| 93 |
Vinous Media |
Saturated ruby. Smoke- and spice-accented cherry, cassis, vanilla and mocha aromas show fine definition and pick up a hint of cured tobacco as the wine opens up. Sweet and energetic on the palate, offering intense dark berry, cherry cola and licorice flavors sharpened by a spicy nuance. Shows strong energy and solid thrust on the impressively persistent finish, which is given shape by youthfully gripping tannins. 50% new French oak. 2024-2034
Josh Raynolds – July 6, 2021 Central Spain Additions |
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| 93 |
Wine Review Online |
I’ve never tasted a vintage of this wine that wasn’t excellent regardless of whether price was taken into consideration. When one does consider cost, it then emerges as one of the best values of any wine from Ribera del Duero, always challenging the top wines—but often at only about half their prices. In 2018, it shows excellent concentration and depth of flavor, and yet these virtues weren’t gained by over-ripening or over-extracting the fruit, or by juking the wine up with excessive oak toast. It manages to show very fine purity and poise even on a large frame, with very well-tuned balance between fruit, tannin, acidity and wood. It is already very enjoyable thanks to its exemplary proportionality, but will clearly develop in a positive direction for at least 5-7 years, and perhaps notably longer. When time in bottle has lent tertiary savory notes, this will certainly improve for a minimum of five years, and will surely hold at that level for another five, making this a very formidable performer for a wine priced at $42.
Michael Franz – April 26, 2022 |
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| 93 |
Wine Review Online |
This high-end red from the 2018 vintage in Ribera del Duero speaks very well for the vintage, but this bottling from Arrocal is always so alluring that the producer may have more to do with its excellence than the growing season. One look at the wine in the glass reveals its seriousness, as it is very deeply pigmented and viscous in appearance when swirled. The fruit is very expressive and so is the oak, yet they are very well integrated at this relatively early stage in the wine’s development. It is softer and sexier in texture than the Crianza “passion” bottling from this same vintage, and as an analogy for comparison, this wine comes across more as a backrub as opposed to a backscratch — though of course both feel good. Still, this seems obviously worth the $7 needed to move up to this from the Crianza, and so good that deciding to pony up another $13 to move up to the 2016 Reserva “Ángel” is not so easy. You’d really need to try a bottle of both to make a decision for yourself, which is exactly what I recommend that you do.
Michael Franz - May 18, 2021 |
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| 92 |
Wine Spectator |
This is lush, with juicy dark cherry and currant flavors mixed with tea, anise, graphite and violet details. Plush tannins give this nice texture, with good harmony and focus. Drink now through 2030. 1,250 cases made, 500 cases imported.
Gillian Sciaretta; September 30, 2021 |
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| 92 |
View from the Cellar |
Bodegas Arrocal sources the grapes for this bottling from forty year-old tempranillo vines the Los Astrales vineyard, which sits at an altitude of eight hundred and fifty-five meters above sea level, just southwest of the town of Gumiel del Mercado (home to Goyo Garcia’s winery). This is among the coolest sectors of Ribera del Duero. The 2018 Selección bottling from Arrocal was aged entirely in French oak casks for eighteen months, with half the casks new and the other half “one wine barrels”. It comes in at 14.5 percent in this vintage and offers up a ripe and elegant bouquet of red plums, black cherries, cigar wrapper, beautiful spice tones, cocoa powder, a good base of almost salty soil tones and a quite refined framing of nutty new oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and beautifully balanced, with a very good core, ripe, fine-grained tannins and lovely focus and grip on the long and nascently complex finish. There is just a whisper of backend heat here, but it is quite unobtrusive and should not affect the wine’s ability to age long and gracefully. This is a young wine and will demand some bottle age to come into its own, but it is going to be excellent when it is ready to drink. 2028-2055.
John Gilman - Issue #92 March/April 2021 |
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Arrocal Seleccion Especial 2018
