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B-21 Top Recommendation
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"2021 was a cooler year, going back to the character from decades ago ... overall, it’s a really good vintage, the best in recent years." Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate
With Rioja running a trend of warm to hot vintages lately, 2021 was a welcome return to form for the region's great estates, many of which produced reference-point renditions of their most acclaimed wines. Today we're featuring a quartet of outstanding releases that offer the epitome of 2021 precision and sophistication, each one a stellar choice for discerning Rioja collectors and fans.
Marques de Riscal is widely known for their entire range, which spans ultimate value stars all the way up to the single-vineyard, 98-point 2021 Tapias de Marques de Riscal. The Tapias vineyard was planted in 1968 on ferrous and heavy clay soils, and only 2.5 hectares contribute to this wine in 2021, the result being "a modern, glossy and polished Rioja, showing depth and refinement."
Continuing our roster of Rioja icons, the legendary CVNE remains one of Rioja's largest and most important producers, with a dynamism rarely seen in an operation this size. The 2021 Real de Asúa Carromaza hails from a single plot of the same name in the village of Villalba, one of the hotbeds of Rioja's burgeoning single-vineyard movement. The vineyard's clay-calcareous soils and limestone bedrock combined to produce "a super-confident, single-vineyard wine without much adornment." In other words, it's a classic, cool-vintage Rioja for the cellar.
Bodegas Muga's status as an all-time Rioja reference-point is reaffirmed with this sterling trio of releases at razor-sharp pricing, highlighted by the newly arrived, 99-point 2021 Torre Muga, "a gorgeous wine from a gorgeous vintage that’s worth the price." Concentrated and robust yet also polished and refined, the 2021 expresses the character of its old-vine plots in Villalba de Rioja, Brinas, and Labastida. A host of impressive reviews from James Suckling, Vinous, and Wine Advocate further confirm the 2021 Torre Muga as a special achievement, worthy of the wine's lofty reputation among collectors.
Finally, Benjamin Romeo's Bodegas Contador has quickly evolved from upstart garagiste phenom to cult-collectible all-star in a few short decades. His wines routinely garner huge accolades from across the critical spectrum (and prices to match). While the flagship wine falls in the Vega Sicilia/Pingus price stratum, the 95-point 2021 Alma Contador is a superb glimpse at the artisan craftsmanship the ex-Artadi winemaker brings to his work. "very powerful and concentrated but with all the components in good balance," according to Gutiérrez, it's a razor-sharp buy for clued-in Rioja collectors. |
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I also tasted the 2021 Real de Asúa, which was already in bottle. 2021 was cooler, and the wine has a little less alcohol than the 2020 I tasted next to it. It comes from the same vines and the process was similar, but in this case, they didn't use any new barrels in the aging, which took place in 100% second-use barriques. This was very recently bottled and felt a little dizzy, with a slightly blurry nose, somehow creamy and with a more oxidative touch and a more solid palate, a little more exuberant and with abundant tannins that need time to get polished and/or powerful food. I might be getting it wrong, because the harvest was better than 2020. But today, the wine is still a bit of a question mark. Time will tell... 14,493 bottled produced. It was bottled in January 2024.
96 points, Luis Gutiérrez, Wine Advocate (Feb 2024)
Such an exuberant, floral nose with lots of berries, plums, dark cherries, ink and touches of dark minerals, mussels and spices. Quite pristine and naked, with a medium to full body and a mouthful of powerful, sensuous tannins. Great tension. A super-confident, single-vineyard wine without much adornment. Drink or hold.
96 points, James Suckling (Aug 2024)
Charred sandalwood, taut fruit, eucalyptus and mint, with waves of cloves and rose petals. As it opens you suddenly get studded by anis, fennel, not overly marked by the oak, with a savoury edge that makes for a mouthwatering finish. 50% new oak for ageing, 225l barrels from Troncais, 3.63ph. Generous and accessible, this will age well but no need to wait more than a year or two to begin enjoying. The 2021 vintage saw an extended growing season in Rioja because of a great late September and October weather.
96 points, Jane Anson (Aug 2024)
Seductive nose, detailed and perfumed, with a complex layering of wet stone freshness, subtle florality and herbal nuance. Crushed rose petals, minty tapenade, bramble and graphite mingle effortlessly. The palate echoes this filigreed arrangement , supported by a detailed scaffold of mineral tannins. Pure, intense flavours of mulberry, blackberry, black fig and black olive at the core, lined by hay, chamomile and gentle flintiness. Very persistent with a long tail of balsamic freshness.
96 points, Ines Salpico, Decanter (May 2024)
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