Astrales Christina Coleccion Familiar
"Astrales represents a very modern version of Ribera del Duero, a lovely and layered wine with flavors of blackberries, licorice, crushed herbs and stony minerality, both elegant and powerful." —
Doug Frost, MS MW (Wine & Spirits Magazine May 2017)
Appellation
Ribera del Duero D.O.
Grape(s)
100% Tinto Fino (Tempranillo), from the single, 95-year-old Fuente Santa vineyard
Altitude/Soil
850-880 meters / alluvial soil with rounded pebbles and a high proportion of red clay
Farming Methods
Traditional methods, no herbicide use
Harvest
Hand harvested into small boxes
Production
Fermented with native yeasts in a large wooden tank for 15 days, malolactic conversion in barrel
Aging
Aged for 20 months in French oak barrels, 100% new, bottled unfined and unfiltered
Suggested Retail Price
$85
Astrales Christina Coleccion Familiar
2014
94 (WS) 94 (VM) 93 (VfC) 93 (RP) 92 (JS)
| 94 |
Wine Spectator Insider |
Dense and structured. Cassis and plum flavors mingle with mocha, loamy earth and black olive notes, imparting a balance of fruit and savory character. Drink now through 2030. |
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| 94 |
Vinous Media |
(made from vines that are reportedly over 90 years old; aged for 20 months in all new French oak barrels) Brilliant purple. Primary black and blue fruits, potpourri, Indian spices and vanilla on the explosively perfumed nose; a mineral flourish adds urgency and lift. Sweet, deeply concentrated, oak-spiced boysenberry and cherry cola flavors spread out steadily on the palate, picking up spiciness and a touch of star anise on the back half. Lush, broad and seamless in texture, finishing with excellent clarity and smooth tannins contributing shape and gentle grip. |
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| 93 |
View from the Cellar |
The cuvée Christina from Bodegas los Astrales hails from a ninety year-old vineyard and is raised entirely in new French wood for eighteen months prior to bottling. The 2014 version is excellent, offering up a deep and classy nose of black plums, black cherries, a lovely touch of soil, dark chocolate and a very well-done base of smoky new oak. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied and quite elegant in profile, with a fine core, lovely focus and nascent complexity and a very long, ripely tannic and well-balanced finish. This carries its one hundred percent new wood very nicely, though the purist in me thinks that ninety year-old vines deserve less new wood, rather than more, so that more of the terroir here can shine through in the wine. But, this is a beautifully made and very promising bottle in the making. 2024-2060. |
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| 93 |
The Wine Advocate |
The Tempranillo grapes used for the 2014 Christina reached 15% alcohol in a ripe vintage like this. It's a heady, powerful and generously-oaked red after 18 months in new barriques. This shows a little wilder than the regular bottling with some aromas of smoky bacon, hints of tar and ripe black fruit. It's powerful and concentrated with spicy oak flavors, but with very good balance. 6,000 bottles were filled in June 2015. 2017 - 2022 |
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| 92 |
JamesSuckling.com |
A rich plum and meaty nose, then a powerful but not overly tannic palate with a light touch at the finish.
August 2018 |
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Astrales Christina Coleccion Familiar
2015
94 (VfC) 94 (TA) 93+ (RP) 93 (JS) 93 (WE)
| 94 |
View from the Cellar |
As readers may recall from last year’s report on Bodegas los Astrales, the cuvée Christina is produced from a ninety year-old parcel of vines grown at an elevation of nearly nine hundred meters above sea level, allowing for a good diurnal temperature swing during the growing season. The wine is raised entirely in new French wood for eighteen months prior to bottling. The 2015 Christina is a superb follow-up to the very strong 2014 vintage of this wine, offering up a pure and complex nose of red plums, cherries, a touch of pomegranate, cocoa powder, soil tones and a well done framing of nutty new oak. On the palate the wine is pure, full-bodied, complex and rock solid at the core, with lovely focus and balance, ripe, well-integrated tannins and outstanding length and grip on the vibrant and very promising finish. This is still a puppy and deserves some bottle age to fully blossom, but it is going to be very classy wine when it is ready to drink! 2025-2075.
Issue #75 – May/June 2018 |
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| 94 |
Tim Atkin MW |
One hundred-year-old vines on clay/limestone soils in the Pago de Fuentesanta in Anguix supply the grapes for this polished, stylish, finely balanced red with notes of blackberry, clove spice and subtle reduction. 2020-28
Ribera del Duero Top 100 2018 |
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| 93+ |
The Wine Advocate |
The powerful and showy 2015 Christina is ripe and reached 15% alcohol. It's also generously oaked but keeps balance after 18 months in new oak barrels. It's powerful and concentrated, with spicy oak flavors but with very good balance and fine-grained tannins following the line of the 2014. 6,000 bottles were filled in July 2017.
August 2018 - Issue 238 |
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| 93 |
JamesSuckling.com |
Very modern, plush and concentrated with rich dark plums, baking spices, black cherries and some graphite. The palate has great density with focus and power, really chiseled into the finish with impressive resolve. The tannins are really exceptional. Drink from 2021.
August 2018 |
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| 93 |
Wine Enthusiast |
Max level full-toast oak gives this brute an almost burnt nose, but with subtler leathery berry and crude oil notes it's not just about the oak. To no surprise, this is intense and powerful on the palate. Flavors of maple, chocolate, toast and blackberry are pressed into a stocky whole that doesn't dissipate on the finish. Drink from 2020-2032.
Cellar Selection - November 2018 |
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Astrales Christina Coleccion Familiar
2020
94 (WS) 94 (VfC)
| 94 |
Wine Spectator |
There's a muscular frame to this dense, deftly knit red, which offers a plush feel on the palate while supporting a generous range of cherry, plum sauce, olive and balsamico, plus rich hints of dark chocolate, singed alder and bay leaf. Fresh and poised, with pretty floral and spice notes wafting through the lasting finish. Best from 2025 through 2040. 635 cases made, 100 cases imported.
Alison Napjus – Issue July 31, 2024. |
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| 94 |
View from the Cellar |
Bodegas los Astrales’ Christina bottling is a single vineyard wine, made from a plot of ninety-five year-old tempranillo vines in the Fuente Santa vineyard, which sits at nearly nine hundred meters above sea level. This wine sees its malolactic fermentation done in cask and is raised entirely in new French oak barrels for twenty months. It too tips the scales at fifteen percent alcohol in this vintage and delivers an impressively refined aromatic constellation of black cherries, dark berries, cigar smoke, cola, lovely soil tones and plenty of smoky new oak. On the palate the wine is full-bodied, focused and quite elegant in profile, with superb depth of fruit, good soil undertow, ripe, well-integrated tannins and impressive balance and grip on the long, nascently complex finish. Though this comes in listed at the same octane as the regular bottling, it seems a touch cooler in the mouth and shows no heat on the backend. It is a superb young wine. 2037- 2075+.
John Gilman; Issue 109, January – February 2024 |
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Astrales Christina Coleccion Familiar
2021
93+ (VfC)
| 93+ |
View from the Cellar |
As I have mentioned in the past, the Christina bottling from Bodegas los Astrales’ is a
single vineyard wine, made from a plot of ninety-five year-old tempranillo vines in the Fuente
Santa vineyard, which sits at nearly nine hundred meters above sea level. This wine undergoes
malolactic fermentation in barrel and is raised entirely in new French oak casks for twenty months. The 2021 vintage of Christina comes in at a robust fifteen percent alcohol offers up a deep and nascently complex bouquet of red plums, black cherries, Cuban cigar wrapper, a delicate array of spice tones (with nutmeg predominant), a complex base of soil and a very refined framing of new French oak. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, refined on the attack and just a bit hot on the backend, with a superb core of fruit, fine soil undertow and grip, ripe, chewy tannins and a long, focused and really quite well balanced finish. This carries its fifteen percent alcohol most impressively, but I would have loved to have seen it come in at 14.5 percent, just to give the wine a tad more vibrancy on the nose and palate. That said, this is still a beautifully made wine. 2038-2075+.
John Gilman, Issue 117, May– June 2025 |
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