Wines (12 View)

90 pts Wine Spectator
Orchard blossom and ground ginger are aromatic accents to the ripe Asian pear, stone and lemon pith flavors of this lithe, light-bodied white. Lingering finish. Drink now through 2022

This is a lovely example of the Greek white wine Assyrtiko. Bright yellow color with green hues. The bouquet displays aromas of passion fruit, mango and citrus. Balanced taste with crispy acidity and a characteristic minerality around the palate. Long and lasting finish.

95+ points Wine Advocate
The 2018 Alión 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 Alión. 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 Alión. 257,257 bottles, 7,005 magnums and some larger formats produced.

95 points James Suckling
Ripe, tarry plums and black cherries with violets, rocks, coffee and graphite. Refined notes of balsamic fruit and cocoa powder, too. Full-bodied and juicy with an iron fist of tannins, yet at the same time so velvety and polished. Very long, focused finish, showing lots of finesse and layers. Drinkable now, but better after 2025.

94 points The Wine Advocate
The 2019 Alion was cropped from a drier vintage compared with the average, and the wines from that year tend to be powerful, concentrated and with structure. They shortened the maceration by 11 days and used concrete for part of the elevage, trying to reduce the impact from the oak in the wine. They define 2019 as a powerful, concentrated and juicy vintage, sensual and unctuous. The wine is ripe at 15% alcohol and has mellow acidity (4.4 grams) and a pH of 3.88, reflecting the warm and dry year that delivered powerful and concentrated wines, similar to the wines from 2015. It's quite fruit-driven, ripe and juicy, with abundant, slightly dusty tannins despite the limited pumping over they did to avoid extracting too much, and the maceration was also shortened. 256,526 bottles, 7,005 magnums and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in June 2021

Review is on the previous vintage.
93 pts Wine Spectator
Strikes a terrific balance between mouthwatering acidity, fresh herbal notes of lemon verbena and thyme, and core flavors of Key lime, Meyer lemon, pineapple and tangerine. Gains momentum on the finish, where the flavors sing in harmony and complexity. Drink now.

90 points Wine Advocate
A blend of Corvina, Corvinone, Rondinella and Sangiovese, the 2020 Palazzo della Torre is luscious, dark and exceedingly contemporary in style and execution. This is a soft and well-textured expression with layers of ripe fruit, black cherry, spice, bitter chocolate and tangy Spanish cedar from oak aging. The oak is quite dominate, so be ready for this particular stylistic approach. This is an ample production of 600,000 bottles.

#85. on The Wine Spectator Top 100 Wines of 2023!

90 points Wine Spectator
A bright, light- to medium-bodied white, with hints of flint and chive blossoms accenting ripe green pear and melon fruit. Well-knit, with a minerally finish. Drink now through 2026.

56% Chenin Blanc & 44% Semillon. Pergola trellised 80-year-old vines located in the Uco Valley. Hand harvested. Vinified separately, including different processes such as skin contact fermentation. Fermented with native yeast in concrete vats. 6 month aging in concrete vats. 11% abv

90 points James Suckling
Nice sour cherries with a streak of white pepper and violets. Medium-bodied, but fleshy. Ripe, almost creamy tannins extend to the finish, but are still juicy and vibrant. Not complex, but so balanced and easy to drink. Drink now.

Organic

91 points Wine Advocate
One of the finest and purest expressions of the grape at a very affordable price point is the 2021 Colonia Las Liebres Bonarda, which was certified organic in 2017. Ninety percent of the grapes are from their estate in Luján de Cuyo and the rest from Jardín Altamira in Valle de Uco. It fermented in stainless steel and matured in raw concrete. It has 13.3% alcohol, a medium-bodied palate and a juicy texture. They are convinced about the organic approach in the vineyard, as they have seen improvements in the wines, but the certification causes a lot of problems and bureaucracy. It's a fine expression of the variety with a fruit-driven personality, a little peppery, a juicy texture and faint rusticity. 2021 was a cool year, and the wine shows it. They think of this as their Beaujolais, the wine for the trattoria (they are mostly Italian!), for the table, where industrial wine should not dominate; therefore, they offer this at a very competitive price. It's an immediate red. 53,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2022.

97 points Wine Advocate
The 2019 Malbec Appellation Gualtallary comes from specific soils, two small three-hectare plots in the Cerros del Jaboncillo, where they find more caliche and limestone in Tupungato Winelands. They believe this place transmits the maximum expression of limestone to Malbec, giving a structured wine with fine-grained tannins with the wilderness from Gualtallary. It fermented in small concrete vats with indigenous yeasts at some 26 degrees Celsius for 20 days. Eighty-five percent of the volume matured in untoasted 3,500-liter French oak foudres for 20 months while the rest was kept in concrete. They sell it a little later than the Altamira because they feel Gualtallary needs a little more time in bottle; therefore, they are now offering the 2019 vintage, a very balanced wine that talks about the place where it was born. This is vibrant and expressive, with a complex nose and especially a lively palate with effervescent acidity and very fine-boned with elegant but firm tannins (they say "Serralunga-like" tannins). I find the recurring iron-like note of blood and fresh meat here too, intermixed with the wild flowers, herbs and spices. This has depth and complexity, and if Altamira is Barbaresco, Gualtallary is Barolo... 10,000 bottles were filled in January 2022.