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• #BEST WINES 2021 FREE#

Sonsierra – El Rincón de los Galos 2017.Please read their profile to learn a bit more. This family has a lovely estate that’s producing some great wines and this white shows that Rioja is much more than ‘just’ reds. This is a marked departure from the previous two vintages of the wine although it’s a direction I love. While not a budget option, it is very indicative of the important direction high-quality producers are taking in the region. It balances classic Rioja with a more modern approach in making a wine that’s both structured, fresh, and exceedingly lively. Part of the newer wave of producers in Rioja, this wine shines in terms of being old-vine Tempranillo from a single plot. How he makes these and still manages the family winery is beyond me. There’s not really much that César is doing in Bierzo that I don’t like but this was really the top of the tops, showing the excellence possible with the variety, Mencía. Really great fruit definition here and one of the leaders in reinvigorating this nearly-lost variety. This was part of the DO Somontano report and shows the potential of the local red variety, Moristel (not to be confused with Monastrell). I’m not sure if they’ll continue releasing it but for the price and originality, it’s hard to beat.

There’s really something original to this wine that made it stand out in the Bierzo report as a very different take on Mencía that I adore. In looking back, I was by far and away the highest scorer for this wine amongst my fellow wine critics and I’m sticking to that.

It’s also at what I believe to be a reasonable price for the level of quality. This village-classified wine is exceedingly expressive and worthy of attention for encapsulating the cooler territory of the village so well. I’m a fan of what Sandra Bravo is doing in Rioja Alavesa and you can read more about this in her profile earlier this year. Mostly Garnacha, this wine shows what’s possible in the region and also how Norrel’s project is evolving.

I tasted this wine while working on the DO Calatayud report, but since most of Norrel’s wines are outside the DO I wrote about them in a separate article. Norrel Robertson is doing fine work over in Calatayud.

#BEST WINES 2021 FREE#

Ultimately I’ve arrived to 14 individual wines which are presented in no particular order and range in price from 6.50€ to 55€.Īs with the Catalan list, this selection is free for public viewing but the detailed scores, reviews, and price/quality mentions are for paid subscribers. It’s a list of wines I’ve tried over the last year and have thought notable either as they rocked the points bracket or more importantly because they represent something special to their specific region and worthwhile seeking. Honestly, I think you could spend the year dedicated to tasting the wines of Rioja alone and wouldn’t be able to cover all of it!Īll this preamble is to say that this is in no way some definitive list of the end-all, be-all wines in Spain.

There’s a publication in Spain dedicated only to Spanish wines and even with a large team traveling constantly, they can’t taste everything each year. Spain is a country that’s always one of the Top Three producers of wines in the world so it’s a fool’s errand to think you can taste all of them. For the moment however, these represent a little taste of what’s to come. There are a large number of wines from Rioja here as well given my recent extensive trip and you will notice these emerging in short order under new reports on the site. These wines were largely culled from my reports on Bierzo, DO Somontano, and DO Calatayud as well as small tastings of various wines from other regions. In general, 2021 saw me traveling and tasting a great deal more. Thus by taking Catalunya out of the mix and picking a short list from all these fantastic wines across the Iberian Peninsula, it gets somewhat “easier” to make a selection. the amount of wines I taste from the rest of Spain is very out of balance. Why are they separate? Some may assume it’s some kind of political statement but the fact is, due to being based in Catalunya with three of the top wine regions literally at my doorstep, the amount of wines I taste from Catalunya vs. For the first time I’m doing a Best Spanish Wines list which is accompanying my yearly Best Catalan Wines list.