Proprietary Blend Wines

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The 2016 Viña Cubillo Tinto Crianza was surprising, spectacular, elegant, clean and fresh like few vintages before. It was a superb year, with quality, quantity and freshness. It’s quite the opposite from the previous 2015, which was a much warmer and riper year. The 2016s have moderate alcohol and especially the perception of less ripeness (even though the alcohol is very similar). It feels very young, still quite primary. Mercedes explained, "Cubillas, a 24-hectare plot, is a vineyard that could produce Gran Reserva wines. It’s a very good vineyard, but we would miss the Crianza in our range". In fact, the comment was that this vintage is even a challenge for the Viña Tondonia red "because of its price." It is indeed a bargain. "But it doesn’t have the finesse of Tondonia," concluded María José. Anyway, it’s super tasty. 92,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in November 2022.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 94 RP

The flagship red 2018 Rioja Reserva was produced with a blend of 86% Tempranillo, 8% Graciano, 4% Mazuelo (a.k.a. Cariñena) and 2% Garnacha selected from their 300 hectares of vineyards that exemplifies the character of the vintage and the place. 2018 was a year with good rain and a cool season that resulted in a late harvest, which started on October 1 and was slow and delivered grapes with good freshness. Each variety and plot fermented separately in stainless steel. and the wines aged separately in American oak barrels for 21 months and then settled in concrete until bottling. It follows the path of the 2016, where I noticed a change that is taken further in this, controlling the power and increasing the freshness. It’s very aromatic, a year completely different from the 2017; it has less structure and more freshness and subtler balance and enough oomph, concentration and power neatly compensated by freshness. I believe 2018 was a very good vintage to implement this change. It’s perfumed, fresh, elegant and medium-bodied, with a velvety texture. Superb! 960,000 bottles produced.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 94 RPSavory cured-meat, tobacco and grilled-spice notes to the bright plum, red-date, cherry and green-olive aromas. Quite a juicy, medium-bodied Rioja with fresh and extremely silky tannins caressing the zesty orange and crunchy red-berry flavors. Nuanced, fluid and effortlessly drinkable. Long and extremely elegant. A vintage that highlights layering and freshness, rather than power and depth. 86% tempranillo, 8% graciano, 4% mazuelo and 2% garnacha. Delicious now, but will hold well.James Suckling | 94 JS(Rioja “Reserva”- Marqués de Murrieta (Rioja Alta)) The 2018 Reserva from Marqués de Murrieta has not been released yet, but the bodegas kindly sent me a sample for inclusion in this article. The wine is excellent on both the nose and palate, offering up a ripe and complex bouquet of black cherries, raspberries, cigar wrapper, clove-like spice tones, a beautiful base of soil, incipient notes of nutskin and cedary oak. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, focused and complex, with a fine core of fruit, lovely mineral drive and grip, fine-grained, buried tannins and a long, ripe and well-balanced finish. The ripeness of the 2018 vintage is evident here, but it is handled seamlessly and the wine is really going to be lovely. I suspect it will age very much like a top 1982 Rioja. (Drink between 2028 - 2075)John Gilman | 93 JGFresh and elegant, with a mouthful of ripe, crushed cherry and red currant fruit, this medium-bodied red is framed by crisp tannins and a minerally underpinning. Enticing hints of eucalyptus, dried fig and cigar box play on the finish. Tempranillo, Graciano, Mazuelo and Garnacha Tinta. Drink now through 2028. 80,000 cases made, 14,000 cases imported.Wine Spectator | 91 WS

The juicy and chewy unoaked red 2019 Señorío de P. Peciña Cosecha Tinto has bright ripe fruit and an earthy touch, a medium body and soft tannins that give it a supple texture. It’s a blend of Tempranillo with 3% Garnacha and 2% Graciano fermented with indigenous yeasts and kept in tank until bottling.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 90 RP(Rioja “Cosecha”- Bodegas Señorío Pedro Peciña (Rioja Alta)) The 2019 Rioja “Cosecha” from Bodegas Peciña is a lovely wine, with plenty of black fruit informing both the nose and the palate. The bouquet is bright and jumps from the glass in a mix of black cherries, dark berries, cigar smoke, just a touch of Rioja spice tones and a good base of soil. On the palate the wine is vibrant, full-bodied and tangy, with a fine core of ripe fruit, good focus and grip, moderate tannins and a long, well-balanced finish. This is still a young wine, but it is eminently drinkable already and will only get better with a bit of bottle age. This augurs extremely well for the Crianzas, Reservas and Gran Reservas we will see down the road from the 2019 vintage, as this wine is really excellent for its level! (Drink between 2021-2040)John Gilman | 90 JG

The house red 2020 Tinto showed superbly. It’s a blend of Tempranillo from the Obarenes Mountains (Sajazarra and Fonzaleche) with 20% Garnacha from Cárdenas on clay and some 5% white that has 14.2% alcohol but feels perfectly balanced and integrated. It has a serious, harmonious nose with complexity and depth but also youth. It has a soft and juicy texture with focused and clean flavors, finishing with an almost salty twist. Super tasty and easy to drink! Great value too. It matured in a mixture of 1,000- and 3,000-liter oak foudres and 225- and 500-liter barrels. 22,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in February 2022.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 93+ RP

Lastly, the 2020 Torre Muga just about jumps out of the glass with its complex red and black fruits, savory flowers, tobacco, lead pencil shavings, and graphite-like aromatics. Plush, full-bodied, concentrated, and beautifully balanced, it shows the softer, more rounded style of the vintage and has ripe tannins and a great finish.Jeb Dunnuck | 97 JDTorre is a bolder, more concentrated expression of Rioja from Muga. Meaty and tarry nose with smoked bacon. Lots of grilled herbs and some dark sweet spices. Powerful, broad and full-bodied on the palate with lots of vertical, dusty tannins that lead you towards the long, juicy finish. Tempranillo, mazuelo and graciano. Better from 2025.James Suckling | 96 JSThe more modern wine in the portfolio is the 2020 Torre Muga, which has notes of toast, smoke, sesame seeds, smoky bacon, spices, herbs and ripe berries. It is a wine they started producing in 1991, and the change in style also influenced the quality approach and selection of vineyards, grapes and oak for the barrels that they later applied to other wines. It has a polished palate with very fine tannins, chalky and elegant. It’s a more approachable vintage, round, velvety and soft, though perhaps without the aging potential of 2021, but it’s very pleasant. It’s long. They didn’t bottle the 2020 from Aro, so some of those grapes might have finished in this bottle. It was bottled in December 2022.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 95 RPThe garnet-hued 2020 Torre Muga is a blend of Tempranillo, Mazuelo and Graciano sourced from Rioja Alta, aged for 18 months in new French oak barrels. Its ripe aromas reveal balsamic and clove notes, featuring a delicate core of plums with hints of cedar and vanilla. On the palate, it is dry and plush, with a lingering juicy sensation and a fairly chalky texture. This is a complex Rioja wine that nods to a riper Bordeaux style.Vinous Media | 94 VMA bold but poised red, with fine, chalky tannins. Lively acidity lends definition and tension to the panoply of flavors, which partners savory game, espresso, cured tobacco and iron notes with ripe boysenberry, crème de cassis, cocoa powder and licorice accents. This should age nicely, but why wait? Tempranillo, Mazuelo and Graciano. Drink now through 2034. 3,000 cases made, 600 cases imported.Wine Spectator | 93 WS