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Wine Tasting, En Primeur wines from 2015
Yesterday we had the opportunity to taste wines from the 2015 vintage that are still in the barrel. Prestigious wineries which put their wines on sale en primeur gave us a little taster and insight, and we are now able to share our first impressions. Generally, it has been a fairly dry and warm year in Spain.
Bierzo
It’s fair to say that it has been a year of contrasts for Ricardo and Alvaro Palacios, with record breaking temperatures and little rain until the harvest. When September came, the weather changed with rainy days that helped freshen the harvest.
The result has been impressive, the aromatic wines have a slightly more mature character which adds complexity, but in the mouth has a freshness and tension that gives the wine an extraordinary balance.
Corullón . This is a good year in balance, where the concentration and freshness prevail.
Moncerbal . This vintage comes with a strong mineral character and a good texture on the mouth. This is perhaps one of the best vintages made from this estate.
Las Lamas. This wine continues its journey in becoming a fresher wine, with a character slightly less structured and mineral than Moncerbal.
According to Ricardo, this will be the year of Faraona 2015. This wine is boasting and aromatic complexity that will evolve over time and a mouth full of thousands of textures make the Faraona an extraordinary wine.
Toro
The Eguren brothers in Toro have had a hotter and drier year than normal. Their wines as a result have become more concentrated, which with delight consumers of these wines.
Almirez. This wine is in its phase of taming the tannins in the barrel, the lowest of the three is showing that there will be major changes this year in the winery.
Victorino. At the moment this wine is more accessible, but it also boasts an important structure and minerality that further develops with barrel ageing.
Alabaster. This is concentration in a wine, the perfect harmony between optimal ripening of the grapes and large extraction work in the warehouse. This wine will evolve over time with a complexity of spices, roasted notes and fruitiness.
Ribera Del Duero
Peter Sisseck and Dominio de Pingus have also experienced a hot and dry year, which brings forward the date of harvest and decreases production relative to previous years. The vineyards used to produce PSI are scattered throughout the Ribera de Duero, and a cultivated and worked meticulously to ensure that the wine continues a great evolution year and year.
With PSI , the Grenache grape plays an important role in the blend in the balance fruitiness, intensity and elegance.
Flor de Pingus has enjoyed a good year with optimal ripening and good overall health of the vineyard, this is a vintage more accesable in its youth due to the fruitiness provided by the grapes.
Pingus has suffered a slight decline in production to a somewhat atypical final harvest since there had been no change in temperature between day and night. During the whole month of September an entire team analysed the developments and as a result they ended up with healthy and optimally ripened grapes, but with a slightly lower production. Like its brother wine, this wine offers a good accessibility in its youth, with a large horizon full of singularities that develop over time brother.
Madrid-Sierra de Gredos
Comando G and one if its members, Dani Landi, are the key players in the region and the valleys that compost it. A warm year has benefited its most extreme ploys such as the Rumbo al Norte which has achieved an unusual aromatic complexity due to optimum ripening of the grapes and the corresponding tautness in the mouth that characterize these high Garnachas plots.
The wines La Mujer Cañón and La Reina de los Deseos are located close to the Cadalso de los Vidrios, at a slightly lower altitude, so the wamth is noticed a little more. These wines are therefore offering a slightly fruiter and less floral character of the Grenache.
Rioja
In Rioja we have three different wineries. Two of the wineries, the Eguren family and Artadi, have been influenced by a slightly more atlantic climate, while the third, Álvaro Palacios in Rioja Baja, has been slightly more influenced by a more arid and Mediterranean climate.
It has been a dry year for the Eguren family, especially from May when temperatures rose and there was a stark lack of rainfall, bringing the harvest forward by 3 weeks. This vintage is marked by ripe fruit, but with a lesser concentration than previous years with its wines La Nieta and El Bosque, which also boast a great balance with the ageing between fruit and oak.
At Artadi they also saw the vintage brought forward, but having a final stable maturation and linear fruit in their wines is very precise and clean. This year their wines have a good balance.
For Álvaro Palacios it is the debut for their Quiñón de Valmira, a great wine from a Grenache vineyard planted 615 metres above sea level on the Mount Yerga. This wine demonstrates how the Rioja Baja and the Grenache grape go hand in hand, against the tough climate the Grenache gives way to a fine and balanced wine. A great wine that will speak volumes.
Priorat
Álvaro Palacios has had to deal with record temperatures in the Priorat, in a year that also experienced winter snow. Álvaro has qualified this vintage as hedonistic and enjoyable from its youth.
This year has seen the introduction of a new wine from the winery in the Priorat, the Augbaguetes 2015. A wine plot located in the Bellmunt, a hot area due to its lower altitude, as well as less hours of sunshine due to the orientation of the vineyard and its subsequent hours of shade. In recent years the winery has worked in a conscientious manner to increase the quality of the wine, until deciding to release it onto the market as a “vino de parcela” (wine from a single plot). This great wine from a warm area reflects Mediterranean aromas, and concentrated with a good structure.
Gratallops Vi de Vila 2015. This wine continues its line towards freshness, while this warmer year has given way to a fresher, Mediterranean aromatic notes and a little more weight on the palate.
Finca Dofi 2015. This wine is suprising in its accessibility and power, interwined with notes of citrus and red fruits, giving an incredible complexity. In the mouth, the concentration is plausible with silky tannins that predict a great future.
L’Ermita 2015. Airy, subtle and offering a perfect balance. It is the greatness of the vineyard that is harvested a month prior, which accumulate aromas, flavors and textures that make it what it is, a great wine.
