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Dominio del Aguila
Jorge Manzon of Dominio del Aguila studied in Bordeaux and Burgundy and then had his first winemaking job at Domaine de la Romanee Conti.
He now makes superb tempranillo on the Ribera del Duero from old, mostly 100 year plus vines. His 2016 Gran Reserva 'Penas Aladas' was awarded a perfect 100 point score from Luis Gutierrez of Robert Parker's Wine Advocate.
These wines are all available now in tiny quantities.
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"Dominio del Águila currently farms 50 hectares but only a small amount of those are earmarked for their wines. The remainder make their way into some of the region's most iconic wines, Flor de Pingus and Vega Sicilia among them.
All of Jorge’s vineyards are old vines, many pre-phylloxera, clustered around the hamlet of La Aguilera. The town's name, La Aguilera, translates to ‘Eagle’s Nest’. Perched on top of a steep hill overlooking the Ribera del Duero plain, the top soil is thin and the old vines reach straight down into the limestone bedrock.
This combination of soil, altitude, old vines and Jorge’s meticulous farming and winemaking results in stunning wines from the Picaro level all the way up."
Importer's Notes
All wines below are available now at our special offer prices for the next 7 days only. To place your order simply click on the links below or by email, or call us on 03 9419 6990.
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2019 Albillo V.V.
Usually $249 - Special Offer $229
98 Points, Tim Atkin MW
"One of Spain's greatest white wines, produced outside the Ribera del Duero Denominación de Origen for the time being, this is a field blend of Albillo Mayor with 5% of other varieties. Salty, stony and appealingly reductive, with some lovely struck match top notes, it has the concentration of its 100-year-old vines, bread, almond and citrus peel flavours and a chiselled finish.
World class."
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2021 Picaro Tinto V.V.
Usually $69 - Special Offer $63
93 Points, Joaquin Hidalgo, vinous.com
"The 2021 Pícaro del Águila, sourced from old vines in La Aguilera, Ribera del Duero, has a light garnet appearance. The nose offers enticing notes of sour cherry and a hint of blood over dried flowers. Light and lean, the chalky texture and faintly juicy palate lead to a compact, flavorful, lasting fruit finish. This is reminiscent of a Burgundy in its weight and overall feel."
2020 Picaro Tinto V.V.
Usually $65 - Special Offer $59
95 Points, Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com
"The juicy, velvety and aromatic red 2020 Pícaro del Águila Tinto is fine-boned and quite faithfully represents what they want to express with this cuvée; it's very tasty and has some chalkiness (perhaps through less ripeness than in years like 2018) with 14% alcohol and mellow acidity. The nose reveals some Côte-Rôtie-like notes of smoked meat and violets. 2020 delivered a good crop of healthy grapes that produced the finest wine to date for this bottling. This is superb, elegant and powerful, with everything in place (seems to be the signature of 2020) and perfectly integrated oak."
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2019 Reserva
Usually $209 - Special Offer $189
96 Points, Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com
"2019 was a warm and dry low-yielding year, somewhat similar to 2015, and the 2019 Reserva could be the modern version of the 2015—a round, lush and approachable Reserva that is perfumed and fruit-driven, with spices in the background. It's a hedonist cuvée of 95% Tempranillo and 5% other grapes from some of the oldest grapes in the village. It fermented in concrete with indigenous yeasts followed by a slow malolactic in 228-liter French oak barrels, mostly used, where the wine matured for 35 months. It reveals very good integration of the oak that is neatly folded into the wine. It shows the tannic structure of the 2019 vintage."
2018 Reserva
Usually $199 - Special Offer $179
97 Points, Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com
"2017 was a low-yielding year, so I also tasted the 2018 Reserva, their flagship red wine that wants to be a representation of the village of La Aguilera—fine, serious and elegant. It's 95% Tempranillo with the remaining grapes found interplanted in their oldest vineyards at an average of 880 meters in altitude on limestone, clay and sandy soils. All the clusters ferment together with indigenous yeasts in concrete, where they are foot trodden, and malolactic was carried out very slowly (11 months) in oak barrels where the wine matured for a total of 27 months. It has a somewhat shy nose but is very elegant. The wine was recently bottled, and that can make it a little closed and subtle, and it clearly improves with air as it sits in the glass. It's still young, and the palate reveals lots of energy; the flavors are very pure and the wine precise and delineated. The tannins are very fine and provide for a chalky texture and an almost salty twist in the finish."
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2018 Canta la Perdiz
Usually $699 - Special Offer $639
97+ Points, Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com
"The 2018 Canta la Perdiz feels like a more rustic version of the 2016, with earthiness and abundant tannins and more backward than the approachable and juicy 2019 I tasted next to it. It fermented with full clusters and indigenous yeasts in concrete vats followed by a slow malolactic in barrel and 37 months in those barrels. The wine is still a little oaky, spicy and smoky, with good ripeness, 14.5% alcohol, good freshness and balance and abundant tannins that feel a little rustic."
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2016 Gran Reserva 'Penas Aladas'
Usually $549 - Special Offer $499
100 Points!, Luis Gutierrez, robertparker.com
"The youth, freshness, balance and harmony of the 2016 Peñas Aladas Gran Reserva is gobsmacking. The wine is a little shy, insinuating, reticent and a little closed, and it feels younger than it is. It comes from a collection of small plots of some of the oldest vines in the village of La Aguilera in the lieu-dit, or "paraje," that names the wine, in a small valley surrounded by pine, holm and juniper trees, where there is a cold draft of air and the temperature is lower than in the rest of the village. The soils are sandy and intermixed with clay on a marl mother rock.
The plants are mostly Tempranillo, but as they are very old vines, there's always a field blend of other varieties—Albillo Mayor, Monastrell, Garnacha, Bobal and Cariñena—all fermented together with full clusters that were foot trodden in concrete vats and indigenous yeasts. Malolactic was in barrel and lasted for 11 months, while the élevage was extended to a total of 55 months (almost five years!).
After all this time in barrels, the wine is not oaky at all; it's floral and perfumed, elegant, nuanced and layered. The texture is silky, and it's medium-bodied, with moderate ripeness, 14% alcohol and very good freshness denoted by a pH of 3.41. It has fine tannins that make it nicely textured and fine-boned, with subtle minerality. This should be veeeeeery long lived, as it has the stuffing, all the ingredients and the balance between them to make old bones. Amazing juice."
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All wines above are available now at our special offer prices for the next 7 days only. To place your order simply click on the links above or by email, or call us on 03 9419 6990.
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