Spain

95 Points! The single-vineyard Garnacha 2020 Os Cantals, whose name denotes a soil covered in slate, comes from a dry-farmed and head-pruned 70-year-old vineyard on red, iron-rich soils. It fermented in open-top oak barrels with indigenous yeasts and full clusters that were foot trodden, then the wine matured in 456-liter oak barrels for 13 months. This is subtler and deeper than the Las Ladieras, but it comes from a similar mold. It's beautifully textured with citrus freshness, and it's refined and elegant with great tension and ultra fine tannins. 3,200 bottles were filled in September 2021. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

93 Points! The mellow and soft 2020 Camino de los Arrieros comes from the same plots as the 2019 I tasted next to it, but the profile of the wine is quite different. This 2020 is a full 1% higher in alcohol, and despite keeping a low 12.5% alcohol, it comes through as riper and more fruit-driven. The integration of the oak in all the wines from De Dios is amazing; the wines show purity, delineation, balance, elegance and freshness. It reveals fine, chalky tannins and a long and dry finish. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

94 Points! The 2022 Tio Uco Vino de Comarca, crafted with 90% Tinta de Toro and 10% Garnacha sourced from Paramo de la Guarena, is bottled as Vino de la Tierra de Castilla y Leon and was aged in 2500-liter foudres. It exhibits a purple hue. Its reductive nose, reminiscent of cherries, also features plums and light vanilla. Light and fairly lean, the taut and chalky palate leads to a compact, refreshing, juicy and lasting finish. - Joaquin Hidalgo, Vinous Media

93 Points! I found the 2018 Vinyes Velles to be quite ripe with notes of prunes and decayed violets, with 14.5% alcohol and a low pH, so the nose seems overripe but the palate feels fresher. It's 84% Cariñena and 16% Garnacha matured in 225-liter oak barrels for 15 months. Ripe and generously oaked. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

93+ Points! The village 2021 Viñedos en San Vicente de la Sonsierra was produced with 75% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacha and the rest white grapes, mostly Viura from vineyards in the middle and higher part of the village. It fermented partly with full clusters and matured 50/50 in concrete and 500- and 600-liter barrels in their cave. This feels quite serious, with ripeness and power, slowly revealing more elegant notes and some floral hints, with an earthy touch. It feels like the grapes ripened thoroughly in the longer cycle and developed plenty of nuances. It has 13.9% alcohol and is medium to full-bodied, serious and balanced, with the stuffing to develop in bottle. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

94 Points! There's also a village red from Labastida, of which I tasted two vintages. The 2021 Viñedos en Labastida is a blend of different plots with some 85% Tempranillo, 10% Garnacha and 5% white grapes fermented with indigenous yeasts and some whole clusters in search of balance and elegance. The wine matured in 500- and 600-liter oak foudres in their cold cave. This was my favorite of the village reds, with a perfumed and elegant nose, complex, deep and nuanced. It's serious, harmonious and with very fine tannins. It has medium ripeness and good balance. 3,600 bottles were filled in September 2022. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

93+ Points! The 2020 Cuvée Las Santas was produced from a number of small plots at higher altitudes and cooler expositions (north), only Garnacha, small plots. It has some Mediterranean, Châteauneuf-like character (cherries in liqueur, Mediterranean herbs) with 14% alcohol, very good acidity and very fine grained tannins. They fermented it with 50% full clusters and matured it in used French oak barrels for nine months. This is the wine they produce in the style they like, a more personal wine from special plots. 1,423 bottles were filled in March 2022.  - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

95 Points! The 2021 Dominio de Anza Selección de Parcelas goes back to the elegance, perfume and refinement of the wines from 2018 and 2019—floral and clean. It comes from multiple places in different villages, all vinified separately in a year he found to be marked by the rain during the harvest. This has very good freshness. He used more full clusters this year, and the élevage was in 500-liter barrels and oak foudres. It's very attractive and easy to drink. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

92+ Points! The white 2022 Terroir Històric Blanc is the regional wine that blends grapes from nine different villages, 75% Garnacha Blanca and 25% Macabeo from different soils, slate, clay, granite and alluvial. The bunches fermented for three to five days in stainless steel, and the wine matured in stainless steel for six months. It has 13% alcohol and mellow acidity, 4.5 grams. It has a spectacular nose that is very expressive, aromatic, clean and open with pungent notes of pollen and beeswax. It's juicy, round and clean with persistent and pungent flavors, not very high in acidity, eminently Mediterranean. Really impressive. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

92+ Points! The 2019 Terroir Históric is charming, approachable, round, open and expressive, with good ripeness and 14% alcohol, a juicy palate with a soft mouthfeel and round tannins. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

91+ Points! The 2022 Gaba do Xil O Barreiro is from their own vineyards, 15 to 16 hectares in Larouco on red granite soils from a transitional place between granite and slate. 2022 was a warm year, a rounder and gentler vintage, and the wine is a little riper at 13% alcohol. Godello behaves differently from the single vineyards and has a rounder mouthfeel. It also has a more reductive profile, fruit-driven and with notes of flowers and herbs. It was bottled unoaked after four months with lees. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

97 Points! The 2021 Anza Especial was produced with the idea to obtain a wine with aging potential while keeping the freshness and drinkability from early on. It was produced with the fruit from three old vines—Tempranillo, Graciano, Garnacha and Viura—fermented by plot in stainless steel and matured in used 500-liter oak barrels. It encapsulates the perfume, finesse and elegance that is present in the whole portfolio here with the aid of a very balanced 2021 vintage. It has notes of violets, red and black berry fruit, wild herbs and subtle spices. The palate has symmetry, elegance and precision, the tannins are extremely fine-bonded, and the flavors pure and precise and stay in your mouth for a long time after you swallow. Great juice. It should age effortlessly. 2,800 bottles produced. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

From the importer: Barrialto Sobre Lías Santa Brigida, bottled from a single 500L butt, is a blend of two different albariza soil sub-types. Palomino grapes from Pago Balbaína Baja near Jerez (albariza tosca cerrada soils), with grapes from Pago Maína, near Sanlúcar, (albariza barajuelas soil). Rafa says that the tosca cerrada albrariza lends the blend balance and fitness, while the barrajuela albariza lends a dry minerality and herbal salinity. Each wine Rafa produces is a unique snapshot of a place, time, and soil type in his vineyards in the Jerez region. As a result, production of these authentic treasures is in the hundreds of bottles, and they are exceptionally limited, coming to the US market in tiny allocations.

Hand-harvested palomino grapes (from 40+ year-old vines) are de-stemmed and pressed, followed by spontaneous fermentation with native yeasts from the vineyard without temperature control in a 500L ex-Manzanilla cask. After fermentation, it rests for nine months on its fine lees with bâtonnage in the same barrels before being racked into a stainless steel tank to settle before bottling unfined, with only a light paper filtration and minimal additional sulfur used before bottling.

From Finca Aeiroá (1939) – O Barco de Valdeorras – Pure slate soils intermixed with broken quartz, northern orientation – three field blend parcels planted adjacent to each other, primarily Godello with intermixed planting of indigenous red varieties. Northern orientation.

From the importer: What strikes many as an unusual blend is fairly common in Penedes – aromatic whites made from a mix of “northern” and indigenous varieties. In the case of Gessami, it is a blend of the native Muscat (both Frontignan 35%, and de Alexandria 15%, which are grown by Gramona) and the non-native but heat-tolerant Gewürztraminer 15%, and Sauvignon Blanc 35%. Over a third of the cuvée is Sauvignon Blanc, which provides a fresh herbal lift and vibrant acidity. To ensure a balanced wine, the grapes are picked just as they reach ripeness to ensure plenty of acidity to balance the 6g/L of residual sugar that is retained. Depending on the vintage, either one or both Muscat varieties are used in addition to a small proportion of Gewürztraminer to boost the aromatics. Such a floral and alluring wine is fittingly named Gessami, which in English means Jasmine.

97 Points! There is a new superb pure Giró from old vines, from the upper two terraces of the Abargues property, first produced in the perfect Mediterranean vintage of 2020. The 2020 Fierroca takes the name from two words, "fierro"( which means iron) and "roca" (which means rock"), the components of the soils here. The grapes have less color but lots of grip, and the wine is floral, elegant, terribly balanced, tasty and ripe without excess, with a velvety texture and long, pure fresh and fine flavors. This is amazing! It matured in two 500-liter French oak barrels for 10 months. 1,300 bottles were filled in August 2021. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com

95+ Points! The depth of the nose of the 2020 El Veneno already talks about a much better vintage with very complete and full wines that are floral, expressive and ripe but delicate, what they always look for: delicate wines with power, the proverbial iron fist in the velvet glove. It's varietal, Mediterranean, fresh, expressive, rich and complex, with abundant, chalky tannins that coat your mouth and give it a dry sensation, earthy and mineral. It has more of everything. The finest vintage of El Veneno to date. - Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com