Bodegas Vatan Triton Tinta de Toro Old Vines 2016
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Jeb
Dunnuck -
James
Suckling
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Triton is made with the Tinta de Toro grape, one of Spain’s oldest Tempranillo clones that is native to the Toro wine region. The continental steppe climate combines with the sandy soil to create a terroir that is responsible for a powerful, elegant, and mineral expression of Tinta de Toro. As all of Grupo Jorge Ordóñez’s vineyards, the plots are head trained and dry farmed, without the use of herbicides, pesticides, or fungicides.
Professional Ratings
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Jeb Dunnuck
The larger production cuvée from Ordonez, the 2016 Tinta de Toro Tritón (100% Tinta de Toro) comes all from very old, ungrafted vineyards and was brought up mostly in used barrels. This beautifully sexy red boasts smoking good notes of ripe plums, black cherries, liquid violets, and loads of scrub brush and dried earth. Full-bodied and silky on the palate, with fine, fine tannin, it has remarkable purity, no hard edges, and enough structure to warrant another year in bottle. It’s a seriously impressive wine.
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James Suckling
Plenty of bright and attractive fruit on the nose with summer berry compote and complementary meaty and spicy oak. The palate has attractive plush sweet fruit presence in an easy-drinking mode. Drink now.
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Verdejo is one of Spain’s most historic white grapes, as it has been in production since the Roman times, several thousand years ago. After over fifteen years as the lead producer of quality Verdejo in Spain, Ordóñez chose Puras, Valladolid, as the best appellation within Rueda for growing Verdejo. This isolated corner of the D.O. is home to sandy soils intermixed with river stones that were deposited tens of thousands of years ago when the Duero river was several hundred miles wide. Due to the sandy soils, this sub-appellation of Rueda, shaped like Italy’s boot, resisted the phylloxera. Bodegas Ordóñez takes advantage of this unique terroir to produce wine from its ungrafted vineyards, the oldest of which was planted in 1885. Jorge’s philosophy is to age all of our wines sur lie and barrel fermented in both stainless steel and large format, mostly used French oak.
Notoriously food-friendly, long-lasting and Spain’s most widely planted grape, Tempranillo is the star variety of red wines from Rioja and Ribera del Duero. The Rioja terms Joven, Crianza, Reserva and Gran Reserva indicate both barrel and bottle time before release. Traditionally blended in Rioja with Garnacha, plus a bit of Mazuelo (Carignan) and Graciano, the Tempranillo in Ribera del Duero typically stands alone. Somm Secret—Tempranillo claims many different names depending on location. In Penedès, it is called Ull de Llebre and in Valdepeñas, goes by Cencibel. Known as Tinta Roriz in Portugal, Tempranillo plays an important role in Port wine.
Spain's remote, high elevation Spanish wine zone between the regions of Bierzo and Ribera del Duero produces intense, full-bodied reds made from Tempranillo, locally called Tinta de Toro. This local variant has adapted to the region’s climatic extremes and recognizing its potential, top producers from Ribera del Duero and Rioja have invested heavily in its vineyards.