Jancis Robinson (18.5)

100% Malvasía de Sitges. Organic viticulture. Hand-harvested. Gentle pressing. Fermented in stainless-steel vats and aged on its lees for 9 months with bâtonnage twice a month. Neither fined nor filtered. Tasted blind. Fabulous! It is a saline, linear wine with a lot of energy, depth and very serious too. Elegance, strength, minerality and a clear sensation of wet stones. Very long and precise. Umami sensation on the back palate. I am impressed with this wine. World class. (FC) 12.5%

Jeb Dunnuck (97)

The current vintage, 2019 Gran Vino De Guarda La Comtesse is fantastically balanced with tremendous acidity and creamy texture. Freshness is added by the bay leaf and minty, herbal character that persists throughout a well-integrated, cohesive, and focused core of refinement. Beautiful on release, it will continue to develop nicely another 10-15 years.

Pazo Senorans Rias Baixas Albarino Seleccion Anada 2012 is the latest released vintage of the wonderful white, and we can rest assured that it is a wine of immense personality. Awarded 98 points from the Peñin Guide, the leading wine magazine in Spain, this sings with fascinating notes of “white fruit, citrus fruit, fine lees, petrol”. It possesses a richly flavourful and elegant palate ending with a lengthy finish.

Vinous (93)

The 2023 Clarete Pícaro del Águila blends 60% Tempranillo, 30% Albillo Mayor and other field-blend varieties. It is fermented in barrel. Pale salmon in color, the wine opens with cherry, peach and a seductive candy note. The palate is fresh and delicate, with lingering cherry on the finish. This is a clarete built to age. “It shows best in its sixth year,” says Jorge Monzón. Recently sulfited and bottled, it will grow with time.

Wine Advocate (93+)

The youngest of the released wines I tasted is a red—the 2016 Pícaro del Águila Tinto. It is from what they consider to be one of the best and freshest vintages in recent times. This is produced with the vines from the warmer parts of La Aguilera, a cold place to start with (and in a cooler year). The old vines are planted with a mix that is dominated by Tempranillo but also contains some 5% other grapes. All the grapes are picked and fermented together with full clusters and natural yeasts in concrete and stainless steel vats. It matured in oak barrels for 13 months. This is fragrant, expressive, open, aromatic and really attractive. The palate is really balanced, with great freshness, fine tannins and a very pleasant mouthfeel—supple, balanced and with great depth. This is the best version of this bottling so far, and it seems like 2016 could be a great overall vintage, based on some other wines I sampled from cask (many of them have an extended élevage). 21,550 bottles and 624 magnums were filled unfiltered and unfined in November 2017.

Wine Advocate (93)

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 Pícaro del Águila 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.

Wine Advocate (94+)

The youngest of the reds I tasted, the 2019 Pícaro del Águila Tinto is their most approachable red and is still serious, vibrant and aromatic with great length and still has good aging potential. They use the grapes from the warmest vineyards they have in the village of La Aguilera, form the northern part closer to La Horra, mostly Tempranillo but with some 5% of other varieties (red and white) interplanted in the old vineyards, fermented together with full clusters and indigenous yeasts and matured in French oak barrels for 15 months. Like the 2019 Clarete, this is young and tender and has more tension than I expected for a warmer year. It has less oak than previous years (only 10% or 15% new barrels), and the wine feels better balanced and is floral and aromatic. It's medium-bodied with a very fine texture, a pretty wine that drinks very well and doesn't reflect a warm year at all, as it has incredible freshness. A great Pícaro. They produced 69,852 bottles and 850 magnums, a notable increase in volume... while they increase the quality! It was bottled in February 2021.

Wine Advocate (95)

The juicy, velvety and aromatic red 2020 Pícaro del Águila Tinto is fine-boned and quite faithfully represents what they want to express with this cuvée; 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 Côte-Rôtie-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.

Wine Advocate (94)

The 2022 Pícaro del Águila Tinto has similar parameters to the 2021 (14% alcohol), but the sensation is of higher ripeness. Surprisingly enough, it has a lower pH than the 2021 I tasted next to it; they used more white to give it freshness and more of the other varieties. It has chalky, dry tannins, reflecting the terroir more, which is remarkable for such a warm and dry year. This is more serious, and the 2021 is more approachable. A triumph over the vintage. 61,757 bottles and 1,979 magnums produced. It was bottled in January 2024.

Wine Advocate (100)

I was really looking forward to the bottled version of the 2018 Pingus after a great showing of the cask sample last year. Part of the wine matured in 20,000-liter oak casks, so it's not all barrique. This is the first time they used the vats, and based on the results, Sisseck thinks in the future Pingus will be around 50% in oak vats. The Pingus vines were planted in 1929 in two different sectors of the village of La Horra, Barroso and San Cristobal and contain some 2% other varieties. The vineyards are certified organic and biodynamic and are manicured like few vineyards in Spain. The wine is subtle and harmonious, elegant and insinuating, with all the components in very good balance. This is precise and pure; Sisseck is thorough and meticulous, and the wine shows that precision. This follows the line of the 2016, showing very well even if it was bottled only one month before I tasted it. 9,300 bottles were filled in August 2020.

Decanter (96)

In the shadow of Pingus? Only, perhaps, if you taste it after the grand vin, because Flor de Pingus is another haute-couture masterpiece in its own right, again with that highly polished tannic texture and layers of dark but succulent and perfectly ripe mulberry fruit, suggestions of something darker and savoury emerging, but for now this is just a gloriously sensual young wine with a pronounced sense of place. Biodynamic.

Wine Advocate (97)

After 15 years of searching, they have come up with a blend of 85% Bobal and 15% Moravia Agria that they thought worthy of carrying their surname, which is what the new top of the range 2018 Ponce is. It was produced with grapes from a vineyard in Villanueva de la Jara planted with Bobal and Moravia Agria on stony soils with sand and limestone mother rock (tosca). They vinified the two varieties separately and then selected the two 600-liter barrels that showed more elegance and finesse. After fermenting with 100% full clusters and indigenous yeasts, the wine from those barrels was kept longer with the lees in a 4,500-liter oak vat. What came to my mind was Monty Python: "And now for something completely different!" It's only 12.5% alcohol, and the color is surprisingly light, almost like a Trousseau from the Jura. The nose is reticent, insinuating and nuanced, shy rather than showy but with detail and changing by the minute. Wet chalk, flowers, herbs and a smoky/flinty touch develop slowly. The palate reveals great inner strength, energy and light, focused and precise, with beautiful symmetry. There is rusticity, elegance and length, chalky and with an almost salty finish. This has to be the most elegant wine ever produced by Ponce and possibly the most elegant Bobal ... in the world? This is more Burgundian than Rhône. It has all the ingredients and balance to develop nicely and for a long time in bottle. 1,991 bottles were filled in February 2020. There will also be a white Ponce in the future.

Decanter (97)

Gorgeous spicy black fruit and prune nose. Round, ripe tannins and precise blackberry fruit on the palate with great character and hints of spice box and cedarwood. An outstanding Ribera with prodigious length and persistence.

Tim Atkin MW (95)

Pujanza wasn't hit by the hail that affected Rioja in 2017, but this is still a pretty concentrated number, made entirely from Tempranillo grown at 630 metres and aged in 25% new wood. Chalky, dense and youthful, it's a wine that's made to mature in bottle, combining intensity with focus, freshness and serious tannins

Tim Atkin MW (97)

The vines are still comparatively young at 19 years' old, but Norte, located at 730 metres on the slopes of the Sierra de Cantabria, is one of Rioja's greatest parcels. Influenced by the presence of limestone close to the surface, this is a thrilling Tempranillo that's taut, chalky and chiselled with serious, ageworthy tannins, sappy acidity and layers of red berry and black cherry fruit. 2025-35

Decanter (96)

Part of an accomplished range of Riojas from Laguardia producer Pujanza, this 100% Viura is grown on the small 3.5ha limestone vineyard of San Juan de Anteportalatina at 600m. This terroir produces a distinctive and distinguished white, with layered aromas, savoury notes, fresh lemon, preserved lemon, a touch of salinity, and stony minerality. Rioja's answer to white Burgundy: elegant, mineral, toasty, buttery, citrus, with real verve - a seam of focused acidity. Vibrant finish, long and layered with fresh grapefruit, saltiness, toasted nuts. Aged for 12 months in French oak and concrete. Limited production.

Wine Advocate (95)

The white 2020 Anteportalatina is a village white from Laguardia produced with Viura at 600 meters in altitude. It fermented in stainless steel and matured in French barriques and concrete egg for one year. It has 14.02% alcohol and a pH of 3.05 with 6.8 grams of acidity. I love the nose here; I find the restraint of cooler years. And the palate is powerful with great freshness. The wine is tasty and showcases the profile of Viura, a bit neutral and austere but with a lot of freshness and great aging potential. I liked this better than the 2019 Añadas Frías. 2,030 bottles.

Wine Advocate (98)

The single-vineyard Sorte O Soro had not been produced since 2016, and the 2019 Sorte O Soro is the next vintage after that. This plot has always shown additional elegance, freshness and salinity since he started vinifying it in 2004, because of the altitude (710 meters above sea level) and the north exposure to the Bibei Valley, where the old clone is planted on fine granite sand and quartz soils. Like As Sortes, this Sorte also fermented and matured with lees in new 500-liter French oak barrels for eight months. It has 14% alcohol with a pH of 3.12 and higher acidity (at 7.5 grams) than the rest of the 2019s. It feels very harmonious, elegant and nuanced with some creaminess, with notes of wet pollen and yellow flowers. The palate reflects the soil, with vibrant granite and very fine sand and electric quartz (saline), and it's also round and powerful from the clone that is planted in the vineyard. This vineyard is in the process of being organically and biodynamically certified. 2,240 bottles were filled in September 2020. I tasted the 2019s and 2020s from Rafa Palacios in Valdeorras. For him, these are two very good years. 2019 had a mild and dry winter and a rainy and cold spring that delayed budding, followed by a mild summer with fewer hours of sunshine, which meant a delay in the ripening process. Harvest was more than one month later than usual, and the grapes achieved very slow ripening and full development of aromas and flavors while keeping the acidity. The harvest started in October and finished in November. It's a beautiful, homogeneous vintage with very good wines. 2020 saw a moderately cool and rainy winter and a dry and cold spring that resulted in 20% less bunches than in 2019. The summer was also quite dry but, fortunately, not too hot. Given the low yields, maturation was accelerated, and the harvest began at the beginning of September for Louro and from September 25th for As Sortes. Given the scarce water, the plants had to work harder deep down into the soil, which marked the wines; the silica and quartz from the sandy soils of O Bolo shaped a saline identity and the wines achieved a lot of elegance and balance. It's a more heterogeneous vintage, and the higher-altitude vineyards behaved better. The 2020 O Soro is out of this world. He gave me a quick preview of the very cold 2021, a vin de garde vintage but a challenging year with a lot of rain. They are in the process of certifying their vineyards (organic and biodynamic), but they have some problems in the vineyards with neighbors who are not organic, so it will probably be faster for O Soro and Sorte Antiga.

Wine Advocate (96)

The super elegant and austere 2021 As Sortes has a sense of harmony and subtleness that is moving. I found great purity, precision and symmetry in the wine. It has marked granite sensations in the palate; it's very tasty, long, fine-grained and textured, with the cold texture of the year. Palacios compared 2021 with 2012, which was very cold and dry before the harvest. It has to be one of the most elegant vintages of As Sortes.

Wine Advocate (93)

La Gundiñas is the wine that shows the most differences between 2017 and 2018. The 2017 La Vizcaína Las Gundiñas is dark and concentrated, a wine of sun, while the 2018 is delicate and feels like a mini Bonnes Mares! This is quite like a Cornas—meaty, juicy, a little reticent and powerful, with abundant tannins. This is one wine that behaves better in 2017 than in 2016. This is a plot that has ups and down; it might be more regular in the future, as they finally bought it in 2018. Some 5,500 bottles produced. It was bottled in May 2019.

Wine Advocate (95)

I was impressed by the 2017 La Vizcaína El Rapolao, but the warm vintage was very good for a warmer vineyard like El Rapolao. This is hands-down my favorite of the 2017s from La Vizcaína, the wine that shows more freshness. It's harmonious and perhaps was harvested a little earlier than the others. Like the other wines from the range, this 2017 has more color than the 2018, as well as more power and a little more concentration, and it's also denser than the 2018, with tannins that are grittier and a little drier. But if I didn't have the 2018 next to this, I would only be praising it, because the 2017 is truly impressive, all in place and simply one step up in power and all the rest to keep the balance. 10,000 bottles were filled in May 2019. This is a late-budding vineyard, and it didn't suffer the effect of the spring hail from the year.

Wine Advocate (95+)

There is a bit of an animal hint on the nose of the 2018 La Vizcaína El Rapolao, which Raúl Pérez tells me is always part of the character of the wine when it's young. The difference with the 2017 is the quality of the tannins, which rounder and more elegant here, and the concentration, which is lower here, so this 2018 comes through as more fluid, fresh and elegant, with a silkier mouthfeel. They finally bought the vineyard in 2018, and the change in viticulture resulted in lower yields: they produced 6,000 bottles of this 2018, compared with the 10,000 bottles of the 2017. They have bought three more plots for this bottling, so volumes will grow in the future. The initial sensation fades after the wine has been in bottle for one hour, and it makes sense that it's gong to disappear with some more time in bottle. Pérez thinks it might be related to the recent bottling. It was bottled in May 2020, a few weeks before I tasted it.

Wine Advocate (95)

Raúl Pérez has purchased the plot of El Rapolao that he uses for La Vizcaína, close to 1.3 hectares, and they expect the wine to have a big change as they are taking over the viticulture and want to lower yields. The 2019 La Vizcaína El Rapolao has plenty of tannin and is more concentrated than the 2020. 5,000 bottles produced.

Wine Advocate (96)

There is more freshness in the 2020 La Vizcaína El Rapolao, where I even found notes of eucalyptus. It's medium-bodied and has fine tannins, very tasty and balanced. There are two new plots in 2020, so they produced some 7,500 bottles. He wants to reach 20,000 bottles here, and there will be a white Rapolao from a plot that he planted with Godello.

Vinous (94)

Shimmering violet. Intensely perfumed aromas of dark berries, cherry pit, incense, exotic spices and pungent flowers, along with a smoky mineral flourish that builds in the glass. Densely packed and chewy on the palate, showing excellent depth and bright mineral lift to the sappy black and blue fruit, spicecake and violet pastille flavors. Gains energy with air and finishes impressively long and juicy, polished tannins building slowly and harmonizing with the wine's mineral-tinged fruit.