda, the technical director of Grupo Est??vez, guided by their vast knowledge of, and unparalleled access to, the best wines, cellars and soleras of the region, have since 2005 assembled one of the finest offerings of Sherries in the market. When word got out about their project, what was once a hobby became a full-fledged commercial enterprise. Supply remains limited and demand has only increased. Since that first cask of Amontillado, labeled simply Bota de Amontillado no.1 in honor of the short story by Edgar Allan Poe, each successive bottling as been numbered, bottled en rama, limited in release and quick to sell out. Not content with only exploring the possibilities of fortified wines, Equipo has also released brandies, unfortified Palomino Fino aged under flor, and a couple of PX wines, one dry and one made from raisined grapes. They have also partnered with Dirk Niepoort and Quim Vila to make a Vin Jaune styled Palomino Fino and Sergei Colet to produce a Cava utilizing flor in the secondary aging of the wine as well as Sherry and Montilla for the dosage.

94-96 points Wine Advocate
The nose of the 2022 Flor de Pingus has a peachy note (peche de vigne!). It's perfumed, elegant, more fruit-driven, tender, delicate and ripe without excess (but possibly the ripest of the 2022s, perhaps the influence of the younger vines). It has a tender palate with glossy tannins and a rounder mouthfeel. The finish is dry, even a little austere, with fine chalkiness. In general, the 2022s showed quite well, much better than expected. The wine was blended and clarified and is in tank waiting to be bottled. They expect to bottle the 2022s in June (or late May). They expect some 89,000 bottles, a little less because the young vines suffered more with the heat.