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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

A traditional red blend of 80% Tempranillo with 10% each Garnacha and Graciano, the 2020 Horizonte de Exopto combines grapes from Ábalos and, since 2016, also San Vicente de la Sonsierra, as he cannot produce village wines from there as his winery is in Laguardia! This year he also added the new plots from Baños de Ebro that represent 15% of the blend and which he feels add fresh red fruit notes and silky tannins. It showcases the Sonsierra zone with fresher Tempranillo with balance, length and the chalky sensation from the limestone soils. It fermented in concrete vats with indigenous yeasts and matured 50/50 in 600-liter demi-muids and 225-liter barriques for 12 months. It follows the path of the 2019 with a little more freshness. 12,000 bottles were filled in November 2021.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 93 RPHibiscus, blackberries and some cherry compote and spiced dark fruit. A full-bodied Rioja, loaded with juicy yet resolved tannins that seal off the palate, before a delicious, peppery finish. Tempranillo, graciano and garnacha. Drink now.James Suckling | 93 JS

The juicy, velvety and aromatic red 2020 Pícaro del Águila Tinto is fine-boned and quite faithfully represents what they want to express with this cuvée; it’s very tasty and has some chalkiness (perhaps through less ripeness than in years like 2018) with 14% alcohol and mellow acidity. The nose reveals some Côte-Rôtie-like notes of smoked meat and violets. 2020 delivered a good crop of healthy grapes that produced the finest wine to date for this bottling. This is superb, elegant and powerful, with everything in place (seems to be the signature of 2020) and perfectly integrated oak. 71,382 bottles and 1,979 magnums produced. It was bottled in September 2021.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 95 RP

The bottled 2020 Pingus has settled, and the strong Mediterranean accent that was quite strong early on seems to have calmed down. The wine shows more of the serious Pingus character and is harmonious, balanced and elegant, perhaps because of the time it spent in oak vat (starting this year, it is not only in barrique). It feels very complete and intense but without weight or heaviness, and the fruit shows very clean and focused. Peter Sisseck compared it with the 2000, a wine that for him transcends the vintage; it showcases the balance (wines like 1996, 2000, 2012, 2016 and 2018). The quality of the tannins is stunning, which make the wine very elegant and balanced, and it has good freshness (even some red fruit!). This is exceptionally good, but somehow my heart didn’t beat like with the wines he compared them with... 7,500 bottles were filled in July 2022.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 99 RPIntense yet subtle aromas of crushed stone, dried violets and sweet berries such as blackberries. Ink undertones. Full-bodied and very powerful with black chocolate, hazelnut and lovely tannins that go on for minutes. Bitter chocolate at the end with hints of coffee. Harmonious and structured. Needs four to five years to open, but will last beautifully for decades. Try after 2027.James Suckling | 98 JSA harmonious, medium- to full-bodied red, with pleasing tension and drive as well as depth to the flavors of ripe black raspberry and black plum fruit, with tea leaf, iron and smoke, white pepper and bay leaf notes. There’s a sense of effortless grace to this wine until firm, fine tannins emerge on the chalky finish -- a reminder of its quiet power. Drink now through 2033. 600 cases made.Wine Spectator | 95 WS

The fruit for Safrà is grown biodynamically at 600m on sandy soils in Finca Els Corrals, mainly from 20- to 40-year-old Mandó vines harvested before fully mature, with about 15% of Garnacha Tintorera in the blend. Produced by owner Pablo Calatayud and winemaker Javier Revert, the wine was vinified in stainless steel using indigenous yeasts, with one third of the fruit in whole bunches. This was followed by six months’ maturation in earthenware jars. Sarah Jane Evans MW: Earthy, winey aromas – a clear expression of the variety. Refreshing notes of dark plum and cherry, with light citrus. Long, intense finish. An original. Christine Allen: Redcurrant, fresh cherry and high-tone florals on the nose. Lingering spiced fruit and a floral finish. A stunning example of what Valencia can do. Beth Willard: Enticing chalky, creamy milk chocolate and raspberry aromas. Pretty floral character, with rose petal, sweet fruit and ripe tannins. Very fresh and drinkable.Decanter | 95 DECThey consider 2020 Safrà the more balanced vintage to date, with the help of the Arcos structure, which makes it longer and more complex. It’s 70% Mandó and 30% Arcos that fermented in stainless steel vats with 30% full clusters and indigenous yeasts and matured in 2,600-liter tinaja for six months. It has 13% alcohol and a pH of 3.45. It’s juicy, floral, tasty and fresh, with very fine tannins and a long, focused finish. The combination of Mandó and Arcos works quite well; the blend is serious, with structure keeping the brightness. All of these wines are incredible values. 20,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in July 2021.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 94+ RP

Dark ruby violet-colored in the glass, this wine has enticing aromas of orange peel, milk chocolate and black raspberry. Plush tannins and bright acidity wake up your mouth to flavors of ripe cherry, cranberry, anise frond and dried lavender.Wine Enthusiast | 97 WEA fragrant version, with black licorice and toast accents to the baked cassis and blackberry fruit flavors. Rich and expressive, without being weighty, layering the tang of balsamico acidity and supple tannins with the expressive profile. Reveals a waft of medicinal herbs on the finish. Drink now through 2028. 20,000 cases made, 7,500 cases imported.Wine Spectator | 92 WSDusted oak spices with a mixture of tarry black plums and blue fruit. Anise and minty chocolate, too. Full-bodied on the palate with very tight but creamy tannins and a long, spicy finish. Drinkable now if you decant, but much better in two to three years.James Suckling | 92 JS

2020 was a challenging year that gave them a lot of work in the vineyard, but it it paid off. The 2020 Laurel feels very elegant, balanced and fresh, a little lighter perhaps, with perfectly ripe tannins, a little in line with 2016 or 2013. It might be a little unusual for the house style or perhaps a slight change, as they are gradually going for softer vinifications; you don’t really need to extract in Priorat, because the wines are powerful enough on their own. It’s still extremely young and has a lactic touch (that blows off with a bit of time in the glass); it was only bottled at the end of May 2022, three months before I tasted it. Even if it’s the second wine here, it’s a wine that needs a little bit of time and improves in the bottle. Having said that, the 2020s feel more open, expressive and approachable than the 2019s, which are more tannic and powerful while the 2020s feel a little more Burgundian if you like. This has to be one of the finest vintages of Laurel so far. After some time in the glass, the aromatics of the Syrah (which was perhaps a little more this year, some 12% versus 8% in 2019) made an appearance—violets, smoked bacon. Daphne Glorian told me that everything was easy, that the wine was expressive and open from day one and that the fermentations were smooth. There are some 19,000 bottles of this.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 96 RP

The entry-level red 2020 Sierra de Toloño was produced with Tempranillo from Rivas de Tereso, fresh and energetic, representing the high-altitude vineyards produced in a simple way. It has 13.5% alcohol and a medium body with good freshness, clean berry flavors, vibrant acidity and fine tannins. 35,000 bottles produced, the largest production by far. It was bottled in July 2021 after eight months in neutral barrels.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 91 RP

The incredibly young and juicy 2020 Garnacha was produced with grapes from different villages, Corella, Cintruénigo, Fitero and Lerga, hence a regional blend that for the first time contains grapes from the cooler Lerga that adds lower pH, more freshness and complexity to the blend. They do a soft extraction in stainless steel using 20% full clusters and indigenous yeasts, achieving a wine with moderate alcohol (13.47%) and good freshness (pH 3.47). I felt like the wine had gone one step up in complexity and depth from the previous vintage; it’s precise, harmonious, elegant and nuanced and keeps varietal purity. It’s medium-bodied and has very fine tannins with herbal freshness, reminiscent of acid berries and bay leaf. This is a steal! One to buy by the case... 137,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in February 2021.Robert Parker Wine Advocate | 92 RP