Wines (12 View)

93 points James Suckling
Fine spice and vanilla to the blackberries, mussels, sandalwood, minerals, black walnuts and dark chocolate. Quite well-judged and balanced on the palate, showing a mid-palate that is about freshness, fruit and fluidity, together with tight, nicely grippy tannins. Juicy, chewy and long. Drinkable now, but better from 2024.

Organic / Biodynamic

90 pts Wine Advocate
The textbook varietal 2019 Mencia shows the rustic personality of the region through the grapes from different places. They were very happy with the conditions of the 2019 vintage, as it was warmer and drier than 2018, which meant healthier grapes. It has a moderate 13% alcohol and very good freshness for a grape that does not have very high acidity. It fermented with indigenous yeasts, with 15 to 20 days of maceration, and it was bottled unoaked. It's nicely textured, pleasant and juicy, not terribly complex but really pleasant. They have filled 17,280 bottles in two batches so far, but more will come to complete around 70,000 bottles.

90 pts Vinous
Deep red. Spice-accented red berries and cherry on the nose, along with a subtle floral nuance that builds with air. Juicy and focused on the palate, offering lively raspberry and bitter cherry flavors that fan out through the back half. Finishes silky and long, with lingering spiciness and discreet tannins that add gentle grip.

Organic / Biodynamic

From 30 year old vines planted on grantic slopes ten miles from the Atlantic ocean in Pontevedra. Fermented with native yeasts in stainless steel with full malolactic fermentation, aged on the lees for 12 to 18 months in vats.

Organic

Whilst the origins of viticulture at Can Vendrell go back to the middle ages, it was not until 1903 that the Albet family established itself at the estate. Joan Albet i Rovirosa came to Can Vendrell to oversee the replanting of the estate after the Phylloxera plague. This process involved planting American rootstock and grafting the desired variety onto that rootstock. After replanting the vineyards he stayed on as manager of the 210 hectare estate of which 90 hectares were vineyards.

It was the fourth and current generation, Josep Maria Albet i Noya, that introduced organic farming methods to the vineyards. Josep Maria took over the management of the estate after his father's death in 1972 and at the end of the seventies started producing his first organic wines. With the success of that first wine produced specifically for the Danish market, they gradually moved the entire estate over to organic farming.

The family also finally acquired the estate that they had been farming for four generations. At this point, they began a long process of continuous rennovation of the cellar, as well as switching 100% of the estate over to organic farming methods.

We currently control 80.6 hectares of vineyards as well as buying grapes from local farmers who have converted to organic farming, paying the highest prices in the Pened??s and advising the farmers to ensure the highest quality.

95+ points Wine Advocate
The 2018 Ali??n follows the path of the 2016: it is fresh and elegant and from a cooler (more Atlantic) vintage with more rain than the average and a relatively late harvest between September 28th and October 12th. They used 80% new barrels, with up to 10% made of American oak looking to (in their own words) give more sucrosity and sweetness to the wine, as it's a more vertical, tense and elegant expression of Ali??n. Part of the wine matured in concrete (something they started in 2016), and in 2021 they are experimenting with a 4,000-liter Rousseau foudre, as they want to keep working the texture and freshness. The wine is ripe at 15% alcohol and has a pH of 3.8 and a mellow 4.6 grams of acidity, round and soft. The wine matured until it was bottled in June 2020. The truth is that the wine comes through as subtle, elegant and balanced, with very integrated oak and a nice texture. It's one of the finest vintages for Ali??n. 257,257 bottles, 7,005 magnums and some larger formats produced.

92 points Wine Spectator
This bright red bursts with flavor, with fragrant marjoram, violet and milled white pepper accenting crisp cherry and ripe boysenberry fruit. Features fine tannins that are a sleek frame for the expressive profile, with a spicy mineral streak driving the finish. Garnacha, Samsó, Cabernet Sauvignon and Syrah. Drink now through 2028.

94 points Wine Advocate
The 2018 Les Terrasses Velles Vinyes is a blend of 55% Garnacha with 44% Carinena and 1% white grapes. The destemmed and lightly crushed grapes fermented in concrete and oak vats with indigenous yeasts, and the wine matured in barriques for 13 months. It keeps the more rustic side of their wines but with the finesse of 2018. It's a wine marked by a high percentage of Carinena, but it's velvety, fresh and harmonious but with the dustier tannins. This is the British farmer, rustic but elegant with his Land Rover, the Wellington boots, corduroy trousers and a Barbour jacket... but with a Priorat twang.

93 points Vinous
Shimmering violet. Expressive aromas of cherry, blueberry and pipe tobacco pick up floral and exotic spice nuances with aeration. Concentrated yet energetic in the mouth, offering red and blue fruit, floral pastille and candied licorice flavors sharpened by smoky mineral and spice flourishes. Fine-grained tannins give shape to a very long, spicy finish that leaves a sappy blue fruit note behind.

93pts Wine Advocate:
"The much sweeter, honeyed, syrupy 2008 Pedro Ximenez de Anada exhibits a dark amber color along with notes of roasted nuts, molassas, Chinese black tea and honeysuckle. Rich, unctuous and full, it is best served slightly chilled after dinner."

Alvear was founded in 1729 and remains under the control of the same family. They own 307 acres of vineyards in the Montilla-Moriles appellation. Anyone who visits the area recognizes the incredible white soils "albariza or albero", which are dominated by chalk/limestone and the key to the great acids these products possess.

The 2019 El Morisco is from the zone of that name and feels slightly riper than its sibling from that year. It has notes of wild berries, flowers and herbs, and it's juicy and showy, quite aromatic and expressive. It's medium-bodied and has very fine, grainy tannins and the tastiness from the granite soils.

Amigos Del Tiempo is a project born in the tiny, picturesque village of Navarrevisca which is nestled high up in the Gredos mountains of Spain. The goal of this tiny winery is to craft micro cuvées from ancient vines of Garnacha that highlight the truly special and unique terroir that this rugged, mountainous terrain has to offer. And that is…fine, beautiful, high-toned and nuanced wines that are on the elegant, Pinot Noir end of this chameleon-like varietal in terms of expression.

To this end, the project's viticulture and vinification is under the direction of one of Spain's most talented and visionary winemakers, Raul Perez. The heart and soul of the project is a prized parcel called Piedra Cachada which is located at just over 1100 meters in elevation, on pure granite, with bush pruned vines of Garnacha over 100 years old. Piedra Cachada, or "broken stones" gets its name from the bevy of large boulders strewn through the vineyard that fractured and tumbled down from the mountains above many centuries ago. Their second wine, El Morisco, comes from several parcels just outside of Navarrevisca in Villanueva de Avila at an elevation just a touch below Piedra Cachada. The vines for El Morisco are also 100+ years old and bush pruned Garnacha.

The inaugural vintage for Amigos del Tiempo was 2019. Given that these ancient vines do not produce much fruit, they only produced 800 bottles of each wine in this vintage.

Review is on the previous vintage.
91 pts James Suckling
Lemon-drop, candied-pear and pineapple character, following through to a medium body with a creamy texture and a fruity, tangy finish. Drink now.

Antxiola pronounced (ahn-cho-la) is a txacoli wine made by Bodegas Zudugarai. The winery was founded in 1989 the same year that the DO of Getaria txakolina was founded. The Errasti family has been growing grapes and making wine from these vineyards for over 40 years working with the local varieties of Hondarrabi Zuri and Hondarrabi Beltza. The vineyards and winery are near the coast line among rolling hills at about 90 meters above sea level. The sunniest and windiest slopes are the ones planted to vines so that the grapes can get ripe and also remain dry and avoid fungal and rot issues. All work in the vineyards is done by hand including harvest. Fermentation takes place naturally in stainless steel tanks over a period of about 20 days. The wine is then bottled while young to retain some of its natural effervescence. The name Antxiola refers to a famous fortified home in the nearby town of Orio that was part of the walls fortifying the town. A rendering of that home is on the label of this wine. Admiral Antxiola was one of the most famous owners and written records of the house date back to 1555 - but we know the house is older than that. - Importer

"Refreshing, fruity and Txinparta cider. A dry finish, which cleans the mouth and ask for another sip." Importer notes

Cider has been produced at the Mendiola farmhouse in Astigarraga by members of the Astarbe family for close to five centuries. The oldest surviving document that references cider production at this address dates back to May 20th, 1563. To put that in context, Galileo Galilei, the "father of modern science", was born in 1564. From the at least the 11th century through the beginning of the 17th, the whaling industry in the Atlantic Ocean and Bay of Biscay was dominated by the Basques. Some historians have posited that Basque whalers (along with perhaps some Bretons and Normans) were the first Europeans to glimpse the New World, possibly as early as a hundred years before Columbus. Whether that conjecture is accurate or not, they were certainly launching regular expeditions to Newfoundland (Terranova) by the 1540s. The history of the Astarbe family is so intertwined with that of Basque cider production that the two main apple varieties they use to elaborate their ciders are the Astarbe variety (after the family surname) and the Mendiola variety (after the name of the farmhouse). Three ciders are produced here: a traditional still cider and two Méthode Champenoise sparklers. Though the ciders are perfectly suitable as refreshments enjoyed on their own, their complexity is only revealed at the dining table. Mugaritz, currently number seven on the list of the world’s best restaurants, is located less than five kilometers away, and Astarbe ciders have been a mainstay of the restaurant’s beverage program since its opening in 1998. The cidery also has their own on-site restaurant, which is particularly busy during the season of the txotx, which begins on January 19th and runs until April or May.