Duero Wines

wines

The current 2016 Jesús Yllera is floral and perfumed and is evolving nicely and absorbing the oak, coming through as both elegant and powerful, with fully developed flavors and a polished palate. It’s sleek and balanced. 145,000 bottles were filled in July of 2018.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 93 RP

I tasted three vintages of the pink clarete, starting with the 2017 Pícaro del Águila Clarete. It was produced with a field blend of red and white grapes, approximately 35% Tempranillo, 35% Albillo Mayor and the rest a mixture of many different varieties (Garnacha, Bobal, Bruñal, Monastrell, Tempranillo Gris, other Albillos, Garnacha Blanca, Pirules, Jaén, Moscatel, Malvasías...) from different old vines in the village of La Aguilera. It’s a wine with aromas of a white and the soul of a red, really different from a rosé. It fermented slowly in oak casks for eight to nine months in a very cold underground cave and matured in cask for some 23 months. Despite the warm and low-yielding year (2017 was a year of terrible spring frost in the region), the wine keeps a moderate alcohol and very healthy pH. This has already developed the beautiful spicy perfume that makes me think of the rosé from López de Heredia. The 2017 is open and seems to have developed a little faster. The wine is balanced and tasty, without the chalky and fresh sensation of the 2019, perhaps a little like the 2012 (the first vintage released). Even if this is developing a little faster, the color is very stable. Even a vintage like this should drink well for a decade. 9,676 bottles and 12 magnums were filled in September 2019.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 93 RPOrange-pink color. Aromas of sour cherries, orange zest, dried lemon and salted almonds. It’s medium-to full-bodied with bright acidity and phenolic texture. Concentrated, smoky and toasted layers. Interestingly firm and oaky for a rosé. More like a light red. Drink or hold.James Suckling | 92 JS

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.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 97 RP