2022, Real de Asúa, Rioja Alta DOC

100% Tempranillo.

The 2022 Real de Asúa is a wine that changed in 2018, when they started producing it exclusively with Tempranillo from the lieu-dit Carromaza in the village of Villalba. This is serious, harmonious, insinuating and nuanced, with subtle complexity. It's fresh and develops more complexity as it open up in the glass, with notes of flowers and spices, hints of pine cones and wild herbs. This is very integrated, compact and seamless, with very fine tannins, polished and elegant. It's a triumph over the conditions of the year.
96 Luis Gutierrez, Wine Advocate.

Sandalwood, vanilla bean spice, peony flowers, raspberry, black cherry, cloves, so juicy and characterful, with precise, integrated tannins even at this early stage in a hot and dry vintage. Aged French oak, tiny percentage of new oak. Harvested at the end of September over two days. Grapes from the Carromaza plot in the village of Villalba, RIoja Alta, winemaker Maria Larrea.
95 Jane Anson.