Wine Advocate (100)

I was really looking forward to the single-vineyard red 2016 Canta la Perdiz, their rarest and finest bottling. It comes from a one of the oldest plots in the village of La Aguilera found at 890 meters in altitude on sand and limestone soils that give it a special personality and a chalky texture. The full clusters fermented with indigenous yeasts in concrete vats, and the wine went through seven months of a slow malolactic fermentation in oak barrels, where it completed an élevage of 31 months. The wine delivers what I was expecting, incredible finesse and elegance while filling your mouth. It is nuanced, perfumed and with a crystalline personality, with light and energy. It has very fine, chalky tannins that give it a velvety texture. It has incredible length. It's a world-class red that should develop for a very long time in bottle but also drink well throughout its life, even as young as now. This is one of the finest wines they have produced at this domaine, among the greatest in Ribera del Duero, fine, crystalline and full of Ribera character, serious but with a hedonist side. 1,789 bottles and 50 magnums were filled in May 2019.

Wine Advocate (97)

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...1,103 bottles and 10 magnums were filled in March 2021.

Wine Advocate (99)

Their Gran Reserva is released a good six or seven years after the harvest, and they consider the 2013 Peñas Aladas Gran Reserva still too young. It comes from small plots of some of the oldest vineyards in the village of La Aguilera, in the zone known as Peñas Aladas in a cooler place at 870 to 890 meters in altitude. The topsoils are sandy, and then there is clay and a limestone-and-marl mother rock that they consider perfect. The dominant grape is Tempranillo, but in these old plots, there is always a mix of varieties—Albillo, Bruñal, Garnacha, Bobal, Cariñena—and the aim is to ferment them all together (ripeness permitting). This fermented with full clusters that were foot trodden, and malolactic was in barrel and extremely slow (19 months). It matured in barrel for five years. It is an incredibly backward wine, young and undeveloped, with tons of gunpowder, earthy and mineral, diesel-like, complex and with a magnetic attraction that makes you go back over and over again. It has pungent and pristine flavors, with amazing precision and symmetry, like laser cut, long, with very fine tannins and a supple, almost salty finish. This wine should age forever in bottle. This wine is just magic. 1,671 bottles and 69 magnums were filled in September 2018. The initial 2010 is now glorious, but I agree, still young...

Wine Advocate (99)

Their Gran Reserva is released a good six or seven years after the harvest, and they consider the 2013 Peñas Aladas Gran Reserva still too young. It comes from small plots of some of the oldest vineyards in the village of La Aguilera, in the zone known as Peñas Aladas in a cooler place at 870 to 890 meters in altitude. The topsoils are sandy, and then there is clay and a limestone-and-marl mother rock that they consider perfect. The dominant grape is Tempranillo, but in these old plots, there is always a mix of varieties—Albillo, Bruñal, Garnacha, Bobal, Cariñena—and the aim is to ferment them all together (ripeness permitting). This fermented with full clusters that were foot trodden, and malolactic was in barrel and extremely slow (19 months). It matured in barrel for five years. It is an incredibly backward wine, young and undeveloped, with tons of gunpowder, earthy and mineral, diesel-like, complex and with a magnetic attraction that makes you go back over and over again. It has pungent and pristine flavors, with amazing precision and symmetry, like laser cut, long, with very fine tannins and a supple, almost salty finish. This wine should age forever in bottle. This wine is just magic. 1,671 bottles and 69 magnums were filled in September 2018. The initial 2010 is now glorious, but I agree, still young...

Wine Advocate (99)

Their Gran Reserva is released a good six or seven years after the harvest, and they consider the 2013 Peñas Aladas Gran Reserva still too young. It comes from small plots of some of the oldest vineyards in the village of La Aguilera, in the zone known as Peñas Aladas in a cooler place at 870 to 890 meters in altitude. The topsoils are sandy, and then there is clay and a limestone-and-marl mother rock that they consider perfect. The dominant grape is Tempranillo, but in these old plots, there is always a mix of varieties—Albillo, Bruñal, Garnacha, Bobal, Cariñena—and the aim is to ferment them all together (ripeness permitting). This fermented with full clusters that were foot trodden, and malolactic was in barrel and extremely slow (19 months). It matured in barrel for five years. It is an incredibly backward wine, young and undeveloped, with tons of gunpowder, earthy and mineral, diesel-like, complex and with a magnetic attraction that makes you go back over and over again. It has pungent and pristine flavors, with amazing precision and symmetry, like laser cut, long, with very fine tannins and a supple, almost salty finish. This wine should age forever in bottle. This wine is just magic. 1,671 bottles and 69 magnums were filled in September 2018. The initial 2010 is now glorious, but I agree, still young...

Wine Advocate (96)

The Gran Reserva from 2014 had also been bottled for over one year when I tasted the wines, so I included the 2014 Peñas Aladas Gran Reserva in this report, although the wine might take some time to reach the market. This is a rare wine, matured in oak barrels for 45 months and produced in limited quantities in a painfully slow process to create a wine with very high aging potential that, even when released some five or six years after the harvest, feels too young and a little raw. It feels a lot gentler and approachable than the 2013 I tasted next to it; it's more aromatic and expressive, complex and at the same time easy to understand. The palate is also approachable and tender, with very fine-grained tannins, when in reality, it's very powerful and tannic, but the balance is terrific. It should develop beautifully in bottle, and the Ribera character, which is there, should be even more evident with a little more time. 3,051 bottles and 43 magnums were filled unfined and unfiltered by hand in June 2018.

Wine Advocate (98)

Their Gran Reserva style red 2015 Peñas 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. 2,223 bottles and 41 magnums were hand bottled unfiltered and unfined in May 2020.

Wine Advocate (100)

The youth, freshness, balance and harmony of the 2016 Peñas Aladas Gran Reserva is gobsmacking. The wine is a little shy, insinuating, reticent and a little closed, and it feels younger than it is. It comes from a collection of small plots of some of the oldest vines in the village of La Aguilera in the lieu-dit, or "paraje," that names the wine, in a small valley surrounded by pine, holm and juniper trees, where there is a cold draft of air and the temperature is lower than in the rest of the village. The soils are sandy and intermixed with clay on a marl mother rock. The plants are mostly Tempranillo, but as they are very old vines, there's always a field blend of other varieties—Albillo Mayor, Monastrell, Garnacha, Bobal and Cariñena—all fermented together with full clusters that were foot trodden in concrete vats and indigenous yeasts. Malolactic was in barrel and lasted for 11 months, while the élevage was extended to a total of 55 months (almost five years!). After all this time in barrels, the wine is not oaky at all; it's floral and perfumed, elegant, nuanced and layered. The texture is silky, and it's medium-bodied, with moderate ripeness, 14% alcohol and very good freshness denoted by a pH of 3.41. It has fine tannins that make it nicely textured and fine-boned, with subtle minerality. This should be veeeeeery long lived, as it has the stuffing, all the ingredients and the balance between them to make old bones. Amazing juice. 3,591 bottles and 51 magnums were filled in April 2021.

Jeb Dunnuck (95)

The 2015 Reserva checks in a Tempranillo-dominated red with 15% comprising a field blend of Garnacha, Bobal, and Albillo, all aged 35 months in barrel. Gorgeous blueberries, smoked blackberries, roasted herbs, chocolate, lead pencil, and graphite notes dominate the bouquet, and it's medium to full-bodied, with a concentrated, powerful texture, lots of tannins, and a great finish. It certainly shows the warmer style of the vintage in its texture and tannins, yet it stays balanced and offers notable freshness as well as a great finish. It has another decade of prime drinking.

Wine Advocate (97)

Quite different from the 2015 was the 2016 Reserva, a red from a cooler year with good yields, so they were able to increase production of this wine over twofold and increase the quality! It took some seven months to complete fermentation, and the élevage in barrel lasted some 29 months. It has an incredible nose, violets and something musky, intriguing, complex and nuanced, mysterious and difficult to define, with some notes reminiscent of soy sauce. The palate is seamless and with terrific balance, a silky texture and very fine but chalky tannins. This is an amazing Ribera del Duero. 18,834 bottles and 519 magnums produced. It was bottled in April 2019.

Wine Advocate (97)

Quite different from the 2015 was the 2016 Reserva, a red from a cooler year with good yields, so they were able to increase production of this wine over twofold and increase the quality! It took some seven months to complete fermentation, and the élevage in barrel lasted some 29 months. It has an incredible nose, violets and something musky, intriguing, complex and nuanced, mysterious and difficult to define, with some notes reminiscent of soy sauce. The palate is seamless and with terrific balance, a silky texture and very fine but chalky tannins. This is an amazing Ribera del Duero. 18,834 bottles and 519 magnums produced. It was bottled in April 2019.

Tim Atkin MW (96)

Produced in what Jorge Monzón calls the "tragic", frost-hit 2017 vintage, when yields were down 85%, this shows that, in the right hands, what survived was often very good indeed. Marrying Tinto Fino with 5% Monastrell and 2% Albillo Mayor, all of it aged in old wood, this is herbal, chalky and intense, with stem ginger and wild strawberry flavours, fine tannins and impressive length.

Wine Advocate (97)

2017 was a low-yielding year, so I also tasted the 2018 Reserva, their flagship red wine that wants to be a representation of the village of La Aguilera—fine, serious and elegant. It's 95% Tempranillo with the remaining grapes found interplanted in their oldest vineyards at an average of 880 meters in altitude on limestone, clay and sandy soils. All the clusters ferment together with indigenous yeasts in concrete, where they are foot trodden, and malolactic was carried out very slowly (11 months) in oak barrels where the wine matured for a total of 27 months. It has a somewhat shy nose but is very elegant. The wine was recently bottled, and that can make it a little closed and subtle, and it clearly improves with air as it sits in the glass. It's still young, and the palate reveals lots of energy; the flavors are very pure and the wine precise and delineated. The tannins are very fine and provide for a chalky texture and an almost salty twist in the finish. This is very in line with the 2016. 15,250 bottle and 101 magnums produced. It was bottled in February 2021.

The Wine Independent (100)

Composed of 90% Cabernet Sauvignon, 4% Cabernet Franc, and 6% Petit Verdot, the 2019 Dominus was harvested from September 29 to October 10. It was aged in 40% new oak. Deep garnet-purple colored, the nose slowly unfurls to unveil beguiling floral notes of candied violets and rose oil over a core of crème de cassis, blackberry pie, and plum preserves, giving way to notions of licorice, Indian spices, iron ore, and crushed rocks. Full-bodied, the palate is jam-packed with taut, muscular black fruit layers, intertwined with gorgeous floral and exotic spice accents, and framed by firm, finely grained tannins with seamless freshness, finishing long and mineral-laced. Tightly coiled with so much latent energy waiting to explode, this is a spectacular expression of the vintage and Napanook vineyard. Still tightly coiled, give it a good 6-7 years in the cellar before broaching, and allow it a few hours in a decanter if consumed before 2032. 3500 cases were made, to be released in May 2022.

James Suckling (98)

This is a red with extremely creamy tannins that are fine and polished, giving length and definition to the wine. Full-bodied, yet tight and compact with plenty of currants and fresh herbs. Extremely long and flavorful. Drinking beautifully now.

James Suckling (98)

Very perfumed and aromatic with blackcurrant, sweet-tobacco and Spanish-cedar character. Full-bodied with ultra fine tannins that build on the palate and take the fruit and other flavors to an endless finish. More refined than the perfect 2018 and almost as compelling. Drink in 2023 or after.

James Suckling (97)

Deep and serious with black olives, blackberries, blueberries, tobacco leaf, sweet red capsicum, ash, dried meat and a hint of black chocolate. This is a more direct, full-bodied Don Melchor, filled with solid blackberries and wrapped by tight, fine-grained tannins. Long and deep. 92% cabernet sauvignon, 6% cabernet franc, 1% merlot and 1% petit verdot. Better after 2024.

Vinous (95-97)

The 2022 Riesling Schlossböckelheimer Felsenberg Felsentürmchen Grosses Gewächs is from a steep site of volcanic origin with porphyry and melaphyr. A touch of yeastiness still plays on the shy, tentative nose. The palate comes in with stony saltiness, a tingling sense of juicy lemon intensifying the salty impression even more. Great concentration aligns with lightness and energetic linearity. The bright acidity has a serene luminosity and ripe yet crystal clear smoothness that seems to stretch away into eternity, lighting the way, gliding along, dynamic, optimistic, promising and full of light. (Bone-dry)

James Suckling (97)

For anyone who has never taste one, this wine smells like the red-fleshed vineyard peach. Then, on the incredibly focused palate, you plunge into the mineral depths of a riesling Grand Canyon. You need to like acidity to appreciate this astonishing experience at this youthful stage, but the wine is still extremely young. For the moment you need to chase a laser beam! From organically grown grapes with Fair'n Green certification. Drink or hold.

James Suckling (97)

What a dramatic wine this is, at once ripe and austere, super-stony and super-herbal with a touch of peppermint. Compact core in spite of the sleek and very focused body. Electric freshness at the vibrant finish although the acidity is anything but dominant. From organically grown grapes with Fair'n Green certification. Drink or hold.

Wine Advocate (93)

The 2021 Kreuznacher Kahlenberg Riesling trocken is clear, bright and delicate on the nose that shows spicy fruit with red cherry and floral as well as flinty and some underwood or herbal aromas. Intense and fleshy on the palate, this is an elegant, piquant and mouth-filling, juicy Riesling with lemon bitters on the crispy finish. 12.5% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted at the domaine in July 2022.

Jancis Robinson (17+)

Filigreed and ripe stone fruit, young pineapple, orange blossom. An elegant mineral concentration carries the broad and citrus-laced palate. Deep and refined saline precision that is beautiful now and for many years to come.

James Suckling (99)

What a nose! This smells like essence of peach with a delicate, floral-honey overtone. Seems to vibrate on the palate, thanks to the staggering minerality and totally vibrant acidity. Extremely complex and energetic finish that goes on and on. Very limited production. From organically grown grapes with Fair'n Green certification. Drink or hold.

Vinous (96)

The 2022 Riesling Niederhäuser Hermannshöhle Auslese takes a while to open up. Finally, it does with a serene sense of ripe apricot, followed by a lovely citrus spectrum, ranging from lime and lemon, the merest overtone of candied lemon to tangerine with some crushed chamomile thrown in. Again, the palate is defined by Riesling rather than botrytis, bringing a rich but toned sweetness, intense, stealing your heart with its stealthy charm. It's fluid, smooth, serene, bright and laden with citrus and grapefruit spice on the long finish. (Sweet)

James Suckling (100)

Hit me with a flower! This starts very delicately with an incredibly subtle nose of fresh and dried flowers. Then comes the enormously concentrated yet totally filigree palate, which dazzles the senses with its thousand nuances and almost endless, super-silky finish. Decades of aging potential. From organically grown grapes with Fair'n Green certification. Drink or hold.

James Suckling (98)

This starts very quietly and gently with a wafting cloud of floral aromas, but then your gaze is pulled into the base of this Gothic cathedral window, pulling you ever further upward until you are staring at the heavens. Supernatural energy and vitality, the wet stone character cascading over your palate at the super-long finish. Doesn’t want to stop! From organically grown grapes with Fair'n Green certification. Drink or hold.

James Suckling (98)

Such an exotic nose with a slew of passion fruit, mangosteen and King Alfonso mango. Compact and concentrated, but the more important things are the coolness and gracefulness of this moderately sweet Auslese that turns in a dark, “earthy” direction at the powerful finish. Very limited production. From organically grown grapes with Fair'n Green certification. Drink or hold.

Wine Advocate (97)

Picked the same day as the GG and the Spätlese on November 8 but with finely shriveled botrytis berries, the 2021 Oberhäuser Brücke Riesling Auslese offers a clear and finely lemony bouquet with very fine botrytis tones, even though botrytis was less widely spread here than in the Felsenberg. On the palate, this is a rich and intense yet very precise and filigreed, refined and pure Auslese with an enormously saline and lively, long and energetic finish that shows piquant acidity. Superb. 8% stated alcohol. Natural cork. Tasted at the domaine in July 2022.

James Suckling (97)

Wonderful nose of exotic fruits and flowers. More than enough concentration, but what makes this stand out is the interplay of ripeness - floral honey as much as very ripe citrus - with a vibrant acidity that lights up the sky. Dazzling, diamond-bright finish! From organically grown grapes with Fair'n Green certification. Drink or hold.