Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate places La Nieta 2013 at the top of its ranking, with 96+ points.
The Wine Spectator awarded 94 points to Alabaster 2013 and 93 points to El Puntido 2012.
The Wine Enthusiast chose Sierra Cantabria Reserva 2010 as its Editors’ Choice, with 93 points.
The Wine Advocate, the prestigious magazine headed up by the American critic Robert Parker has published a new article about the wines of La Rioja, penned by its taster for Spanish wines, Luis Gutiérrez, who also announced the scores. This famous list once again placed the Eguren family’s wines at the top: La Nieta 2013 garnered 96+ points. The Wine Advocate thus praised La Nieta 2013: “Always one of my favorites, La Nieta 2013 is still very young, but this vineyard, sown under the auspices of the winery in the town of Páganos, in very shallow soils, softening the effects of the weather (even the excessive rainfall in 2013) produces a very consistent wine.”
Also nearing perfection were Finca El Bosque 2013, with 95 points, and Amancio 2013, with 94 points. Both are crafted with meticulous care, in accord with the principles of sustainable agriculture, employing traditional production methods featuring manual de-stemming, one by one, and traditional pigeage, along with fermentation and aging in French oak barrels – with a slight touch of Central European oak for Finca El Bosque.
Gutierrez also awarded 93 points to two Marcos Eguren wines from the DOCa: El Puntido 2013, by the Viñedos de Páganos winery, located in the Rioja Alavesa region; and San Vicente 2013 by Señorío de San Vicente.
The good scores also recognised the quality of the oldest wines in Eguren’s range, with 92 points for Sierra Cantabria Reserva 2010; 90 points for Sierra Cantabria Reserva Única 2012, and Colección Privada 2013. They all come from an exhaustive selection of clusters from vineyards in the vicinity of San Vicente de la Sonsierra (Rioja Alta) and Labastida (Rioja Alavesa).
The Eguren family’s venture in the Toro DO also received excellent scores, with Románico 2014 and Almirez 2014 receiving 92 points.
The wines from the Eguren family are defined by Marcos Eguren as creations that combine fruit, power and structure with elegance, freshness and subtlety; new classics that evoke the vineyards from which they proceed.
The wines produced by the Eguren family have once again won recognition from international critics. Alabaster 2013, from Teso La Monja, was identified as the finest Toro wine by the American magazine The Wine Spectator, with 94 points, after a review of Spanish wines to appear in the upcoming October issue. Only one point behind, El Puntido 2013, by Viñedos de Páganos, also got the publication’s attention, with 93 points.
Victorino 2013 and Sierra Cantabria Reserva 2010 were right up there as well, with 92 points each. The Eguren family were the only winemakers with two Riojas and several Toro wines above the 90-point mark.
The wines of Viñedos y Bodegas Sierra Cantabria fortify their leadership on the podium of Spanish winemaking groups, as a wide range of its wines were among the best according to international critics, including those with The Wine Enthusiast, which awarded 93 points to Alabaster 2013, Victorino 2013 and Sierra Cantabria Reserva 2010 – the latter chosen by the publication as its Editors’ Choice.
All this constitutes yet more international recognition of the efforts and dedication of five generations of winemakers. With their roots in San Vicente de la Sonsierra, they have written an epic saga of complicity between man and vineyard, drawing every quality out of a unique variety, the Tempranillo, and making every effort to convey its expressiveness through a set of exceptional wines of the highest purity and identification with the terroir.
