Teso la Monja Almirez 2007
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Teso la Monja is the new Toro winery from the Eguren family of Rioja fame (former owners of Numanthia-Termes in Toro), and it's proof that no beat has been missed since they sold out to Moët Hennessy. Expect dark, intense black fruit aromas and flavors mixed with heat, tannin, cola and spice. Some oak creeps out on the finish, but overall this is a lovely, bullish Toro. Drink now through 2014.
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Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
The grapes for the 2007 Almirez came from 30-year-old ungrafted head pruned vines. The wine was aged for 12 months in one-year-old French oak. Deep crimson-colored, it displays an expressive nose of spice box, espresso, plum, and blackberry compote. Full-bodied on the palate with layers of savory black fruits, lots of spice, and enough fine-grained tannin to evolve for 1-2 years, it will drink beautifully from 2011 to 2019. It is an excellent value that over-delivers in a big way.
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Teso La Monja was founded in 2007 by Marcos and Miguel Angel Eguren, the fourth winemaking generation of the Eguren family from San Vicente de la Sonsierra in Rioja Alavesa. As they have been growing Tempranillo in Rioja Alavesa since the late 1800’s, the Eguren family fell in love with D.O. Toro when they first travelled there with Jorge Ordóñez, seduced by the region’s original clone of Tempranillo and ungrafted vines.
Jorge Ordóñez and the Eguren family were the original founders of Bodegas Numanthia, which was responsible, along with their current work, for the resurrection of D.O. Toro as one of Spain’s preeminent wine regions. After the sale of Numanthia in 2007, the Eguren family founded Teso La Monja as a new challenge for the family – finding the elegance in the wines of Toro.
The family selected vineyards in the northernmost part of D.O. Toro that have a much higher proportion of rounded stones than what is typical. This produces extremely silky, elegant wines. The winemaker, Marcos Eguren, is considered by many to be the finest winemaker in Spain. His son, Eduardo Eguren, the fifth generation, also works as the winemaker at Teso La Monja.
Spanish red wine is known for being bold, heady, rustic and age-worthy, Spain is truly a one-of-a-kind wine-producing nation. A great majority of the country is hot, arid and drought-ridden, and since irrigation has only been recently introduced and (controversially) accepted, viticulture has sustained—and flourished—only through a great understanding of Spain’s particular conditions. Large spacing between vines allows each enough resources to survive and as a result, the country has the most acreage under vine compared to any other country, but is usually third in production.
Of the Spanish red wines, the most planted and respected grape variety is Tempranillo, the star of Spain’s Rioja and Ribera del Duero regions. Priorat specializes in bold red blends, Jumilla has gained global recognition for its single varietal Monastrell and Utiel-Requena has garnered recent attention for its reds made of Bobal.