Wine Advocate (100)

The new bottling of the NV Reliquia Palo Cortado comes in a small bottle with a handmade and different label every year (so, each year the Palo Cortado is different in style and all the labels in that bottling are slightly different, as they are painted by hand by the artist, but in the same style). These are wines that, unless something very strange happens, are not going to show any differences, because the rotation of wine in the bottles is really small, as they all have their soleras and criaderas because of how the system is managed, especially in the case of the Palo Cortado, which is the more abundant of these Reliquia wines. In any case, these wines can get more concentrated and powerful, but they are already so concentrated and powerful that it is difficult to notice any differences. This wine will outlive us all. Only 80 half bottles are available yearly for the whole world.

Wine Advocate (100)

It's an historical wine, a one-off, semi-sweet white produced at the end of the Spanish Civil War, a wine impossible to replicate, fruit of impossible circumstances, a wine I've had the luck to drink and share with many people on a number of occasions and which never fails to impress everyone. The perfect 1939 CVNE Rioja Blanco Semi Dulce Corona is a mythical wine! 1939 saw the end of Spain's Civil War, and the country was upside down. There were some major battles fought in Rioja, and by the time they had to harvest the grapes, there were not enough men in the village. They must have focused on the best parcels, surely giving priority to red grapes. Some vineyards were overlooked, as happened with the whites that eventually produced this wine. These grapes were harvested extremely late, into November, close to December and their health was not optimal, they had developed some botrytis and were clearly rotten. The people in charge of making the wine surely didn't know about botrytis cynerea, or noble rot, and were surely afraid their grapes were rotten and they would not be able to produce any decent white. So they did the best they could, but the fermentation never finished completely and there was some residual sugar in the wine. So, as they did with all their wines, they put it in oak barrels to mature and kind of put it in a corner hoping nobody would notice its shortcomings. We have to realize that CVNE was already producing quite a lot of wine at the time, so it's not unusual to have a few stray barrels here or there that nobody pays attention to. What is not that normal is that the wine was REALLY forgotten and was "found" during a stock take for an audit in 1970! So the wine aged slowly in barrel for some 30 years! Once found, nobody saw any reason to keep the wine in barrel any longer, so they decided to bottle it. Not knowing quite what to do with it, the bottles were stacked somewhere and the same story was repeated, as the stash was forgotten and basically untouched until thirty something years later: thanks to the daughter of one of the family owners (the winery is still in the hand of the same family that created it back in 1879). The proud father had a vague idea about a somewhat sweet wine that could be served at his daughter's wedding and asked to get some bottles to taste. They uncorked it, tasted it and found a complex, subtle white with great balance between alcohol, acidity and a little bit of residual sugar (around 20 grams), which took the edge off the acidity and made the wine rounder, as old Viura can be too austere. The slow aging, first in an oxidative way during the years in oak provided some nuttiness, and spicy aromas, while the botrytis added some of those dry apricot, beeswax and pollen notes, hinting on honey, but also the long reductive period in bottle made it very elegant and polished, with infinite nuances of white pepper, quince, faint smoke, walnuts, petrol...This redefines complexity, elegance and slow aging. The palate is prodigious, with a gobsmacking (literally!) balance, pungent flavors, freshness, acidity, very faint sweetness and length like only something which has slowly evolved over 70 years can be. The aftertaste should not be measured in seconds, but in minutes, and the empty glass keeps changing and giving different tones for hours. If you leave a little bit in the bottle for the day after (yes, it's difficult, I know!) the wine is even better on the second day. There is no reason to believe that if the wine is as good as it is today it is not going to reach its one-hundredth birthday. The wine is mainly Viura, but there might have been a little bit of the white Garnacha Blanca in the blend. At this stage nobody really knows (or cares). This is simply otherworldly, superb, perfect wine, whose only improvement would come if they had bottled some magnums! A dream. A unique, historical wine. If there is a perfect white Rioja, this is surely it. Anticipated maturity: 2015-2039.

Vinous (94)

Glass-staining ruby. A highly complex bouquet features ripe red berry, cherry liqueur, cured tobacco and mocha scents, and a smoky mineral nuance and a hint of white pepper add urgency. Sweet, mineral-driven blackberry, cherry-vanilla, chewing tobacco and candied rose flavors show impressive depth as well as energy. Blends power and finesse with a steady hand and finishes chewy, sweet and impressively long, with youthfully gripping tannins adding framework.

Decanter (96)

This has a burnished mahogany colour - pale and interesting with an intense nose, coffee, tertiary notes, forest floor, balsam and tree bark. On the palate graceful plum fruit is now giving way to raisin, toffee, balsam, coffee, spice box and creamy caramel. It has a refined texture with super complexity and balance alongside a lovely freshness, elegance and length. A classic, old school, mature Rioja which is very much alive and a joy to drink. It’s at its peak but should plateau at this level for some time if well stored.

Jeb Dunnuck (98+)

From the same vineyard as the Vatan release, the 2014 Vatan Arena is the first vintage of the cuvée and was brought up all in new French oak. This deep, inky-colored effort gives up awesome notes of crème de cassis, smoked earth, violets, and vanilla bean. Full-bodied, concentrated, yet opulent and layered, with fabulous purity of fruit and building tannin, this monumental beauty has no hard edges, fine, fine tannin, and a blockbuster finish. It's straight up gorgeous on all accounts yet needs 7-8 years of bottle age and will keep for 3-4 decades.

Wine Advocate (95)

2011 was a year of good ripeness and dry weather, similar to 2015 or 2019, a traditional Mediterranean year, when the 2011 Mas del Serral also showed a more traditional profile, with more toasty notes, some hints of cereals, honey and a touch of caramel, a little more oxidative than the 2012. It has 12.5% alcohol and a pH of 3.05, produced by pressing the full grapes and fermenting the juice in stainless steel and concrete eggs, kept with the lees for at least nine months and put to referment in bottle with Champagne neutral yeasts, and then matured with lees in bottle for 100+ months. It's a long-aging sparkling wine with high minerality and an austere mouthfeel, developing slowly in the glass and unfurling Mediterranean notes of fennel and esparto grass. It finishes very dry. This seems to be aging a little faster than the 2012.

Exhibiting the sophistication of fine wine, the Mas Gil Emporda Clos Agon 2004 is a stunning product of Spain's Emporda region. This esteemed winery, owned by the Gil family since 1998, is nestled in the Verdera mountain foothills. The Emporda Clos Agon 2004, with its elegant intensity and complex character, speaks of a meticulously monitored wine-making process.

Crafted from a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Syrah, and Grenache, it matures in a French oak ensemble that releases mouth-watering notes of ripe dark fruits, crowned by a hint of spiciness. Aged for two decades, the Mas Gil Emporda Clos Agon 2004 is now gracefully mature, boasting a resilient ruby colour and tannins that have mellowed over time.

This wine is testimony to Mas Gil's dedication to preserving the locality's wine-making heritage, providing an elegant taste of Emporda. Relax in its velvety embrace as you savour the rich, layered palate, that amplifies the splendour of the Mas Gil Emporda Clos Agon 2004.

Vinous (95+)

(a blend of 70% tempranillo and 30% graciano, from the estates best old vines; aged 18 months in new French Troncais barrels) Superripe aromas of blackberry, currant, minerals and sexy oak. Offers great sappy concentration, with black fruit flavors complicated by pie spices. The wine's sheer thickness of texture is leavened by harmonious acidity, giving it great finesse for a wine of this magnitude. Huge mounting finish features thoroughly ripe, noble tannins and penetrating berry and spice notes. (Fine Estates From Spain, Dedham MA

Vinous (90)

Good medium ruby. Explosive aromas of black cherry, roasted tomato, olive, game and nutty oak. Sweet, lush and gamey; a bit less densely packed than the young 2001 but still stuffed with fruit. Shows a syrah-like animal aspect.

Wine Advocate (96-98)

A prodigious effort, the 2001 Tirant is a 9,000-bottle cuvee made from 30% Grenache (90-100 years old), 25% Carignan (90-100 years old), 25% young vine Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Syrah, and 10% Merlot. Fermented in large oak foudres and aged 12 months in new French oak, it will be bottled with neither fining nor filtration. Inky/purple-colored to the rim, it boasts a spectacular bouquet of blueberries, blackberries, and the region’s classic crushed stone minerality. This full-throttle yet remarkably elegant 2001 possesses tremendous intensity and texture as well as layers of flavor, but comes across as not over the top, overripe, or overly heavy. The 60-second finish reveals more noticeable tannin than the other cuvees. Give it 1-2 years of cellaring and drink it over the following 10-15. The 2001 Tirant is indeed a special wine.

Wine Advocate (98)

One more single-harvest, old sweet wine, the 1955 Don PX Convento Selección was bottled in September 2014 and it had been aged slowly in very old American oak barrels and getting thick and concentrated through evaporation. It's 320 grams of sugar are (partially) compensated by 6.5 grams of acidity. It has a nose and palate of chocolate-covered candied orange, spices, molasses. I'd say the dominant aromas in the nose are dark chocolate. It's very dense, developing notes of very concentrated licorice and balsamic, mint, camphor and evolving notes of petrol with time. Complex, rare and unique. 8,400 bottles.

Wine Advocate (97-98)

The oldest of the sweet wines I tried this time was the 1958 Don PX Convento Selección, a very complex and nuanced wine with notes of charred wood, tar, coal, bitter dark chocolate, licorice, roasted coffee beans and aromatic herbs. The palate is compact with no fissures and a bitterness that compensates the sweetness (it has 350 grams of sugar, so it's not a surprise that it doesn't feel as sweet as others). It's relatively dense, complex, rare and unique. They expect to produce 14,200 bottles of this elixir.

Wine Advocate (99)

My favorite of all the old sweet PXs I tasted this time was the perfumed and showy 1964 Don PX Convento Selección, which still has the wooden label, but it has also been modernized and made easier to read. It is denser than any of the other wines and has a brighter edge, amber, because the center is opaque and black. It has an incredible perfume; it's floral and spicy with fresher aromas than I remember in the other sweet PXs. It fills your mouth, goes down your throat like liquid gold and explodes in the eternal finish. It's an amazing PX with 15.5% alcohol, lower that most, and with 377 grams of sugar, also lower than most. Elegant and intense, simply delicious. There are 4,630 bottles of this wine, all bottled in February 2022.

Vinous (97)

Glistening ruby-red. Highly perfumed aromas of fresh red and blue fruits, candied lavender and exotic spices are complemented by a smoky mineral overtone. Sappy and energetic on the palate, offering intense black raspberry, cherry and floral pastille flavors that slowly put on weight and turn spicier through the midpalate. The floral and mineral qualities repeat emphatically on the gently tannic finish, which clings with serious tenacity and persistent spiciness. Sourced from a 1.9-hectare, high-altitude plot that was planted in the mid-1930s.

An exquisite example of Catalan viticulture, the Torres Mas de la Rosa 2019 is a gem from Spain's renowned Torres winery. This Priorat red captures the essence of the region's licorella soil, yielding a complex and commanding wine. Crafted using the artisanal Carthusian method, it's entirely handmade from the vine to the cellar. Handpicked from century-old Grenache and Carignan vines, planted in steep slopes at an altitude of 400 metres, this mixture delivers an elegant bouquet.

The nose of the Torres Mas de la Rosa 2019 provides an array of dark berries, adorned with subtle notes of Mediterranean herbs and minerals. The palate is truly rich and audacious with a harmonious balance of ripe tannins and vibrant acidity, leading to a profound and lingering finish. A genuine expression of the producer’s commitment to tradition and quality makes it a must in a true connoisseur’s collection.

Wine Advocate (100)

The 1962 Vega Sicilia possesses quite astonishing purity on the nose with candied dark cherry fruit, eucalyptus, kirsch and a touch of cinnamon. This is what you might describe as a -perfect bouquet-. The palate is medium-bodied with filigree tannin, seamless and satin-like in texture: an Unico that is shimmering with untrammeled greatness. Youthful, vivacious and utterly compelling, this is a profound wine that even after four decades is surfeit with precocity. Undoubtedly, this must be one of the greatest Spanish wines to have graced this planet. 87,600 bottles produced. Drink now-2020+ Tasted January 2012.