Meet the producer: Navarro Lopéz, Ciudad Real, Spain

A family-run enterprise for over one hundred years, Navarro Lopez has blended tradition and innovation and carries forward the best of Rioja wine making through its presence pretty much all over the world. Below are my tasting notes from a selection of wines that I received for review.

Elegancia 2019
Tempranillo 100%
The name says it all, this is an elegant wine
Paired with Chinese bamboo shoots, pork belly and brown rice.
Score 90

Chinese bamboo shoots and brown rice for an "elegant" pairing"

Vina trebolar 2022

Graciano, tempranillo, syrah and garnacha

A wine of stature, with plump structure, perfectly balanced, where the fruit has given space to secondary flavors. I can only imagine tertiary notes would develop in time but this bottle is ready now.

Score 94

Imperio Gran Seleccion 2019

Tempranillo 100%

This is a delicate tempranillo, this seems to be a recurring feature in Navarro Lopéz wines, a wine that tiptoes to your palate rather than exploding in your mouth. It is elegant and at its peak now. I think that its perfect structure could only suffer from prolonged bottle aging.

I paired it with braised duck legs and soya bean sprouts.

Score 91

Viña Valoria 2013

tempranillo 100%

A truly top notch tempranillo, with all you might expect from that and more. An intense aroma of ripe red fruits leaves you ready for enjoying a perfectly balanced and complex mix of secondary and tertiary flavors. 36 months in American oak confer a smooth elegance to this majestic wine. Great length. 

I paired it with shredded slow cooked pork accompanied by red peppers and a touch of spring onions for freshness.

Score 95

Meet the Producer: Heras Cordon, Rioja, Spain

The Heras Cordón vineyard in Rioja should be better known. I have been introduced to them at an online fair organized by Onvinum in 2022. 

From their website we learn about their history. The family tradition in wine elaboration dates back to the end of the 19th Century, when they built the first cellars in their hometown, Lapuebla de Labarca in Rioja Alavesa.

During the first years, the wine was meant for local consumption; it was not bottled but primarily sold in bulk. The clients were locals and the amounts of production and consumption were rather small.

Wine production came to a halt during the Spanish Civil War from 1936 to 1939. In the 1950’s, the winery was modernized and the production of Crianza wines started, with oak barrels of primarily French origin.

In the 70’s, taking advantage of the country’s modernisation, Heras Cordón Wineries and Vineyards launched its Crianza and Reserva wines into the national market. Its acceptance and growth was spectacular, in fact, the process reached its first peak in the 80’s, when the three siblings, who are currently the owners of the winery, set up a vine plantation company, becoming a national benchmark in that activity. Read more here.

Here below are my reviews of the wines they provided for tasting.

Heras Cordón Reserva 2015

Tempranillo (97%), graciano and mazuelo.
Incredible bottle this RESERVA from Heras Cordon in Rioja. The 2015 is eight-years-old at the time of this tasting and it is a marvelous feast of complex aromas, perfect balance and great length. The tannins are superbly rounded though they still offer structure. I paired it with a "boomerang" steak and it was a match made in heaven.
Score 95.

Expresión Limited Edition

Another great hit by Heras Cordon, this tempranillo is perfectly balanced, complex and long. It is ready now though still lots of fruit to show. ONly 5651 bottles came out of the cellar, grab one if you can! Score 93

Vendimia Seleccionada 2018

Tempranillo, graciano and mazuelo from old vines. Thirteen months in new French and American oak.

This  is a great wine, and looking at the main online retailers can be had for less than 20 euro. Intense ripe cherries to start, followed by smooth tannins and a complex and long profusion of secondary (prunes, mature wild berries) and tertiary (leather, chocolate) notes. Paired with aged beef. Score 94

Meet the producer: Las Cepas, Rioja, Spain

An organic vineyard in Rioja, third generation of the family business. Overall Las Cepas plant 52 hectares in deep limestone soils. We had a chance to meet the producer at the 2022 online fair brilliantly organized by Onvinum, a new Spanish platform to bring together producers, buyers and educators. Here below my tasting notes for some of their wines.

Costalarbol white 2021
100% white Maturana

A not-so-common grape produced a fresh wine with apple notes that reveals a finely balanced finish. Moderately complex and long.

I paired it with raw spinach and seared sea bass.

Score 86

Salad of spinach and seared sea bass

Chinese-style fish head

Costalarbol red

100% Graciano grapes. 

It is a vigorous, I would say impetuous wine, it feels like an impatient teenager in the mouth. Young tannins next to red fruit, with moderate length. 

Good quality/price ratio. I paired with Chinese-style fish head, the slight spiciness might have called for a smoother wine but if fact it went pretty well with the lively Graciano, perhaps because the tannins matched the succulent sauce of the fish. I then killed off my glass with French Camembert cheese. 

Score 86

1921

Garnacha 100%

Vines that are up to  one-hundred-year-old for this wine of great character made with garnacha grapes. A smooth velvety wine, with good complexity, and considerable length.

Score 92

Egg noodles with peppers and pakchoi

Boca Chancla Crianza 2019

Tempranillo 100%

These vines are the oldest, they go from 40 all the way up to 100-year-old.

A smooth wine with elegance and moderate complexity. Ready with limited potential in the bottle. Paired with fresh egg noodles stirred with peppers and pakchoi.

Score 90

Rebuzno 2020

Maturana 100% (in Spanish it means "donkey")

Made with Maturana grapes, an old grape variety that was an icon of the Rioja countryside in olden days. It was later almost forgotten to the point it came close to risk of extinction, like donkeys! And now resurrected for an organic wine that is full bodied, big, almost opulent I would say. Can be paired with meat, of course, but also with a rich pasta sauce and, why not, stir-fried or baked fish.

Score 92

Here is a map in case you are in the region and want to visit Las Cepas, click to enlarge.

Meet the producer: Alvarez Alfaro, Rioja, Spain

I was lucky to be introduced to Alvarez Alfaro at the 2022 online fair brilliantly organized by Onvinum, a new Spanish platform to bring together producers, buyers and educators. The two wines which were kindly provided to us are pleasant examples of Riojas in the low to middle price range.

Garnacha Blanca 100%

Strong aromas of apples and apricots, and a very balanced palate. Moderately complex and moderately long. I paired it with fried sardines with green and yellow pepper and then with seared and slightly spicy haddock accompanied by asparagus. A wine in the upper-middle range of the white garnacha from this region.

Score 86

Crianza 2019

Tempranillo and mazuelo

Vines of 30+ years, aged 14 months in French oak.

A
moderately complex wine with fruit making its presence felt while secondary notes emerge with energy.

Score 87