Red

91 points James Suckling
A fragrant nose of mulberries, plums, lavender, sandalwood and baking spices. It?€?s full-bodied with firm, polished tannins. Pleasant, balanced wood notes. Velvety, flavorful finish. Drink now or hold.

90 points Wine Advocate
I found the 2019 Crianza to be quite harmonious and with less oak than many of its siblings. It's medium to full-bodied with balance and fine tannins.

Clean and bright dark cherry in color, this wine has a multitude of differentiated nuances on the nose, intertwining the ripe red fruit with the aromas of roasted coffee, black fruits and roasted. Silky and friendly on the palate, with great intensity and lasting over time.

Founded in the early 1990s by the Arzuaga Navarro family, the cellar stands near the Duero River, adorning a road as Castilian as the one connecting Soria and Valladolid. The building is an ode to stone, solid and rustic, forming arcades of monastic reminiscence, with towers at the sides and a belfry crowned by a weathercock at the centre. The stone in the outside and the warm elm wood inside welcome visitors, increasing the mood for special wines. Florentino Arzuaga, a great wine lover, founded Bodegas Arzuaga-Navarro after purchasing the Finca La Planta, an estate located in the town of Quintanilla de Onesimo (Valladolid), where the fauna and flora of the area coexist. With pines, oaks and Spanish cedars, wild boars and deer, Florentino realized the great potential of an estate large enough to have a horizon of its own. Then came the vines, the cellar and the wine-red wines as he liked them, with a backbone yet elegant, well-rounded yet complex. The spirit of the Arzuaga family combines an entrepreneurial tenacity with a sensibility for aesthetics and perfection.

Intense Tempranillo character is apparent in a concentrated, deeply colored red wine. Saturated red fruit grips the palate, leaving a long and sweet finish that promises excellent development in the bottle. Aged 15 months in barrique.

The four bodegas that comprise Alejandro Fernandez?€?s wine legacy, and constitute Grupo Pesquera, share a passion for winemaking that has perfected over time. The strong bond to this great winemaker?€?s homeland is also reflected in the group emblem: the symbolic Archway and Tower of Pesquera de Duero, the characteristic label on his mythical Tinto Pesquera wines. Numerous awards endorse our wines; awards reaped throughout our 40 years of experience in winemaking. It is, without doubt, a dream come true for Alejandro Fernandez whose maxim was always to own a bodega and make fine wines. Today it could be said that reality has surpassed the dream and that Alejandro, his bodegas, and his wines have earned worldwide recognition and appreciation.

The 2019 was PJ WIne, Wine Of The Year (2022)! The 2020 vintage is now in stock and it's rockin' once again!

100% Tempranillo from younger vines--under 20 years old. Grapes are hand harvested, de-stemmed and pressed. Long maceration about 24 days on skins. Fermentation done in stainless steel and aged 6 months in French Oak barrels, 6 months in American Oak barrels. 12 months in bottle before release.

This red has focus and depth, in an austere style that remains balanced and fresh. Black cherry fruit lurks beneath espresso, licorice and black pepper flavors, supported by firm, well-integrated tannins and juicy acidity.

Winemaker Notes:
"Cherry colour with garnet rim, bright and intense. Red fruit expression, powerful, elegant, dry stone, coca bean, creamy oak, hints of spices. Powerful, flavourful, fruity, good acidity, smoky aftertaste, toasty, long finish."

In 1927, a group of 15 vine-growers banded together to create the Cooperativa Ribera del Duero (which translates as "Bank of the Duero River"). They were the first to make a wine called "Ribera del Duero", and as regional pioneers, eventually gave their name to the DO when it was created in 1982. Generations later, this cooperative is producing some of the most highly acclaimed wines in Spain under the name "Protos", meaning "First" in Greek.

In 2008, Protos reached another milestone with the completion of its state-of-the-art winery by renowned British architect Richard Rogers. A modern architectural gem, the winery is built into the mountain just beneath Penafiel Castle, at once complementing and contrasting the ancient landmark.

LOCATION OF VINEYARD
Protos has two wineries in the heart of the Ribera del Duero: Penafiel (near Valladolid) and Anguix (near Burgos). Their third winery, La Seca, is where they make Verdejo in the neighboring Rueda DO near Valladolid. Protos owns 100 hectares of vineyards around its wineries and has partnerships with several local growers who supply additional grapes.

WINEMAKING PHILOSOPHY
Protos has the unique distinction of offering wines from two DOs, producing fresh, aromatic Verdejos from Rueda in addition to varietal Tempranillos from Ribera del Duero. Harvesting is entirely manual, and production is gathered in 20-kilogram boxes (just over 44 pounds) to aid in ensuring only completely healthy, whole grapes reach the fermentation tanks. Protos has also implemented an extensive R&D program to test the effects of different types of barrels on its wines.

In both DOs, Protos leverages its generations of winemaking experience, cutting-edge technology, and philosophy of "Quality above all" to produce exceptional wines.

Jose Serrano Carlos Guzman graduated from the L??Ecole Nationale Superieure Agronomique in Montpellier, France, with a degree in viticulture. Following graduation, he served as winemaker and technical director at several estates, including Bodega Cooperative de Morales de Toro (DO Toro), Bodegas Marques de Riscal (DO Rueda), and finally Bodegas Roqueta (DO Pla de Bages). He became Winemaker Director at Bodegas Protos in 1999.

Organic

97 pts Wine Advocate
I also tasted the 2017 Canta la Perdiz from the low-yielding and warm year marked by spring frost. The Tempranillo field blend clusters fermented in concrete vats with natural yeasts after being foot trodden. The wine went through malolactic and 39 months of aging in oak barrels mostly French for 39 months. It has the perfume and approachability of the 2017s but there's a lot more finesse here the quality of the tannins is superb and there's great balance and freshness. Another 2017 that transcends the vintage. The label is different each vintage and in this different year it does have a surprising somewhat Ponsot-like label...1103 bottles and 10 magnums were filled in March 2021.

Organic

98 pts Wine Advocate
Their Gran Reserva style red 2015 Penas Aladas Gran Reserva had a very long aging in barrel a total of 54 months including six months of malolactic fermentation. This comes from a myriad of small plots of some of the oldest vines in the village of La Aguilera in the same zone that names the wine at 870 to 890 meters in altitude. The valley receives very cold winds from the Duero River and the vineyards are surrounded by junipers pines and oak trees which makes it up to three degrees Celsius lower than the rest of the village one of the coldest places in the whole of Ribera del Duero. The soils have a layer of sand that is gradually mixed with clay until around one meter deep and then there's a layer of marl and limestone a textbook soil for the vine. 2015 was a powerful vintage and there was some frost that also delivered a little more concentration. The wine has an old Ribera del Duero style with some rusticity and lots of power energy and concentration but with great balance. It has plenty of fine tannins and lots of chalkiness. This should be very long lived. 2223 bottles and 41 magnums were hand bottled unfiltered and unfined in May 2020.

Organic

93 points Wine Advocate
2017 was an unusually short crop as a result of terrible frost in April 2017, when thermometers reached -10 degrees Celsius in some places. The 2017 P??caro del ??guila Tinto, their entry-level and most approachable red, was seriously affected, of course. They lost some 60% of the volume, but the wine is incredible for the condition of the year. It feels a little more mysterious, not as expressive or open, a bit reductive perhaps, but the aromas are clean and don't show any excess ripeness. They did an amazing job eliminating all the raisins that didn't make it into the fermentation vat, and the extra workload has clearly paid off. The wine has some grip and fine, chalky tannins. 17,025 bottles and 487 magnums produced. It was bottled unfiltered and unfined and with just a little sulfur added in October 2018 after 12 months in oak barrels.

Organic

95 points Wine Advocate
The juicy, velvety and aromatic red 2020 Picaro del Aguila Tinto is fine-boned and quite faithfully represents what they want to express with this cuvee; it's very tasty and has some chalkiness (perhaps through less ripeness than in years like 2018) with 14% alcohol and mellow acidity. The nose reveals some Cote-Rotie-like notes of smoked meat and violets. 2020 delivered a good crop of healthy grapes that produced the finest wine to date for this bottling. This is superb, elegant and powerful, with everything in place (seems to be the signature of 2020) and perfectly integrated oak. 71,382 bottles and 1,979 magnums produced. It was bottled in September 2021.

Organic / Biodynamic / Natural

Review is on the 2020 vintage.
92 points Wine Advocate
The red 2020 Los Cantos de Torremilanos was produced with Tempranillo and 3% Merlot grapes from their vineyards on boulder, sand and limestone soils from the river. It has 14% alcohol but is fresh and vibrant, balanced and tasty, with very integrated oak after 13 months in 225-liter oak barrels. Great value. 115,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in August 2022.

Finca Torremilanos is one of the finest properties in Aranda de Duero in Ribera del Duero. It's been in the hands of the Pe??alba family since 1975. Most of their 202 hectares of vineyards are there. They produce 500,000 bottles per year. They try to do fresher wines every year, and the wines show it..

Organic

Spontaneous fermentation in stainless tanks with native yeasts. Aged in stainless tanks for a few short months before bottling

#78 on The Wine Spectator's Top 100 Wines of 2021.

91 pts Wine Spectator
This complex red has polished tannins, with a beefy undertone to the glossy cherry, anise, loamy earth and spice notes that give way to vivid tea and violet details on the finish. Drink now through 2029


100%Tempranillo with 12 months in oak barrels and another 10 months in bottles.
Stewed, baked black-fruit aromas are ultraripe and gamy. Congruent with the nose, this feels rich, sappy and dense on the palate. Deep plum and blackberry flavors.

Organic

"Aged a minimum of 6 months in old French or American oak casks. Our traditional wine. Mil?? seeks to bring back the tastes of past years in a fresh and frisky sip of wine. A wine for everyday and for everyone." Winmaker notes

Quinta Mil?? is the personal project of the winemaker Germ??n R. Blanco in Ribera del Duero, Spain; a project on a small scale that aspires to produce wines that transmit the location they come from, a small town called La Aguilera, situated in the province of Burgos in the northeast of Spain.

"The millennial Unico was tasted twice in January and June 2012. It has a Bordeaux- inspired bouquet that demonstrates more austerity than the 2004 with herbaceous notes infusing the brambly black fruit: smoke, forest floor, wild mint and cedar. The palate is medium-bodied with bright blackberry, strawberry and Morello on the entry. It is extremely well balanced and more feminine than the nose suggests. There is also impressive tension and vivacity towards the finish. There is great backbone here, a solid and obdurate Unico at the moment, but it will surely mellow in bottle. 108,536 bottles produced. Drink 2018-2030+." 93pts WA

98 pts Wine Advocate
I tasted a bottle of the 2009 ??nico blind and was taken by the freshness, the red fruit notes and the Burgundian-like characteristics of this vintage, which on paper was quite warm and dry. I also tasted the 2009 Valbuena, which is always more approachable, and was blown away by its aromatics. With time in the glass the ??nico opened up and got closer to the character of Valbuena but with more depth and clout, while showing extremely elegant. I tasted it again in the context of all the wines from the group, and it delivered all that I saw when I tasted it blind. It takes some time to unfurl its aromatic palette, and it feels young and somewhat undeveloped, younger than it is. It has a touch that made me think of the old vintages of ??nico on the nose but with very polished tannins and a soft mouthfeel that provides elegance. This is a wine that ages for no less than ten years before it's released. 2009 seems like a great vintage for Vega Sicilia, much better than what I anticipated. It should develop nicely in bottle.

96 pts Wine Advocate
The Unico released in 2021, 10 years after the harvest, is the 2011 Unico, selected from 40 of their 210 hectares of vineyards. 2011 is a concentrated and ripe vintage, and they selected 95% Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon that were cooled in a cold room for 24 hours before being sorted; the bunches and grapes macerated at 9 to 10 degrees Celsius for three to four days, and then it was inoculated with a pied de cuve to ferment with pumping overs. Malolactic was in stainless steel, and the wine was put through a long aging, 10 years between oak and bottle, using new and used French and American oak barrels and 20,000-liter oak vats. For Vega Sicilia, 2011 was a fresher year than 2010, not the common idea about those vintages in Ribera del Duero. The wine has a developed nose with some notes of ripe black fruit, meat and underbrush, somewhat herbal and perfumed. There is something about the nose of the ??nicos that I cannot quite describe but is quite distinct, and it's in this vintage and also in the Reserva Especial.

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

The 2016 Valbuena was produced with a blend of 94% Tinto Fino (Tempranillo) and 6% Merlot from 140 hectares dedicated to this wine. It fermented with indigenous yeasts, and the first year it matured in barrels (75% French, 25% American) and the second year in large oak vats. This is again a floral and elegant vintage of Valbuena, very much in line with what has happened in the best vintages since 2010. 2016 is going to be a wine that the public is going to like; it has an extroverted personality and is perfumed and generous, juicy and tasty and nicely textured, with fine-grained tannins and very focused and clean flavors. 2016 was a year of very good freshness in Ribera del Duero, a year they like even better than 2018. 182,882 bottles, 6,030 magnums and a few larger formats were produced. It was bottled in June 2019.

95 pts Vinous
Dark violet. Powerful red and dark fruit preserve, pipe tobacco and potpourri aromas are complemented by exotic spice, mocha and incense flourishes. Sappy and energetic in character, offering palate-staining blackberry, cherry liqueur, floral pastille and spicecake flavors underscored by a vein of juicy acidity. Gently chewy tannins build steadily on an impressively long, focused and penetrating finish that leaves smoky mineral, floral and juicy dark berry notes behind.