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”This Garnacha is part of Zorzal’s series of terroir-focused wines. Coming from Fitero, a village at the base of the mountains in the south of Navarra that separate the region from La Rioja, the 40-year-old vines are grown at 520m on rocky soils on limestone and clay. The wine is defined by an elegant and precise structure but does not lack any intensity with blackberry fruit, black pepper and a little mint. With just enough tannic grip, it is profound yet full of energy and drive.Tim Atkin | 97 TAA longtime favorite of mine and still a bargain, the 2021 Malayeto is always one of the most elegant and finest wines from Zorzal. It comes from 2.39 hectares of vines that are now 43 years old, planted at 520 meters altitude on limestone-rich soils in the village of Fitero, on the same slope as their Corral de los Altos. It fermented in a combination of stainless steel and concrete and matured in 12 used 500-liter barrels and one 4,000-liter oak foudre for one year. It has 13.45% alcohol and is medium-bodied with great balance, finesse, freshness and acidity. It has good depth and a sense of good ripeness (riper than Corral de los Altos this year!). There is great consistency in this vineyard, and this wine is serious, precise and long. 13,300 bottles produced. It was bottled in February 2023.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 94 RPMalayeto is Viña Zorzal’s single vineyard bottling of Garnacha, with these vines thirty-five years of age. The wine is fermented with native yeasts and raised for nine months in three hundred liter, used barrels, prior to racking into large foudres for a final two months of élevage. The 2021 Malayeto comes in at fourteen percent alcohol and delivers a lovely aromatic constellation of raspberries, fruitcake, pepper, chalky soil tones, garrigue, a nice touch of meatiness and a gentle topnote of distant bonfire. On the palate the wine is bright, full-bodied and ripely tannic, with fine focus and grip, a good core of red fruit and soil, lovely balance and a long, youthfully complex finish. Unlike the regular bottle of Garnacha from Viña Zorzal, the Malayeto will need some time in the cellar to soften up its tannins a bit before it drinks with generosity. (Drink between 2031 - 2065)John Gilman | 91 JG

Juan António Ponce told me 2021 is one of those vintages when you realize in wine you never know everything... He thinks the 2021 Clos Lojen is the most complete vintage ever for this wine, with unusual freshness (despite "normal" parameters like a pH of 3.7 and five grams of acidity) and 12% alcohol. It’s intense and has varietal Bobal typicity with good weight. It fermented in 4,500-liter oak vats with 100% full clusters and indigenous yeasts and matured in 4,500-, 10,000- and 15,000-liter French oak vats for six months. This is sharp and austere, with lower alcohol and is more mineral than fruit-driven. Incredible value. 60,000 bottles produced.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 93 RPThis is a bobal with clarity and silken length, even as its scent fills the head with purple grape skins and bergamot spice. Friendly, in search of a chill for a summer night, this is a by-the-case buy.Wine & Spirits Magazine | 90 W&S

The white 2021 Cargol Treu Vi has notes of pollen and yellow fruit with some browning apples. It has contained ripeness and 12.4% alcohol with a very low pH and high-ish acidity but comes through as more evolved and somewhat riper than the phenomenal Principia Mathematica form this same vintage. It has pungent flavors and a medium-bodied palate, with some spice from aging in 300-liter barrels for 10 to 11 months. 2,100 bottles were filled in August 2022.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 93 RP

The bread-and-butter wine here is the 2021 Bela, produced with Tempranillo from the village of Villalba de Duero (mentioned on the label), from sandy and clay rich soils on limestone mother rock that delivers powerful but not overripe wines with a short-ish élevage to achieve a fine-boned and fresh wine. The grapes were picked between October 1st and 25th, mostly Tempranillo but some 5% Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot too, and it matured in French oak barrels for nine months. The wine has 14.3% alcohol, a pH of 3.57 and close to five grams of acidity, textbook parameters from the zone and textbook profile of classical Ribera; it’s ripe without excess, with very integrated oak and a velvety palate with silky tannins. It reminds me of the historical wines from the early 1990s, Valribeño and so on, with some rusticity but very honest and characterful. With time in the glass, it develops a precise note of licorice intermixed with berry fruit and some spices and herbs. They feel this is the wine they wanted to produce from the beginning; they consider it their best vintage to date irrespective of the style of the year, with 2019 more powerful, 2020 more elegant and this 2021 something in between. 85,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in July 2022.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 95 RP

This is the fourth vintage of Sandra Bravo’s brilliant old-vine Garnacha from Rivas de Tereso and it’s every bit as good as its predecessors. Aged in 300-litre clay amphoras, it’s wonderfully perfumed and intense, with engaging bramble and red cherry fruit sweetness, tannins and a long, energetic palate. 2023-32Tim Atkin | 96 TA

I love the 2021 La Vizcaína La Vitoriana, where they use the westernmost part of the vineyard with more sand in the soils, mostly north facing. It’s a wine with a floral nose that is aromatic and perfumed, elegant but with clout, with concentration and power. They have been picking earlier and earlier, lowering the alcohol, and they feel more comfortable below 13%; they removed the rusticity and extraction, and the wine is more elegant than ever. It reminds me of the 2018, with similar a profile of freshness. They produced around 5,000 liters from the one+ hectare they have here.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 97 RP

The varietal white 2021 Garnacha Blanca, from one of their favorite vintages, was picked early to produce the fresh profile they like, with 12.9% alcohol, a pH of 3.15 and 6.55 grams of acidity. They used grapes from the village of Fitero to ferment the must in stainless with indigenous yeasts. The wine matured mostly in concrete, a 2,000-liter Stockinger foudre and five new 500-liter French oak barrels. It’s fresh, floral and elegant, with purity and balance, a spicy touch from the wood. It has a very tasty finish and even a salty twist, super fresh with lots of finesse. It has volume and freshness, the vibrancy from an early harvest and the contained ripeness and alcohol. This is the style they wanted for this wine and took the time to find it; it’s more Burgundian than Mediterranean, to me. It should age nicely in bottle. And a bargain. 19,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in November 2022.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 93 RP

The very young white 2021 Blanco de Sierra de Toloño is mostly Viura with some Calagraño and Rojal that is pure, fresh and straightforward, with a floral touch and a tasty finish from what Sandra Bravo described as "the finest vintage of my life." The grapes ripened late, at the same time as the old-vine Tempranillo. It has 12.5% alcohol and a pH of 3.23, medium-bodied, fresh, vibrant and tasty. Great value. 9,000 bottles were filled in March 2022 after resting in tank with lees.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 92 RP

Reductive at first before deep aromas emerge of mineral, fine herbs, white pepper, oyster shells, hibiscus, freshly chopped blueberries and forest berries. Really dissolved and transparent on the palate with great tension and immaculate tannins. Persistent, mineral-driven finish. Already approachable now but this has impeccable balance, allowing it to age effortlessly. Better give it two years to get rid of the reduction.James Suckling | 100 JSThe 2021 Viña El Pisón had a similar élevage as the other wines, as they do not use the new barrels in the top wines like they used to do in the past; they try to have similar percentage of new barrels in all the wines. This is silky, a little riper and more aromatic than the 2020 and with a very long aftertaste. The wine is not oaky at all; it’s quite fruit-driven, and as usually happens with this wine, it’s quite austere, a little closed and backward. And despite its concentration and power, it doesn’t seem to weigh heavy. Persistent. It’s been in tank since June 2021 after it finished malolactic fermentation in barrel.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 95-97 RP