Other Reds
Roll over: Wine Spectator Wine of the Year 2023 Brunello is the soul, the identity of Argiano: elegance, finesse and, at the same time, structure and long aging.
Rose, strawberry and cherry aromas and flavors are the main themes in this red, along with wild herb, mineral and cut hay accents. Racy and full of energy, with a long, saturated finish. Best from 2025 through 2042. 9,400 cases made Jun 2023 95 points Wine Spectator Wine of the Year 2023
Roll over: From a key DOC in northwest Italy, famed for its tangy, cherry-like red wines.
Barbera d'Alba is a key DOC in Piedmont, northwest Italy, famed for its tangy, cherry-like red wines made from the Barbera grape.
A flamboyant style, featuring black currant, boysenberry, vanilla and spice flavors. This is extracted, with a good dose of new oak, but remains racy, complex and long. Decant.
Roll over Bodega Catena Zapata is one of the foremost wine estates in Mendoza
Few red wines can rival grand Argentinian Malbec for drama and grandeur, and this version from the Altamira zone of La Consulta (in the Uco Valley) stood out even amongst its dramatic, strikingly profiled peers. It is jet black, just shot with purple at the rim. Soaringly expressive Malbec rose and tea leaf lifts from the glass with enviable purity, without a trace of distorting oak. In the mouth, it is deep and long: an arrow of fruit yet elegant, deftly textured with a snow of fine tannins, and devoid of alcoholic heat or intrusive, strenuous acidity. A sumptuous, haute-couture Malbec where the vineyard’s untrammeled fruit and inner radiance has been given voice. Decanter
Roll over text : The joint vision that two great names of the wine world, Rothschild and Vega Sicilia.
2017 was a very challenging year, as most of their vineyards in San Vicente de la Sonsierra in Rioja were affected by frost, unlike others in nearby Laguardia. Not only was it frost, but they also had hail later on in the season. Quantities suffered—they told me they lost 70% of the crop in Rioja that year—but they were happy about the quality of the 2017 Macán, being very careful with the fermentation and separating the press wine by quality. The 4,000-liter oak foudres helped to polish the tannins, and they used 50% new barrels. The élevage lasted 16 moths. It's a little riper than the Clásico from 2018 that I tasted next to it, with a little more alcohol (14.5%) and mellow acidity. It's clearly a weaker vintage, and the wine shows it: the fruit is a little ripe and shows some tiredness, like it's evolving at a faster pace. It has abundant, slightly rustic tannins. 40,400 bottles, 2,566 magnums and some larger formats produced. It was bottled in September 2019. Quantities reflect the low yields. Robert Parker.com
These are very elegant wines, where the harmony of their aromas and flavours show the authenticity of the land from where they come and its capacity to produce great wines. Macán and Macán Clásico co-exist due to the desire to preserve the Bordeaux tradition to produce a first and second wine. Both always coexist and are treated exactly the same from the wine to the classification tasting. The different wine batches of the vintage are then separated, with the two wines being considered individually and showing the differences between them.
Roll over: The independent member of the Vega Sicilia family. Pintia is young, intense and groundbreaking in nature.
Toro (almost) didn't suffer the frost of 2017 that decimated Ribera del Duero, and in that early harvest, the grapes for the 2017 Pintia were picked between September 6th and 17th trying to keep the freshness and acidity. They also did a softer extraction, reduced the percentage of wine that went through malolactic in barrel and used less American oak for the élevage, trying to achieve a more elegant wine. Still the wine is ripe, juicy, round and powerful at 15% alcohol, with a mellow palate with a pH of 3.9 and 4.5 grams of acidity. The wine matured in new and used oak barrels for 12 months. It feels quite fresh and harmonious, not showing any heat, not as fresh and atypical as 2016. It keeps the poise and the balance and has abundant but fine tannins. These wines repay time in bottle, and even if approachable now, it should get better with time. It's like a refined version of the 2015. A triumph over the adverse conditions of the year. Robert Parker.com
Roll over text : Vega Sicilia is by far the most prestigious wine estate in Spain, with an almost mythical reputation for quality and rarity.
Opaque ruby. Primary dark fruit, floral and vanilla aromas are sharpened by a spicy suggestion of cracked pepper and woodsmoke, and licorice notes build in the glass. Juicy and smooth on the palate, offering densely packed, spice-laced bitter cherry, blackberry and fruitcake flavors that firm up slowly with aeration. Shows superb depth as well as energy on the impressively long finish, which is firmed by youthfully gripping tannins. Pairs well with beef and venison.
Vega Sicilia is located 100 miles north of Madrid in the shallow Duero (Douro) river valley on the high remote plateau of Castilla y Léon. The altitude is over 700 metres creating a special climate; the cold nights and hot days during the crucial ripening period in September largely contribute to the uniqueness of Vega Sicilia. In a good vintage only about 20,000 cases of wine are made and subsequently sold on a strict allocation basis. Demand in Spain alone well exceeds the total quantity available.
