Wine & Spirits - June 2018 - 78

IMPORTED NEW RELEASES
wine is round and silky, with tart acidity that
refreshes everything through the finish. Pour
it with New England clam chowder. § Vinaio
Imports, Bronx, NY
230049

88 | Protos

$13

2017 Rueda Verdejo (Best Buy) ^ Round, unctuous and filled with pineapple and almondskin flavors, this wine is fresh, smooth and
creamy, its notes of white peaches and herbs
shining all the way through the finish. § Monsieur Touton Selection, NY
228933

88 | Verdeal

$16

2017 Rueda Verdejo (Best Buy) ^ With its
almond-skin notes and smooth, soft citrus
fruit, this is a match for grilled halibut. § Wine
Worldwide, NY

228935

87 | Cyatho

$12

2017 Rueda Verdejo (Best Buy) ^ Fruity, juicy
and firm, this velvety wine is filled with pineapple and herbal flavors. Pour it with sea bass
sashimi. § USA Wine West, Sausalito, CA

VINO DE LA TIERRA DE
CASTILL A Y LEON
229612

92 | Alvar de Dios

$40

2016 Vino de la Tierra de Castilla y León
Vagüera El Maderal ^ There seems to be an
eclectic gathering in this glass, a party with
white fruit aromas celebrating together with
spices, meaty scents and earth tones, all
enjoying the diversity. While the texture is
soft, a marked acidity highlights the wine's
earthier flavors, drawing out a charming,
funky side. Recommended for adventurous
drinkers, this is a 95-year-old mixed planting of albillo, a local variety, together with
godello, moscatel, palomino, malvasia and
other, as yet unidentified, vines at a parcel in
Maderal, a village in Toro. § Eric Solomon Selections/European Cellars, Charlotte, NC
228902

91 | Valduero

$20

2017 Vino de la Tierra de Castilla y León
Yunquera Blanco de Albillo (Best Buy) ^
This wine's fresh citrus flavors give it a springlike air. The acidity is nervy, pointing up the
wine's mineral feel, even as the texture is
waxy-a perfect companion for chicken quesadillas. § South River Imports, Edgewater, MD
78

WINE & SPIRITS

JUNE 2018

91 | Comando G

S PA IN RED
MADRID
229324

96 | Comando G

$105

2015 Madrid Tumba del Rey Moro Villanueva de Avila ^ This wine grows at one of the
highest points in Gredos, at 3,600 feet in the
Alto Alberche, the wine named for the fabled
local tomb of a Moorish king. The ancient
garnacha vines, rooted in granitic soils, created a wine you can easily fall in love with just
by smelling it. Aromas and flavors of herbs,
tea and flowers mix with fresh fruit notes, the
texture dominated by tense, vertical tannins
that help make the flavors shine. The finish
feels especially refreshing, lasting on notes
of Mediterranean spring herbs. This little
beauty is a great excuse to escape for an afternoon to the Sierra de Gredos, a 45-minute
drive from Madrid. § Eric Solomon Selections/
European Cellars, Charlotte, NC
229322

94 | Comando G

$105

92 | Comando G

$175

2015 Madrid Las Umbrías Rozas de Puerto
Real ^ Of all Comando G's parcelas wines, Las
Umbrías (the shadows) is the most delicate
and subtle. From vines on granitic soil with
traces of clay, this offers an intoxicating range
of fruit and floral flavors, notes of roses combined with touches of tea and fresh herbs-
a small symphony to delight the nose. It's a
delicate and subtle garnacha with red-cherry
fruit, firm acidity and lasting notes of flowers
and earth. § Eric Solomon Selections/European
Cellars, Charlotte, NC
229323
2015 Madrid Rumbo al Norte Navarrevisca ^ Notes of tea and dried flowers fill this
light, tense garnacha from the heights of
Gredos. Its generous core of ripe black fruit
is structured by a pointedly firm texture. In
the finish, the herbs leave a delicate sensation of freshness. This grows at Comando
G's highest-altitude vineyard, closing in on
4,000 feet. § Eric Solomon Selections/European
Cellars, Charlotte, NC
229326

$27

2016 Madrid La Bruja de Rozas (Best Buy) ^
This wine's floral notes slowly emerge from
under a dense layer of red fruit, its strawberry
flavors deliciously ripe. It has the sharp tannins of garnacha grown in granitic soils, and
a nervous and lively acidity that makes it
ideal for pork chops. § Eric Solomon Selections/
European Cellars, Charlotte, NC

TORO
229694

94 | Numanthia

$250

2013 Toro Termanthia ^ The jewel in the
crown of Numanthia, this wine comes from
a vineyard planted more than 120 years ago
on stony ground. A classic Toro in its structure, it has powerful tannins, huge and tense.
These tannins hold a colossal fruit weight,
rich in nuances of blackberries and black
cherries. And although it is very young, its
future is already apparent. With a decade of
bottle age, this will develop all the complexity of spice and earth that defines the best
Toro reds. § Moët Hennessy USA, NY

228811

93 | Elias Mora

$65

93 | Teso La Monja

$50

$17

2014 Toro Descarte ^ Although winemaker
Victoria Benavides selects the grapes for this
wine from a vineyard with a relatively cool
northern exposure, the 2014 is still marked
by Toro's sunny heat. Rich in Mediterranean
spice and a powerful layer of black fruits, this
is a classic Toro to go with a succulent oxtail
stew. It has depth, wild tannins and, above
all, a lush, fruity side that needs five years in
the bottle. § Grapes of Spain, Lorton, VA
228944

2016 Madrid Granito del Cadalso Garnacha (Best Buy) ^ A wine for summer evenings,
this is immediately seductive in its notes of
tea and herbs, together with raspberry and
strawberry aromas, all delicately fresh. The
flavors carry more of that subtle delicacy,
tense, fruity and profound. From vines
between 20 and 70 years old, this grows in
the village of Cadalso de los Vidrios, at the
foot of the Sierra de Gredos. § Eric Solomon
Selections/European Cellars, Charlotte, NC
229276

2015 Toro Victorino ^ The Eguren brothers,
from Bodegas Sierra Cantabria in Rioja, were
among the pioneers who revitalized Toro at
Numanthia. Now they have returned to the
region to work with pre-phylloxera vines,
producing this ruggedly powerful Toro red.
It's smoky, with voluptuous black fruit and
plenty of tannins to hold all that weight. This
needs at least five years to show its complexity. § Fine Estates from Spain, Dedham, MA
229692

92 | Coop. de Cadalso
http://www.bodegascyatho.com/cambio-idioma/s1/i2/ http://www.grapesofspain.com/winery.cfm?id=15
Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - June 2018
