Bodegas Teso la Monja Almirez 75cl 2019

100% Tinta de Toro (= Tempranillo).

Almirez is een topwijn uit Toro

Nadat Vega de Toro, de producent van Numanthia en Termanthia, was overgenomen door Moët & Chandon, kochten de voormalige eigenaren van Vega de Toro mooie oude wijnpercelen en werd gestart met de productie van Almirez, Victorino en Alabaster.

De druiven voor deze 'Almirez' zijn afkomstig van 15 tot 65 jaar oude wijnstokken en worden handmatig geoogst in de tweede week van oktober. Na de vergisting rijpt de wijn 14 maanden op Frans eiken. 

Almirez heeft tonen van zwarte bessen, caramel, koffie, mineralen, tabak en eikenhout. De tannines zijn goed geïntegreerd en de afdronk is lang en vol.
Mooi op dronk, maar kan zich tenminste tot 2022 nog verder ontwikkelen. Uitstekende combinatie met ossehaas, wild, lamsvlees, pate, jamon en harde kazen.

The Wine Advocate:

"The 2019 Almirez was produced with grapes from their 41.7 hectares of vines that are 15 to 65 years old. The destemmed grapes were foot trodden and fermented with yeasts selected from their own vineyards for 18 days. Malolactic was in barrel, and the wine matured for 14 months in French oak barrels, 30% of them new and the rest second use. Despite the new oak, the wine is very fruit-driven and does not come through as oaky. It's floral, spicy and juicy, ripe without excess and with a velvety mouthfeel. This is approachable from early on, and even now, it has the silky tannins from 2019. It's less tannic than other vintages and has very good balance. There is more depth here, provided by the older vines, and there's more nuance too. 95,000 bottles produced. It was bottled in April 2021"

Teso la Monja is the name of the project of the Eguren family (San Vicente, Sierra Cantabria, Viñedos de Páganos) in Toro where they started Numanthia, which was later sold to a French group. They then resumed their activity in Toro with old vineyards from which they produce around 300,000 bottles per vintage. The wines come in their powerful style, ripe and round, generously oaked and with the character from the zone. The range is defined by the age of the vineyards used, except in the single-vineyard Teso la Monja. As for the vintages, 2019 was a dry year (not necessarily warm), a year of good ripeness and soft tannins given there was finally some rain at the end of August. The 2018s are a little lighter and have a little more acidity. All of this within the regularity of Toro, of course. There was only one wine from 2017, the scarce top of the range, a year that is quite different from Ribera del Duero, as they didn't suffer from frost, it was a warm year of low yields.

Luis Gutiérrez Jun 2021